There’s no such thing as a side hustle: An interview with ITAL/C design’s Matt Titone
For Matt Titone of ITAL/C design, Indoek is more than a brand on the side. It’s a project that has taken on a life of its own as a full-fledged brand, producing everything from bespoke surf wax holders to motion graphic videos to books. Indoek has brought in a steady stream of clients and opportunities over the years for ITAL/C, begging the question: is it still a side hustle if it helps fuel your main gig? I was stoked to chat with Matt about their studio and how Indoek is home for ITAL/C passion projects.
What are your side projects at ITAL/C:
We don’t have many right now because we are so busy with studio work. But that’s kinda the business model for Indoek — if we actually have one — is to take on new side projects if we have time and create it under the Indoek roof. That way, they have a built-in audience and home. Over the years we’ve done everything from product design, like a surf wax holder and a tee-pee, to publishing zines.
Early on we made the Anatomy of Owen which is a motion graphics video with professional surfer, Owen Wright. We did it soup to nuts. We got Owen for an hour on the beach with a camera down in Venice. We first thought about doing posters or images comparing him to other professional athletes and animal anatomies. It evolved from there. We thought: “This would be really rad as a video.” We didn’t have a lot of work as a studio out of the gate so we just made it.
Ron and I are both designers so we didn’t have a New Business person or strategy. We ended up doing what we do best — making creative work. We pulled some favors and wrote a script for the Anatomy of Owen. We put it together ourselves on the side. It was a big project for us and it got a lot of exposure. I think the New York Times posted it on their T Magazine site and then people wanted to know who made it.
That got us more motion graphics projects for the studio. All of our side projects have been like that. Even the zines we do. Like, one summer we were really slow and decided to make a zine about Venice. We had the idea to make zines about good coastal towns and the first one could be about Venice because we live here. And we’ve gotten a lot of projects because of those zines. We did one for Rebook, Dollar Shave Club, and more recently Ring.
Was it the same for Surf Shacks?
The Surf Shacks book has been the biggest one. The publisher has printed 20,000 copies so far, so it has the most reach out of any Indoek project. We’ve got some really big projects because of that, and not even related to book design. The book is now in every room at this cool hotel in Malibu called The Surfrider and that opened even more doors for us. Now we’re getting work in hotel design, way beyond book design or publication. Indoek doesn’t make us any money directly, but it funnels into client work for ITAL/C. We sell the book and zines here and there but it is definitely not enough to live on
Did you set out to create more business with these side projects or were they simply passion projects?
It’s kinda both.
Indoek sort of started as a blog. My original partner was making a surf doc and wanted to create a production company to make the documentary look legit to investors. We used it as a way to catalog stuff we liked on the internet. From there it started to take on a life of its own though. About a year later when I co-founded ITAL/C with Ron, I brought Indoek under the same roof, which by then had a pretty good size following. At that point, I no longer wanted to maintain a blog, but I also did not want to stop the brand. I had this design studio I was starting and it seemed like a perfect fit and vehicle for the new studio. We had the vision at that point and it became a place for passion projects. So it was intentional and it wasn’t. It was always a weird home for side projects.
Do you consider Indoek a separate brand from ITAL/C?
Definitely. Fundamentally, it has its own LLC and bank account. We also try to keep them separate internally. And we take all the money that comes in from Indoek to fuel the next project. It’s kinda like a little savings account for future passion projects. But we did redo the Indoek site so all the fonts and colors are the same as ITAL/C so there are subtle cues that tie it to the mothership.
How have your side projects influenced your work at ITAL/C?
It brings in similar business, especially the zines. We’ll go to a meeting with a potential client and bring them copies of the Venice and St. Augustine issues. They immediately know that we can produce nice stuff and can also do it on our own without a client or a budget. It shows initiative. They have more trust when they see stuff like that.
Stylistically, ITAL/C is kinda influenced by Indoek. Nobody was hiring us for motion graphics or illustration when we started out, but then we did the Anatomy of Owen thing and all of a sudden we had a ton of motion graphics projects. Or like, Ron illustrated a map in the Venice issue and then we had a ton of map illustration projects and they kept coming. You are what you eat.
Would you say that ITAL/C’s reputation has helped Indoek be successful?
I think it works both ways for sure. When we were trying to create the zines and needed to sell ads, existing clients and relationships bought that limited ad space. It’s really hard to cold call people. And I guess that’s why we’re bad at New Business — we don’t cold call people or actively seek out new business. It’s a waste of time in our opinion since we’re not very good at it. Those ads paid for all the production of the zine.
And the St. Augustine edition was even easier because we had a blueprint for how to do it. And we knew Mohawk Paper through all our studio projects so when they sent their reps around to show us new paper, we told them we were doing another zine and asked if they wanted to get behind it. They ended up donating all the paper. So that’s an instance where having ITAL/C gives legitimacy to Indoek in the eyes of larger clients, brands, and companies. So yeah, it works both ways.
That’s a smart strategy.
[laughing] When you say “strategy” it seems really smart. But it was trial and error. We tried the other way. The way you think you’re supposed to do it and it didn’t work. We just tried something different.
