Rich backgrounds bring a productive mix to a group

I’m writing in response to Tim Rich’s Private View (DW 7 November). At Hoop we have always recruited people who genuinely bring to the mix qualities, experience and perceptions not traditionally found in brand design and communications.

Our recruiting strategy has always been to hire people who can add value internally and externally in equal measure, and not restrict recruitment to perceived need/ shortage. In many cases we have hired people for whom no job was defined or necessarily existed. But through genuine collaboration, autonomy and creative entrepreneurship, they have emerged into multidisciplinary team players able to handle simultaneous projects.

Our team of 12 contains only one product of the UK graphic design education system, but she’s a Fin, who, on graduating, skipped off to Fabrica for a couple years. The rest of us have backgrounds that include comedy, painting, performing arts, economics, human rights, jewellery, photography, philosophy and local Government.

Having such a genuine collaborative culture at the heart of the company allows you to involve clients in a way that is natural, productive and truly creative.

Sean O’Halloran

Creative director

Hoop

London E8 and Brighton BN1 4ST