Diary of a Design Studio #1

Hello there,

This is the first post of what will be an honest look at the realities of running a creative design studio. For us it’s a way of documenting our progress and assessing what we’re trying to achieve, how we are going about that and whether or not it’s working. The purpose of making it public is that we hope it could prove a useful resource for those outside the company too. Whether it’s other folks considering setting up a business who can learn from our mistakes, the graduates trying to figure out how to build a career or more established business owners who can reminisce about the innocent times when they were still finding their way.

I’ve only been at Studio Lovelock for 8 months and although I can’t speak for founder and Creative Director Joe, I will. The studio was born out of a young(ish) man’s frustration of working at large creative agencies. Unwieldy places where processes existed to make the simplest of tasks incredibly complicated. Where designers weren’t allowed to talk to clients, and the reasons why things were being done were rarely clear. The work often became unfulfilling, driven more by chunky brand guideline books than creative problem solving. So, being the optimistic, albeit slightly naive, dreamer of better and simpler things, Joe set out on his own.

Having co-founded my own company in the past I also know what the initial draws of starting your own business are. The ability to dictate a certain path of work, the flexibility to help manage the work/life balance, and the dare to dream possibility of building a brand that’s globally admired and recognised as a leader in it’s field.

Having said that, It is easy to get lost in the dream and overlook the day to day practicalities of running your own business. The reality is that it’s complex, occasionally tedious and frankly quite stressful. So in the interest of balance we intend to cover some of the less glamorous details behind the shiny pictures, such as insurance, paying the taxman and making sure there’s enough toilet roll. Looking forward to it!

But despite these necessary evils, fours years on and things are going well at Studio Lovelock. Slowly but surely the portfolio is growing and getting closer to what we feel we can achieve. Though with each step and each delivery the bar is raised. Our success so far has been down to a number of factors — tidy finances and sensible planning, a determination to grow and progress, but perhaps the most important has been the relationships we’ve built — both with clients and with our extended network of incredibility talented folk.

Over the coming months we’ll offer our thoughts on all of the above, but Having spent a large proportion of meetings trying to convince clients that ‘people just don’t read that much copy’ online, I feel this is about the point I should be wrapping it up.

Thanks for reading,

BEN