Richard Henderson, CEO and creative director, R-co

Richard Henderson founded R-Co, a specialist brand identity and image business, in 2003 after he left FutureBrand to set out on his own. R-Co facilitates change and offers creative design solutions across a range of sectors including corporate, retail, hospitality and manufacturing. He has won numerouos industry design awards and co-founded the Australian Graphic Design Association.

“The name R-Co is a bit of creative wordsmithing on Richard and company and the words connecting, considering, collaborating, conceptualising and communicating,” says Henderson, adding, “ and it looked good in an SMS.”

When he started out 25 years ago as a founding partner of FHA Image Design (later sold to FutureBrand in 2001) design was generally considered as nothing much more than superficial decoration. Over the years he has seen design transform into an integral part of how a business communicates with the public.

With FHA such a success, he and his partners sold it to the global FutureBrand company, but the change in attitudes and objectives didn’t sit comfortably with him. “Empowering people through creativity is the most marvellous thing,” he says. “In big global businesses, creativity is just one little part. It’s all about delivering a commercial result for the shareholders. They’re not necessarily interested in the product, they just want the return.”

“Walking out the door of a company you’ve been a fundamental part of for 25 years is quite an emotional experience,” he says. But walk out he did, set up a computer in his front room, and bought Ikea office furniture and a fax machine. Luckily for Henderson, he had just won a project for FutureBrand working on the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games. They wanted to keep him on board and R-Co had its first contract.

It was modest in the beginning. “I employed a young graphic designer to help me with the technology and worked from my home for a little while, then I got invited to share an office,” he says. Now he employs 15 people, the majority of whom are relatively young.

“I enjoy having young designers working in the office,” he says. “I like their passion and energy, and there’s also a sense of risk. It’s quite a dynamic situation. You’ve got to be managing time and teaching them the realities of business.”

The situation allowed him to “helicopter back up a bit” and use his knowledge, understanding and approach to design to provide guidance. “Which was tremendously satisfying,” he says, continuing, “It’s all about contribution. I’m a great believer that you have to tread lightly on this earth and be respectful of individuals. At the same time you want to leave things better than they were, so you provide leadership.”

Henderson sees an interesting analogy between what sports people do, and the job of a designer. “Sportsmen take an iconic stature in our minds,” he says. “Not to take that away from them, but they deal with realities, we know what they have to achieve. They have to run a bit faster, jump a bit higher, kick a bit harder.”

“Designers don’t know the outcome of what we’re going to do,” he says. “We start off with a problem and the solution could be something we never dreamed would happen. That’s the amazing power of design and creativity. It’s a powerful tool for doing things better and for harnessing the human mind. The outcome can be extraordinary.”

Despite the powerful effect design can have on people, Henderson does not consider his chosen profession as an art form. “An artist communicates something that’s deep within, something that he or she innately wants to get out,” he says. “They do it for self-satisfaction. In some respects an artist is more like an athlete. I see a designer as a facilitator. They work to a brief. Design is about ideas, form and function.”

As far as Henderson is concerned, technology is the single most important change that’s occurred within the industry over the last 25 years, with computers transforming the job “ It has allowed us to explore creative outcomes that were not possible before,” he says. “You start off with drawing from your own ideas and experiences. What a computer can do is take those creative starting points, and use software programmes to explore it in an infinitesimal number of ways.”

Henderson references the huge amount of talented Australian designers working in every field from architecture to fashion design as proof that the country is full of opportunity, but acknowledges the risk of losing this talent unless the industry is invested in properly.

“This country needs to aspire to more innovation and leadership in design to hold people in this country,” he says. “I’ve just attended a Budget briefing with the Victorian treasurer who allocated $15 million for the design industry in the budget. That’s a trend I would encourage. The contribution of the industry is significant. If we don’t invest in it now we’re going to be in serious trouble in a couple of decades.”

He says that it’s absolutely fundamental to support young designers. “ I try and meet everyone who contacts me and see his or her folio,” he says. “I give a scholarship every year to a student from Monash University to work here for three-months on a full-salary.

“I really believe you have to get young people into the industry,” he says, adding, “Unfortunately design is one of these popular professions nowadays. There isn’t the opportunity in the marketplace to fit them all in.”

So how does one candidate stand out amongst the crowd? “I look at secondary qualifications like English and Mathematics – the three R’s if you like – reading, writing and arithmetic,” he says. “Design is an intelligent profession. It’s not just about being artistic.”

Getting things right at any meeting is vital he says, noting the old saying that you never get a second chance to make a good first impression. “I judge on their energy and imagination,” he reveals. “If they have a positive outlook on life. If someone comes in, smiles and is gleaming with pride when they show the portfolio, it’s great. There should be an expression of love for the work that they’ve done”

And once the meeting is over, the process isn’t finished, says Henderson. “Follow it up with an email or a phone call. It leaves a positive memory if they get back in touch. It’s hard enough to get through reception without letting it fall away afterwards.”

Henderson draws inspiration from working with young people, in order to release their full potential. He also likes to read books about change and its effect on contemporary life. “Life is one big curve and you have to reference yourself,” he says. “If you can see where other people are going it gives you inspiration. Modern life is full of distractions. One of the benefits of getting older is being able to figure out which experiences will enrich you, and which won’t be as beneficial.”

Above all else, he sees working in the design profession as a constant struggle to achieve something better, and its a battle he’s happy to face every day. “It’s tough,” he says, adding, “sometimes projects can crush you, and the creative spirit is fragile. You have to face that. A designer will never be completely satisfied.”