Icon Agency was founded in 2002 by Joanne Painter and Chris Dodds.
The agency works across creative, digital, web, content, PR, and communications to deliver positive outcomes and change behaviours.
Dodds, managing director and head of growth and innovation, spoke to Mediaweek about his career journey, being part of Icon Agency and his outlook for the year ahead.
Dodds reflects on his career journey
Dodds started as a graphic designer when I was an 18-year-old, hoping to make a living while creating art. During that time, a group of Melbourne University students had set up Express Australia (which evolved into Express Media), which taught young people about media, communications, and graphic design.
“Their first publication was called ‘Stop. Press. Play’, and it was there that I learned how magazine layouts, bromide cameras, and paste-up worked— there were no computers back then!” he shared.
Dodds shared that his first paid gigs were with music publications Beat Magazine and InPress.
“It was a wild ride helping design and layout weekly magazines over 48-hour sprints. There’s a wonderful article from founding publisher Andrew Watt as he remembers the incredible contribution Rowena Sladdin (Webber) made to the industry. She was a beautiful and talented person who gave me endless encouragement,” he recalled.
From there, he worked at a small pre-press business before the digital publishing revolution, where he learned how to use graphic layout software. He then progressed to postscript printers, typography and grid systems, and hardware problem-solving.
“It was a perfect mix of art and technology, which I quickly realised would be my life’s work,” he said.
Dodds said he was 24 when he started his business with a Mac, printer and fax machine.
“I started Icon in a small apartment in Swan Street, Richmond. My first real client was Cato Design which was located opposite. They were resisting the jump to digital publishing, and for a period, they hit me up for most of their finished art needs. I learnt so much from their incredibly talented team,” he shared.
Over the next ten years, Dodds partnered with different designers, typographers and artists to deliver projects and used those opportunities to learn everything he could.
“I spent the next 20 years building a team capable of running a truly multidisciplinary agency. I also managed to fit in a Master by Research, which was my first formal education since high school. My thesis investigated how artists used games and virtual reality to create new types of art and the type of surveillance that existed in massively multiplayer environments,” he said.
Dodds later partnered with Adam Nash and Justin Clements, and they went on to win multiple Australian Council grants, including their first-ever virtual artists in residence in 2006 (‘Babelswarm’).
Dodds on building and developing a career and business
Reflecting on his career, Dodds said that while it is easy to look back and see the threads that tie his career together, there are several things he advised to those early in their career or launching their business. Dodds noted:
• Push yourself into unfamiliar or uncomfortable territory. It’s where you learn new skills and build resilience.
• Partner with people from different backgrounds, with different opinions and ways of thinking and working. The respectful collision of ideas is where new ideas and solutions emerge.
• Do whatever it takes to make good clients happy—and don’t be afraid of letting the bad ones go early.
• Check your ego at the door. Leave space for others to add perspective—especially those with the smallest voices.
• Take risks where you see opportunity. Forgive yourself and others when an idea fails.
• Ask “Can I help?” early and often. When you need help, people will remember
Dodds revealed his success was built on never saying “no” to a brief.
“In the early dot-com boom days, I remember sitting in a room of execs asking if we could design and code the front end of the first-ever online white pages. We eventually said: ‘Yeah, of course,’ and then frantically figured out how.
Dodds also noted that looking for opportunities during adversity is another way to progress and back yourself.
“When COVID hit, Icon weighed the impact it would have on our team and business and decided to hire instead of making redundancies.
“With grit, a growth strategy, and new sales and marketing directors, we accelerated growth and doubled our team’s size in two years,” he added.
How was Icon’s performance in 2022, and how has that set the agency up this year?
Reflecting on the past year, Dodds said that the Icon has gone from strength to strength, calling 2022/23 the agency’s “biggest-ever year”.
He noted that rapid growth meant playing catch up to ensure the agency had the right people working on the right problems at the right time.
“We now have an incredibly talented executive director team working across each department, our first ever general manager, head of people and culture, new creative director, and expanded sales and operations teams, which frees our founders to work on larger strategic pitches and positioning the business for scale,” Dodds said.
How Icon plans on tackling the challenges in the year ahead
For Dodds, he noted that the change is an always-on state. However, he said that an agency of its size and capability could manage and steer through its next wave of growth.
Dodds noted that the biggest challenge will be ensuring that the systems and processes they will implement do not get in the way of delivering great work.
“We’re trialling, adjusting, and seeing what fits. We don’t always get it right, but if we’re listening, learning, and improving incrementally, we’re happy,” he said.
Dodds noted that while the agency is concerned with the possibility of a recession, it plans to grow, expanding into Queensland, promoting from within and hiring new leaders.
“We’re also backing some exciting new business divisions and capabilities as we move further into the service design and behaviour change space,” he revealed.
Dodds also highlighted the “big thing” on everyone’s minds: AI.
“Much has been written about how AI and AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) will impact businesses and people. We’re certain the coming wave of AIs will fundamentally change processes and, eventually, the meaning of work,” he said.
“This is why Icon has an AI Implementation Manager conducting research and testing tools across the agency. We want to ensure our team is trained in and using this new wave of tools—not being replaced by them,” Dodds added.
Milestones, achievements, and the year ahead
Looking ahead, Dodds shared that Icon had several exciting new projects launching soon and some just beginning.
Project highlights for the agency include websites for the Australian Space Agency and Centre, the National Memorial for Victims and Survivors of Institutional Child Sexual Abuse, and a new Solar Consumer Guide.
Icon agency has also worked with the Department of Home Affairs on a complex communications program aimed at helping to tackle the threat of violent extremism.
“We’re also ramping up our creative team… it’s an exciting time for the agency,” Dodds shared.
Dodds noted that 2023/24 will be a time of re-grouping following a period of phenomenal growth. He added that the team will also implement their strategies as they navigate another period of disruption and innovation.
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Top image: Chris Dodds