Paul Saag is creative director at Rationale, an Edinburgh-based brand and content agency.
The B Corp certified agency was founded in 2019 by Rowan Morrison and Svein Clouston, and was named one of Prolific North’s Independent Agencies to Watch for 2024.
Paul Saag joined Rationale in 2021, following a number of creative roles at the likes of Editions Financial and SBP Creative.
He shares a recent week in his life…
Monday
Each day for me usually starts in the same way, with a frantic morning rush getting my six-year-old daughter ready for the school run. On the walk to school, an interesting discussion is had about the moon.
When I get to Rationale, we kick off each week with an all-agency stand-up, aligning the team on priorities, updates, and challenges for the week ahead. From there, I dive into a resource meeting to ensure everyone is properly allocated and deadlines are on track.
Mid-morning, I have an iconography check-in with our junior designer, Hana. We’re in the middle of a Rationale brand refresh, and finding the right visual style is critical to telling our brand story. We also need to consider an aesthetic that is easy to apply and not faddy. Hana loves illustration and is full of great ideas. It’s brilliant to see so many options and this feeds into some thoughts about visualising agency models too. A really energising meeting.
In the afternoon, I work on a deck for an exciting new campaign with our largest client. Just adding some final touches and making sure the presentation has plenty of context as it will be shared in-person and cold across multiple stakeholders.
Tuesday
Tuesday morning’s school drop-off chat revolves around noticing one of the local large trees has been cut down. Its trunk now resembles a large catapult, so we imagine it could be used for firing melons across town.
The workday starts with a deep dive into our new work-in-progress website. We are quite far along the journey now and it’s well into development. This quality control session covers reviewing the staging site across various devices and screen sizes, as well as making sure the CMS allows us to build and upload what we need. It’s a detail-oriented process, to make sure everything is how we envisioned in the wireframe stage. It’s hard not to focus on refining the new brand in text and image form, but that’s for another time.
Then I have a client meeting going through yesterday’s proposal for a new campaign. One route really resonates with them. This is always great to hear, especially compared to those times when it’s a split decision and the requests of smashing two or three routes together! We get a good indication of how to progress.
Wednesday
Wednesday is an early start, I have to get across town to do some tutoring at the Edinburgh College of Art. The bus is packed, but I make it in good time and grab a takeout coffee! I spent the morning tutoring designers on the Graphic Design BA(Hons) course. This is the very same place and course I took back in 2005! This week, the students are working together across the year groups in their own mini agencies. This practical approach is all about giving the students an experience that is closely tied to industry practice, making the transition to getting a job easier. I check in with the different agencies giving them feedback on their projects and answering any queries they have about agency life or more practical advice on suppliers, paper stocks, useful websites, whatever. The students’ curiosity and passion is infectious, which is handy as…
The afternoon brings me back to Rationale, where I jump into a pitch war room! An intense collaborative session diving into a new pitch brief, listening to the strategy team’s first findings and indicated territories.
Thursday
Thursday starts back in the war room, this time working closely with the Managing Director, Rowan. Together, we refine our approach, ensuring that our ideas resonate, and all relate back to the strategic findings. This type of collaboration highlights the importance of storytelling in winning new business. Then I heat up a jacket potato for lunch. Rowan is inspired and also gets a jacket potato.
After lunch, I have a few projects to check in on with the creative team. I hop on our project management platform Monday.com to go through the projects I need to feed back on, marking up PDFs or videos using FrameIO but also follow up face-to-face to go deeper on any tricker amends.
Thursday I often stay a bit later as I will be picking up my daughter from Rainbows (think junior Brownies) just around the corner. It’s a good time to concentrate when the office is quiet and the bakery beneath us has turned off their fans for the day. The 90 mins fly by!
Friday
Friday is often our busiest day. We start the day with ‘creative catch-up’, this sets the tone as we discuss deliverables and any last-minute tasks. We also review brand updates, collateral and logistics for an upcoming healthcare conference in Chicago some of our team are attending.
Today I have a working lunch alongside my fellow senior management team members, Caroline, strategy director, and Aisling, group account director, at a café around the corner. It’s an open informal chat about upcoming projects and process improvements. These sessions are not only for sight and alignment, but a good chance to talk about any concerns and suggestions.
Then there is a final flurry of deliverables, mainly for our American clients. Making sure they have everything they need before we log off for the weekend. There are a few final items needing final artwork checks before being uploaded to the printers!
The week wraps with Friday drinks in the office, a time to unwind, see what everyone’s weekend plans are and slide into the weekend.
