Magnet Interactive design director Mach (say "mock") Arom isn't just a manager, he's a philosopher. And a talker. "Branding has a mood," explains Mach emphatically, "an emotion, a spirit built on experiences." Mach is looking for designers. "There are a lot of newsletter designers out there," he says, "that's not what I'm looking for." Mach wants someone who looks at menus, walks in bookstores, strolls by storefronts, and has an opinion. Color, typography, layout, and communication skills are Mach's top priorities. "If the basics are there," he says, "the technical skills can be taught."
Magnet was started in 1988 as an interior-design firm, and has moved through a number of phases, from print to CD-ROM to the Web. "Today the main focus of the company is on Web design," says Mach who heads the team of 14 designers. The daily tasks for a designer at Magnet include brainstorming, "concepting," laying out, and developing navigation for a site. "You might work with our director of human factors, who helps us look at things in a psychographic way - we need to lead people through a space, both visually and functionally."
The company has worked with clients such as Nissan, Federal Express, National Geographic, Mercedes, and Kellogg's. Teams of designers are led on a project basis by senior designers who are aligned according to brand. Bill Colgrove is "the Kellogg's man."
"We're definitely fueled by caffeine here - a hyper bunch," says Bill, a senior designer at Magnet who joined the company straight out of grad school three years ago. Bill is as voluble as his boss, and obviously likes his locale. He gave me a verbal tour of the nearby National Holocaust Museum, saying, "There's so much to do here," and listed the National Gallery and the Smithsonian as other favorite sites.
"DC is much more diverse than you'd expect," says Bill. "In LA or New York you have to be screaming weird to stand out, but here everybody is weird." Bill walks to work each day, a half-hour trip from his home in Arlington, Virginia.
The Magnet offices are located in the heart of Georgetown, just a block and a half from the Potomac. Spread among several buildings, the team of 100 is divided up by discipline. Mach's design team is housed in The Powerhouse, a converted building where the generators have been replaced with custom-designed interiors. "Basel (Magnet's CEO) has decorated the place with stuff from his private art collections," says Bill.
