There’s a business strategy in architectural firms that involves a concept called the Black Cape architect. Julie introduced me to the term when she went to work for an architecture firm in Kansas City. Black Cape architects are the rare breed who attract clients solely on reputation. Frank Lloyd Wright. Frank Gehry. Zaha Hadid. The work speaks, the name closes, and the phone rings on its own.
Architecture has another term Julie taught me, and this one is not complimentary. Architects who specialize are called Typologists. Say it with the right sneer and you’ll understand: real architects design anything. Specializing is settling. Keep that one in your pocket. We’ll come back to it.
Julie and I were in Barcelona a few years ago and visited the Sagrada Família. Designed by Antoni Gaudí, perhaps the original Black Cape, it’s considered one of the greatest architectural achievements in the world. As we stood there, admiring this magnificent design and construction, someone snatched my wallet from my pocket. It happened while I had both hands on my phone, taking this very photo. Opportunistic of the pickpocket. Ignorance on my part.
I had been warned about pickpockets at the Sagrada Família. Several times. And while I kept my wallet in a buttoned pocket, pickpockets in Barcelona are professionals.
The agency business has Black Cape leaders too. You know who they are. Jay Chiat, Alex Bogusky, Jeff Goodby, David Ogilvy, Pat Fallon, David Droga, Donny Deutsch. You get the point. But do you know how rare they are?
It doesn’t stop us from gazing. We get together regularly to celebrate creative. We study the work and wish we had those clients and those budgets so we could do work like that, so others would gaze upon ours. Awards shows, portfolio nights, the annual pilgrimage to NYC for the One Show. Both hands on the phone, eyes up, admiring the cathedral.
You’ve been warned, by the way. Several times. The trade press, the consultants, the CFO who keeps asking why margins are shrinking. And you feel safe anyway, because your client relationships are in a buttoned pocket.
But here’s who the pickpockets are. They’re the agencies that spent their time thinking about focus instead of gazing. The ones that carved out a clear position in the minds of the search consultants and the prospective clients they actually want. They are professionals at it. Well-positioned agencies steal your clients and win your prospects, and they do it at higher margins, because they know exactly what they’re worth and can prove it.
Now take that Typologist insult back out of your pocket. Agencies don’t have a word for it, but we have the same disdain. Real agencies do everything, we tell ourselves. Focus is for shops that couldn’t cut it. Meanwhile, consider Populous, the Kansas City firm that ranks among the ten largest architecture practices in America. They design stadiums and arenas, and nothing else, for the entire planet. Every major sports venue conversation on earth runs through Kansas City. Nobody at Populous is apologizing for being a typologist. The generalist firms, the ones too proud to specialize, compete on fees.
The people the profession looked down on turned out to be the professionals.
So keep celebrating the Black Capes. Admire the work. Just understand what’s happening while you do.
Someone is quietly stealing your wallet.