“Any consumer brand today--whether Starbucks or a product like Tide--it is incumbent upon the company to create relevancy in all aspects of your customers’ lives,” he says. “The price of admission is not good enough if your relevancy and market position is only where the product is sold. We said to ourselves that we have to be as relevant socially and digitally as we are when the customer is inside our four walls as when they’re outside--and we want to thread the equity of the brand and the Starbucks experience to multiple platforms--digital, social, mobile--that encompass all aspects of customers’ lives. This is a big thing we’ve learned for 2012, and I think companies that don’t understand it are going to left behind.”

By Terah Brossart, Seattle Division Director of TCG The Creative Group

It’s no secret that the tides have finally turned: In-house design teams have made the transition from hidden assets to significant team players, even garnering their own conferences and award shows.

Now, AIGA and TCG The Creative Group have joined forces to identify key observations, challenges, and advice as the evolving role of the in-house design team revolutionizes the industry.