Internship: Bright House

Article by Jessica Tillyer

Above my desk at Bright House, there is a quote by Paul Gauguin, "There are only two kinds of artists: Plagiarists and Revolutionaries." This is the type of message that we students at Portfolio Center hear all the time, but until this internship at Bright House, I often wondered if the seemingly lofty aspiration of making meaningful change exists in the real world. In the majority of Portfolio Center classes, the focus is not only on the elements of good design, but more over the potential impact of strategic thinking. A typical student day involves jumping on a table to give a theatrical presentation, digging through research by urban renewal experts, and collaborating with poets to create a strong story in our design--all before lunch.

So how does this positive spirit translate to the business (rather than learning process) of design? I was worried about where I would go after Portfolio Center, and perhaps Hank sensed that and sent me over to Bright House, where I have continued to enjoy the idea revolution. Located in an unassuming brick building in up-and-coming West Atlanta, a flurry of brilliance takes place inside that is ahead of the changing tide of marketing and advertising in the world. Bright House is the creator of the Master Idea process, which functions as a highly focused consultation that leads to commercial success through social value. The focus is on corporations mirroring basic human values, linking higher earnings with higher purpose. The result tends to be highly innovative "master ideas" that weave design approaches with business solutions that are smart, emotional and meaningful. I am continuously in awe of the people I work with here, and amazed at how good even the ideas that end up in the trash can are. The focus is on selling ideas, not advertising space.

One of the most interesting things that happens in the process of creating the Master Idea is the use of outside experts to help explore the subject matter. Another lofty aspiration I dream of is being part of a firm that is a team of engineers, designers, environmentalists, number people and writers, who work together to create meaningful solutions. At Bright House, that happens when they bring in the "luminaries" who are award-winning artists, Nobel Prize winners, Harvard professors, anthropologists, and even an astronaut to look at the corporate needs from the perspective of their given field. The feedback we receive from this network of thinkers is usually very useful and revealing.

Bright House is fun too. Given the incredible intellect of everyone here, they are actually all pretty down to earth, easy-going people, with interesting backgrounds. We regularly end up at one person's desk, throwing around ideas, making each other laugh and telling stories. At first I wasn't sure who my "boss" was, because the team functioned so well as a collaborative group. The receptionist is also one of the thinkers, a dancer and performing arts producer. The chief creative is a noted award-winning poet. The chief strategist is a former business executive The books that lie around the office vary from a Tom Robbins anthology to "Silent Spring" and everything in between. We regularly talk about what we are reading, and I have found that what everyone does outside of work is considered important to what we do in the office. Just as it is Bright House's mission to create soulful excellence in corporations, it is also interested in the whole multidimensional person. The research for a project takes them all over the world, and into themselves.

So it turns out, Portfolio Center and Bright House are the real world, not just some optimistic dream of what we as people can be and what we as designers can do. They are places that produce sustainable results. It is great to be a part of it.