What is Designwise — how and why we built it.

Designwise.
Sep 9, 2018 · 3 min read

Designwise was birthed out of a failure. I was freelancing full time and completely burnt out — making costly mistakes and very poor decisions. I remember sitting in my office pissed because I felt that so many of my situations might’ve been avoided if I just had guidance. I was going on almost six years freelancing without a single mentor, but not for lack of seeking. I was mentally finished and I needed a break.

I begin working at Edelman as a senior designer. My creative director and I would schedule one-on-one meetings outside the office at a nearby bar. Our first meeting, he told me about a music-based website he created years ago that sent his community one random song per day through an email list. This website amassed a following that looked to him to provide fresh music each day — we are talking thousands of people. Having a minuscule amount of music business savvy, I thought the idea and results were impressive but only to find out that it failed due to lack of scaling. As for me, I saw potential in the model.

A few weeks later, a coworker pulled me aside to ask for freelance advice on some client relations. I walked away feeling a sense of pride that I was able to help. Not long after, I had the idea: A platform to help guide aspiring and current creative professionals through their career.

From that moment, I hit the ground running.

I begin pulling everything I learned from my creative director and his music platform model. Then I begin creating a bank of advice from a plethora of creatives I looked up to. My goal was to create a static web page that pushed out new pieces of advice upon every refresh of the page. I started working with a developer and things begin to move. But soon, I started running into hard problem questions:

What I learned from my CD’s music project was: because there wasn’t a plan on how to scale, there was no seeable future for the project. I didn’t want to go through the same problems but from the start, it looked like I was already headed in that direction.

I scrapped what we built all together — I needed to start from scratch. At first, I was adamant that I needed a developer but concluded that maybe it wasn’t necessary. I needed to figure out what my MVP (minimal viable product) is while solving my problem questions. So, I went back to the drawing board and what I drafted was even more simplified than the previous.

In order for me to provide the most impact, I needed to write for Designwise. I fought with the idea — trying to justify why my own voice shouldn’t be involved. I tried to just allow the advice of others to speak for the platform itself. But the key component missing was human interaction and empathy. Now, each day just one piece of advice is published complimented with a short form article based on the advice given. I connected with a friend, Deandre Purdue — LA based creative professional, who quickly caught the vision and partnered with me. We work together in staying consistent with the brand, calculating growth and scalability. Our focus is on how we can, authentically, continue to engage our community.

Today, Designwise is a community of creatives who never have to feel alone in their careers. It’s a service and advocacy for creative professionals who desire guidance.

And it’s platform with several possibilities to scale forward.

My advice for you today: Turn your failures and your problems into fuel to help others succeed. You never know who you’re meant to guide from it.

Brandon Brown

Designwise.

Written by

Mentoring creative professionals one piece of advice at a time. #designwise #weareallthegoat

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