Constructing Creative Solutions - Krista O'Malley '90 Thinks Outside the Box to Bring Branding to Life

Reprinted from Traditions, Winter 2017-2018
April 6, 2018

Cretin-Derham Hall Profile: Krista O'Malley '90

Sitting in the meeting with Google, Krista O’Malley ’90 was worried it was over before it even started.

Why else would the client ask for further explanation about her raising some “unusual” questions in her response to an RFP (request for proposal)?

The year was 2011 and the RFP was for a top-secret project integral to launching Google’s Chromebook presence in the world of retail. As the owner of a startup design agency, O’Malley assumed she had caused offense by overstepping the scope of the project. Instead, she had shown that her creative thinking was perfectly aligned with the client well beyond the initial scope of work. The result: she was awarded the original project, plus additional design work to address issues she’d raised in her proposal, some of which later received an RDI International Design Award.

Design is Really Just Solving Problems

O’Malley’s company, cmnd+m (pronounced Command M), is a unique combination of designers, engineers, artists, and other professionals who are ‘driven by curiosity, passion, and belief in the power of creativity.’

Because she knows good ideas can come from anyone, anytime, Krista encourages creative thinking from everyone on the team, and not just the ‘creatives’. Getting that level of leadership from all players, no matter what their skillset, is the best way to solve problems. It’s this concept of creativity that is central to everything cmnd+m does.

“We translate innovative ideas for consumer experiences into reality, which means we are essentially creative problem-solvers,” O’Malley said. “I really care about the fidelity of our creative team. We look for people who will push boundaries and make something new.”

Designing the Chromebook’s retail presence required just such boundary-pushing solutions, and Google became the first of many major organizations to rely on cmnd+m to harness their creative approach to design.

In addition to Google, cmnd+m has worked with Target, Uber, Beats, Android, and Weight Watchers to name a few. “We provide solutions on both the creative and build side … so if we have an idea, we also explore how to make it work — from design through production and fabrication — with our eye always on the end-user experience.”

This can make cmnd+m’s work hard to define because they do not have a ‘stereotypical’ project type. “We bring a company’s brand to life for the consumer,” O’Malley explained. “No two projects are ever the same.”

She points to the diversity of their projects, ranging from designing a top restaurant in San Francisco to bringing Target Corporation’s mission and core values to life for this year’s Fall National Week. “For Target, we constructed huge ‘message decoders’ and a giant, walk-in kaleidoscope. We transformed Target’s Great Hall into an interactive experience inviting all employees to celebrate the company’s purpose.”

Change and Comfort do not Coexist

O’Malley encourages her team to be willing to be uncomfortable. Sometimes that might look like conflict or a lot of challenging feedback, but it’s also a sign you may be blazing a new trail. “Change and comfort do not coexist,” O’Malley says. “When a new idea is good, we tend to get ‘uncomfortably excited’, and that is when the magic happens.”

Since she graduated from Cretin-Derham Hall, O’Malley’s career has been on one of those ‘uncomfortably exciting’ paths.

She graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Madison with a degree in Zoology and Biological Aspects of Conservation and promptly took an internship studying whales in Hawaii. She then worked in environmental safety and risk management before she had an unexpected opportunity to start her own business in commercial flooring. Although the flooring business was successful, it wasn’t enough. She seized an opportunity to work with a colleague who was a retail designer, starting a new business that would look at problems through the lens of innovation from all phases of design, including engineering and production. Their first client was Google and it launched a whole new career for O’Malley.

Lead by Innovation

Because innovation has been key to Krista’s personal and professional success, she understands that successfully addressing the needs of the future depends on the desire to nurture creativity in young people, no matter what skills and talents each person masters.

“Today’s world needs more people who look at things from new or alternative perspectives.”

She describes how CDH helped hone her creative and leadership skills in high school, setting the stage for her professional success today. Whether it was in the classroom, athletics, or Student Council, she treasured the freedom and the support that allowed and encouraged her best and to explore new ways of doing things.

“We clearly understood that there that a high level of excellence was expected,” she said. “We had to figure out what talents we had and how to best use them for whatever the (challenge of the) moment called for.”

She points to a particularly tough Varsity basketball game when she saw this in action. “We were at a distinct height disadvantage, so we implemented a ‘new’ strategy, using the shorter but faster players in place of the bigger, more experienced starting five.” After running the opponent down, the starters went back in. CDH simply outsmarted their higher-ranked opponents to claim the victory. “We needed to utilize the strengths we had and so we played faster and quicker and it paid off.”

O’Malley recently participated in a business panel for Cretin-Derham Hall students and reflected on what is needed from these future professionals. “We are most successful when we consider ourselves life-long learners,” said O’Malley. She hopes that students today stay on a deep quest for learning so they will have the confidence and willingness to get out of the comfort zone of how things have always been done.

“Being creative is simply finding a way to solve problems of some sort,” she explained. “Be brave and curious so that you continue to learn and then you can lead.”

This article and more are featured in the Winter 2017-2018 issue of the CDH magazine, Traditions.