Feature Interview with Kate Handley and Pep Zuijderwijk from Salted Herring – A joint kiwi & Netherlands venture.

What do you get when you infuse a creative arts director from the Netherlands with a business savvy and entrepreneurial kiwi? Salted Herring.  An interactive collaboration of Creative Website Design.

Over the past 10 years Kate Hedley, hailing from the small town of Paraparaumu (Noth of Wellington) and Pep Zuijderwijk, from Sassenheim (the Netherlands) have been collectively establishing their Dutch inspired Website Consultancy.

Having given birth to Salted Herring while in London in 2000, Kate and Pep have worked with a number of big Europe-wide campaigns and have gained valuable experience into the global industry of Interactive Media and Website Design.

After spending 6 years working in a large International market Kate and Pep decided to bring their worldly experiences back home to little old New Zealand. We talk to Kate about her overseas experiences, how she got into the media and design industry and what she plans on doing with Salted Herring here in New Zealand.

So, interactive website design – what exactly does this involve?

Usually it involves working with Adobe Flash; the best tool available for delivering lively, interactive rich media web experiences. We use video, CG 3D imagery, photography and animation to make our sites as interactive, or engaging as possible.

And did your interest in this fan from a background in graphic design or a love for the internet?

Started with Pep’s background and training in graphic design combined with his passion for film and moving image. The internet or technical bit has always been secondary.

When you left for Europe in 2000 did you leave with the intention of starting your own business?

No we left to see the world and work in some more challenging and inspiring environments.

And what Qualifications did you and Pep start with?

Pep has a Bachelor of Graphic and Typographic Design (honours) from the Royal Academy of Arts in the Hague. Kate has a Bachelor of Design (majoring in photography) from Victoria University of Wellington.

And how did you find it starting up your own business in an overseas market especially Europe? It must have been insanely competitive?

It grew slowly. Originally Salted Herring was Pep freelancing in London, building up experience with a range of big Europe wide clients such as MTV and the BBC. Then it naturally transferred to Amsterdam where there was an explosion of interactive design going on (and still is compared to here!). Amsterdam is a hub for a lot of creative communication with many Europe wide head offices based there (Nike, O’Neill, Bavaria etc). It is very competitive with a really high level of work produced there but you also have better budgets to work with and a high level of suppliers (photographers, sound engineers, developers etc). to collaborate with and learn from. So the teams are all pushing the work on. You get caught up in that and grow a lot I think. Salted Herring as a real business (with more than 1 freelancer) only really started in NZ in 2007.

Why the name salted Herring?

The agency is named after a famous Dutch delicacy. Not for the faint-hearted, Salted Herring is a very strong flavoured raw fish cured in salt. When it comes to designing websites, Pep believes that just like his favourite snack, the stronger the experience, the more likely you are to remember it.

What would you say your competitive advantage was?

Here it is very much that European experience and Pep’s high level of classical graphic training. It is also our ability to understand and art direct a huge range of visual languages from great photography to 3D computer generated imagery to moving image, we tell stories through our sites which people relate to. We connect with real people rather than just making slick, clean design. We offer very human, emotive experiences in the sites we create.

What inspired you to move from Europe back to little old New Zealand?

The usual answer; kids and lifestyle. Certainly not the level of creative work or budgets here! We are life partners as well as business partners and we were both ready to live outdoors a bit more, particularly in the bush with our 2 small children. It is hard to feel inspired when you are always in traffic jams or queuing for things, Holland is packed, there is not much sense of space or wilderness, both things we find important.

We also liked the challenge of bringing some of our ideas and energy from the things we had experienced in Europe to try and contribute something to the industry here. NZ is so exciting in the sense that you can add something or change something quite easily, as a new evolving country we are quite open to new creative approaches.

What have been the major difficulties for you as an interactive media company moving from a place like Europe to a smaller market here in New Zealand?

The lack of understanding or appreciation for design. NZ businesses need to value quality design and creativity; we really have to lose that ‘number 8 wire’ mentality in some areas and wake up to the idea of a highly competitive specialised world. We get very frustrated with people talking about how they can get their cousin down the road to do something cheaper. NZ-ers often don’t seem to understand the importance of doing things really well using specialists to go to a higher level. Having said that we are making progress with helping some clients to understand why they need to up their game and have a strong online presence.

And the advantages?

As a sort of double edged sword that ‘number 8 wire’ mentality also means that people are coming up with really creative and innovative business ideas here. We get to work with some really inspiring and creative entrepreneurs who are running world class businesses from here. We can then help people (particularly exporters) with our knowledge of that global marketplace. We can also offer a price advantage when we work with international clients from here.

I heard that Pep judged the Interactive Media Awards in Australia for AIMIA in March, what does Salted Herring feel the entries were like compared to the New Zealand BeST Awards?

The entries were generally very commercial (he was judging the advertising category) and quite slick. I think it is hard to compare because there isn’t a really good interactive awards platform here yet. The Best awards are more of a traditional design award; they are in the process of improving the interactive category to be more relevant. Overall there is more money being spent on interactive in Australia and just more happening but not necessarily a much higher level than here I think. There is some great work coming out of NZ too. Still what is happening in the States and Europe is so far ahead of what is going on here or in Australia – it is like a different industry! I think this is mostly due to the expectations of clients and consumers – and of course slow broadband, rather than any lack of creative talent here.

What have been some of your most challenging projects and why?

Almost all our projects have a budget challenge! But aside from that, each project has a different creative or project management challenge; some are tricky because we are working with a bigger above the line ad campaign and have to collaborate with other creative’s who may not understand interactive as a medium. Some are tricky because clients really don’t understand what is involved in building a quality site so we spend a lot of time educating them.

And your favourite project to date?

In Holland: Selmore (a Dutch ad agency site) which we love for its humour and it was the first site we made which used video integrated into great photography.

In NZ: PQ Blackwell because we love the products (great art photography books) and we love the client. They are intelligent, creative world class entrepreneurs who appreciate design and push us to go further with our work for them.

What do you enjoy the most about working in website design?

The range of different people and products we work with. It is so interesting to touch on all these different businesses and lives; it keeps it all exciting and new. Every project is different!

What would you say are the benefits of having an interactive website from a business perspective?

 If you have identified your audience correctly from the outset it means that you can really engage them in your product or brand. You create a strong relationship with the people you want to talk to which is worth a huge amount in business terms. It is also like a virtual shop front, you get to portray yourself to the whole world, in the best possible light. I think it is risky NOT to have an interactive, high quality website for a lot of businesses, especially NZ exporters.

Finally, what is your advice to other young New Zealanders wanting to get into the world of interactive website design?

If you want to work in other parts of the world, specialise; be great at what you do. You need to understand all the disciplines involved but don’t need to do all of it. If you are good at coding you should not try to be a designer and vice versa. It is hard to do any one of these things well let alone all of them!

www.saltedherring.com