Touch of Green

When it comes to her environmental awareness, Nancy Rowe doesn’t think she is anything special. Like a lot of people, Rowe decided that in her personal life she would do what she could to be more sustainable. Her Studio City home and office uses solar panels and out back is an organic garden. The long-time Los Angeles resident drives a one-cylinder GEO Metro convertible. Now Rowe is taking that commitment into her business, Empact Designs, devising marketing campaigns, advertising and branded experiences in ways that use digital means and alternative forms of energy. “I design with the environment on my mind,” Rowe said. Her title of experiential design strategist is a mouthful and can best be described in the project she did while working for IBM some 10 years ago. The company was reinventing itself after losing ground to Microsoft and Apple on both the hardware and software sides. The Innovation Center concept Rowe came up with would immerse corporate decision makers in what IBM had to offer in computer equipment and software. But it was done in a way to foster creative thinking. “A funhouse for grownups,” was how Azure magazine described the centers, which were located around the world. Rowe retired at a young age from IBM, went off for a number of years to do “the fun stuff” and then started her own design firm, Excitech. This year she changed the name to Empact Designs to reflect her interest in coming up with marketing and branding projects that are easy on the environment. The Clio Awards and the Key Art Awards presented by the Hollywood Reporter are among her clients. Rowe is a nominee for a National Design Award from the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum at the Smithsonian Institution. Question: In simple terms what is an experiential design strategist? Answer: I solve complex business problems in a very experiential manner. I look at things in an unusual way. It is not enough for me what happens and what gets people to do things; that’s the easy part. Making the solution really have legs, make it last, make it fun for everyone involved. So when I look at problems that are brought to me, I am not limited to any one thing. I am not limited to finding a software solution, finding a hardware solution, finding a people solution. I just take empty space. I think in color. I create in multiple dimensions. I have a philosophy. The people behind the solutions can make it gray or make it in color. What I add to that mix I make it solid, measurable, fun, interesting progressive for everyone. It’s kind of a long answer but… Q: Why is it important for businesses to fix their problems in that way? It sounds very customer service-oriented. A: We are all customers. The people who hire me are customers. The human touch is probably the most important part of any transaction. It can’t be replaced by the Internet. You can supplement the Internet with it but I think that touch point serves a multiple of needs. Most business solutions are very selfish. They are done for the company by company thinkers for the least amount of money. They are dry, are quick fixes and have long-term ineffectiveness. My philosophy is you want a really great, interesting solution that is not only fun for the company and for the employees to implement but also fun for the customer to get involved with. Q: Did your entertainment background come in handy in coming up with the solutions you created for your clients? A: Definitely. That experience, that background gives you an interesting perspective in business solutions. I realized that coming into a normal business environment that has corporate dictates. I can bring a world of vibrancy, of radiance, of color and now driving behind me is the goal of the environment and that’s really fun too. Q: Why the move toward the environmentally friendly experiences? A: If I can do this in my own life, I can really do this in business. I am not trying to prove anything. I am not trying to be any leader. I am trying to do the tiniest motion to help. The more I can do it and the more successful I can be at that the more it makes sense to everybody else to do it. Q: What’s an example of applying sustainability to one of your projects? A: For the Hollywood Reporter Key Art Awards (in 2009) what we did was use wind and solar credits to power the show, we used biodiesel generators, and we used a digital submissions process. In the past people would create posters and send it in to the Hollywood Reporter and there would be hundreds of posters, and they would have to be either mailed there or driven there. All that paper, all those messengers in their cars smoking up the environment. Everything was submitted in a physical format. Now we send digitally, you can submit everything online. We didn’t print out tickets to mail them. It was like the airlines, they could be printed out at home. We saved on envelopes, stamps and the mail process. We got rid of all hard copy signage. When we added up what we saved we were astonished and that is what made me want to do that for every solution that I come up with. Q: Your clients are open to the environmental angle even it affects the bottom line? A: Yes. I have very few people say what will this cost with me without the environment angle. In some solutions it is less expensive when you have an eye on the environment. It is a very black and white world and their (engineers) way of thinking is more about the tangible than the intangible. Right now the environment isn’t a tangible. Engineers require proof. It is a little difficult to convince them. Accountants are very much based in the numbers. There is a way to reach out and touch all the personality types. Some are more difficult than others. Every solution will have the color and the thought of the personality type behind it. Convincing an accountant that spending an extra X amount of dollars for long-term benefits for the company; there are long-term intangibles and good will and a bunch of other stuff that you cannot directly correlate to the bottom line. You just have to believe. At a certain point you just have to believe it’s the right thing to do. Q: Is it important for the public to know that your clients are going easy on the environment? A: I remain neutral on that subject. Unless I am asked to do so as part of the solution it is not up to me to carry the moral conscience of that company’s environmental footprint. It’s up to them and what they want to do and why they want to do it. I am not hired to examine their motives. I am hired to help them find a solution. For me I am happy and thrilled that I can speak to this now. I am proud of the fact. Q: Does doing this kind of work in Southern California make it an easier sell than say in the Midwest or East Coast? A: I think we’ve gotten to the point where it’s on everybody’s radar. For me I can go in and gently tell the solution story with a piece of the environment on top almost anywhere. One of the reasons I lived in Florida is I was working with someone with regard to the Everglades. The same thing is it’s happening everywhere. Even in Florida there is this consciousness now that I am grateful for. Does the bottom line get in the way of that? Absolutely? We only have to look at what’s happening in the Gulf (of Mexico). Q: Are there companies that you wouldn’t want to work with? British Petroleum perhaps? A: It’s not the type of company I wouldn’t work for; it’s mostly the type of people. I am lucky in that I can be selective. I see the good in everything and everyone. I would love to work with BP. This is a horrific mess they have created and I would love to work with them to find a different kind of solution; different kinds of thinking around all this. It’s never too late to do a turnaround and come to your senses and be more sensitive to what is around you. It isn’t necessarily a company that I wouldn’t want to work with, it’s a personality type. Nancy Rowe Title: President, Empact DesignsEducation: attended UCLAMost Admired: Frank Lloyd WrightCareer Turning Point: working for IBMPersonal: Single