Strategy isn't something people outside the industry often think about in terms of design. Is this a new element to the design world?

No, it's not new, but now business strategy and design are being integrated at a much deeper level than ever before. The change that we're seeing and driving here is an important one. It's about harnessing different approaches and disciplines to deliver competitive edge. Projects should never be handed off from silo to silo – great work thrives on collaboration from beginning to end. Designers see things that strategists don't, and vice versa. Integration allows the best of both worlds.

Does this integration truly allow you to deliver a higher-level deliverable to your clients? Or is it just a re-branding of design itself, the design world that has existed for years?

The design world is changing, because technology and culture have ensured that the world we design for is changing. With the rise of service-oriented products, there's a greater need for design. Think about the old days when you had a simple rotary-style phone. From a functional standpoint, where was the UI? Didn't exist. But in today's world of technology, increased capabilities mean increased complexity. The products that succeed are those that offer the highest level of functionality at the lowest level of difficulty – so the success of that phone is now dependent on the unique experience it serves up. The right strategy can no longer be determined without very explicit, tangible knowledge of the product itself. And only the designs can tell us that.

Does this give our clients a competitive edge? Yes. Because these designs are informed with a total analysis of the market and a real understanding of the users in question, they are better suited for their audiences, a compatibility that leads to faster sales build, real differentiation, and market leadership.

Isn't sometimes beauty then compromised for the sake of cutting costs, maintaining a brand, or targeting a specific consumer? Isn't there something inherently wrong with the idea of a design firm compromising the aesthetic?

All design efforts involve some level of constraint and compromise – there is always an envelope to design within. Unbridled designs remain just that: designs. They never make it to the market. So as good designers, we make those tradeoffs carefully, allowing business context to inform and inspire creation, rather than stifle it. Hopefully, we find that balance.