When we started calling ourselves a "Business Art Team," we hesitated. "Design studio" or "creative agency" would communicate faster. But those words were missing something. What BOATship wants to do is deliberately blur the line between design and business.
What design thinking actually is
Design thinking is a process for solving problems: observe, define, ideate, prototype, test. Run the cycle and you converge on a better answer. It originated in product design, but the same thinking applies to business development and communication design — which is exactly why Tim Brown's 2008 argument for bringing it into management landed so widely.
The idea behind "business art"
Art is self-expression; business is an exchange of value. They look like opposites, but the strongest businesses have expression in them. Apple and Nike both carry an artistic intent in their products and their communication. What BOATship aims for is bringing the artist's perspective into the business.
Why blur the line on purpose
Design alone produces things detached from business context. Business alone produces nothing that moves people. The people who can blur that line are the ones most needed right now. That is the position BOATship works from.
"Business Art" as practice
Concretely: we interview the client about their business problem, then approach it from both the design and the PR side. Even when making a single logo, we ask what role it plays in the business. We are not chasing surface beauty — we are chasing beauty that functions.