What It Takes to Start a Design Studio
Multiple Scout alumni have gone on to start design studios after graduation. Here’s how.
A Tale of Three Studios
Molly O’Neill — Fred&Co.
“I never thought I would have my own business,” said Molly O’Neill.
Now, four years after graduating from Northeastern University, O’Neill is the founder and creative director of Fred&Co., a design studio in Minneapolis, MN.
Jennifer Heintz & Mike Wagz — Self Aware
“It wasn’t a calculated decision,” Mike Wagz said of his own business.
Mike Wagz and Jennifer Heintz are the faces behind Self Aware, a Philadelphia-based web design studio.
“I didn’t have this logical plan of not having a job in order to stay flexible,” said Wagz. “I was just doing some freelance projects.”
Laura Marelic — Lifelike Labs
“I would love to say that it was very explicitly a decision, but it just kind of happened that way,” Laura Marelic said.
Along with Connor Russo and Ky Wildermuth, Marelic is a co-founder of Lifelike Labs, a design studio focused on climate technology.
“I got a couple of freelance jobs right after I graduated and tried to give myself the space to feel out what was right for me,” Marelic said. “Things just happened organically from there.”
No clue what you’re doing? No problem.
Three different design studios, all with ties to Northeastern University and the student-led design studio Scout. But if there’s one thing beyond that that these studio owners have in common, it’s that they didn’t always know what they were doing.
Fred&Co.
“I was kind of flying by the seat of my pants,” O’Neill admitted.
O’Neill graduated from Northeastern in 2018 and eagerly interviewed at a variety of small design studios, expecting to start her career in that setting. But as Executive Director of the student-led design studio Scout, she had gotten used to a different kind of work.
“As I was interviewing, the things I would be doing seemed so different from what I was doing and loving at Scout,” said O’Neill. “Running meetings, communicating with clients, the managerial and leadership side of things. I wanted to be able to do a bunch of different things and wear a bunch of different hats.”
Self Aware
A year before that, Mike Wagz graduated in 2017 and started to do development work as a freelancer while partner Jennifer Heintz was beginning to consider what she wanted in a career.
“Mike was enjoying freelance and not having to go into work. I didn’t like the nine-to-five vibe either,” Heintz said. “I’m the type of person who does not want to do the same thing every day. I don’t want to wake up at the same time, or do the same things, or even eat the same things.”
So when Heintz graduated a semester after Wagz and begun her own freelance work, making the partnership official was a natural progression.
Lifelike Labs
Laura Marelic graduated in 2015, after founding and directing the student design studio Scout. “Building Scout was the most fun thing I could have imagined to do,” said Marelic. “Looking at all these jobs, nothing sounded as fun as building Scout was.”
Marelic and partner Connor Russo tried their hand in the tech start-up spaces with the meal planning app Cookin, and also made waves as the design agency Loco Studio.
“At Loco Studio I just wanted to improve my design skills, and we just did any kind of work with any kind of company,” Marelic said. “It was great but it wasn’t the most purposeful. I was in my own bubble focusing on my work and trying to level up, and once I had done that it was more like, what can I do with that now?”
In 2018, Wagz and Heintz launched Twin Soul, the creative studio that would eventually become Self Aware. Also in 2018, O’Neill partnered with Brennan Carruthers to create Juno, the design studio that eventually led to her creating her own one-woman-shop, Fred&Co. And in 2021, Marelic left behind Loco and officially launched Lifelike Labs.
With a bit of freelancing experience, a desire for something beyond the nine-to-five grind, and a willingness to jump into the abyss of the unknown, three studios were born.
Launching is only the beginning.
Building a studio from the ground up isn’t easy. There’s building a portfolio, and building a reputation. There’s working with freelancers, balancing budgets, and managing time. Most importantly, there is building a client list and consistent work.
Fred&Co.
“At the beginning, I would say yes to everything that came in my inbox,” said O’Neill. “The brand for my studio was just me throwing together a site really quickly. Building the client list and the work has really been the focus.”
Self Aware
In addition to building a client list, Heintz and Wagz struggled with being seen as a unit.
As a designer-and-developer duo, Wagz said, “It ultimately felt like we were still freelancing independently. Over time we got frustrated we weren’t working on the same things.”
“After a while we started packaging ourselves as a duo and didn’t even specify who did what,” Heintz said.
They worked with Wanderwell consulting to rethink their marketing and language as a studio, instead of a duo of freelancers.
Lifelike Labs
For Marelic and the crew at Lifelike Labs, scaling to bring on new clients and designers has been a new and unique challenge.
“We have to be way, way, way more organized than we ever were as freelancers. Sprint boards, remote communication, check-ins — everything is getting systemized,” said Marelic. “More of my day is spent thinking about how the work is done than about the work itself.”
The big break can come from unexpected places.
Fred&Co.
For O’Neill, this was a collaboration with Target and Post-It Notes.
“The crazy project I’m working on now, I just Instagram DM’ed a lady having a fun little garage sale near me,” O’Neill said. “I got to know her and she had this project brewing, and she brought me into the fold.”
While the project is still in the works, it’s Fred&Co.’s first big-brand-name client and could open up a lot of new opportunities.
“It takes a lot of cold emailing, DM-ing, just putting yourself out there,” added O’Neill.
Self Aware
In fact, cold emailing was the origin of Self Aware’s big break as a studio.
“We discovered this sandwich place called Middle Child,” Wagz said. “Their website was this super boring Squarespace page, and they had this funky animated gif of a face, and I had an idea.”
Wagz made a quick code demo of the face icon moving around as you move your mouse, and cold-emailed the sandwich shop, offering to make them a website in exchange for a bunch of sandwiches.
“Middle Child has a cult following in Philly,” Heintz explained. “A lot of people found out who we were through that. It all kind of snowballed from there, meeting new people.”
The Middle Child website has been featured on Awwwards and Typewolf, among others. It led to valuable connections and new clients.
Lifelike Labs
The big break might also be a more intentional pivot. In mid-2021, Marelic and her two partners at Lifelike gathered for a business retreat to realign their goals and visions for the studio.
“We knew we wanted to have a business, not just be freelancers,” Marelic said.
Over the three-day retreat, the three partners faced a major decision: accept an influx of new clients and grow the studio into something bigger, or continue on the path of working slow-and-steady.
“We were asking, are we all fulfilled? Are we happy doing one client like we have been?” Marelic said. “And the answer was no. We wanted to try more, to do more and be bigger.”
In the months following that retreat, Lifelike Labs went on to accept work with four new clients, and has been building a team of freelancers to take on that work.
“We have some really positive signs that we’re doing well,” Marelic said. “It’s still a new business and a new industry but we feel pretty good.”
It takes confidence.
Another thing each studio owner agreed on: self-confidence is a challenge and an ongoing journey, but it is key.
Fred&Co.
“I knew I believed in myself enough to take a chance to start to build something, but I’ve been second guessing myself almost every step of the way,” O’Neill said. “I get a lot of excitement and validation from other people, but I’ve been trying to believe that in myself.”
Lifelike Labs
Like O’Neill, Marelic struggled with the desire for validation.
“When you’re self employed you don’t have those external metrics and structures to know how you’re doing,” added Marelic. “You really have to make your owns structures and set your own goals.”
Self Aware
Heintz and Wagz emphasized a learn-by-doing, fake-it-’til-you-make-it approach. Wagz recalled taking on a project for Northeastern when he “still barely knew how to code.”
“I learned from Mike a lot in that,” said Heintz. “You learn by doing, not by saying you’re not good enough to do it.”
It takes a village.
Fred&Co.
“People are so willing to help you out if you ask for help,” O’Neill added. “I definitely lean a ton on not only my friends, but past clients, other designers. Even if we’re direct competitors, there’s this camaraderie and people are so happy to share their knowledge.”
Self Aware
Wagz added that referrals from other design companies was also an important aspect of networking with other designers. After the success of Middle Child, referrals were a huge factor in their growth.
“We were always chatting with other people starting studios,” said Heintz. “We even had a shared Google Drive to share resources.”
Lifelike Labs
In this realm, Marelic deferred credit to her partner Connor Russo, who joined various Slack groups, and attended meetups and virtual events to meet people and network.
“Networking comes really easily to Connor, it doesn’t come easily to me,” Marelic admitted. But through those channels and referrals, Lifelike was able to find new clients and begin to grow.
It takes perseverance.
While it can be rewarding, running a business certainly has its ups and downs.
Fred&Co.
“It can be pretty isolating and really lonely being a one-woman-shop,” O’Neill said.
O’Neill mentioned going to networking events and meetups early in her career, and being one of the only women in the room.
“I’d definitely say it was a hard transition going from school right into doing my own thing,” said O’Neill.
Self Aware
Beyond that, you have to be acquainted with failure.
“Get the really awkward client experiences out of the way,” said Heintz. “They have to happen, so get it out of the way in college if you can.”
Lifelike Labs
Marelic similarly mentioned the loneliness of running a studio. “Not having coworkers is hard,” she said. “There are days I wish I was in an office and could just, you know, chatter with people.”
Marelic and Russo had their own difficult brush with failure when trying to launch their meal-planning app, Cookin.
“When Cookin failed, that was really hard,” said Marelic. “You spend so long pitching and selling to people that when it failed, it felt like we had been lying.”
Despite its failure, Marelic talked fondly about Cookin as a stepping stone to where she is now.
“It ultimately didn’t work out but it was very educational and fulfilling,” she said.
It’s worth it.
Ultimately, each person at each studio seemed more than happy with the decisions and lives they’ve made for themselves. As studio owners, they have been able to create their own schedule, develop their work, and grow as people.
Fred&Co.
During the pandemic, Fred&Co. was able to get its own studio space and has continued to grow its team of freelancers.
“I thought I would be 35 or 40 before I had my own space or had people working with me as contractors,” O’Neill said, “and now I look around and I’ve already done that at 26.”
Lifelike Labs
Meanwhile, Lifelike Labs is looking to grow, bring on employees, and develop its own culture.
Marelic added that, in skipping the “real” job and staying self-employed, she is much more willing to take risks and think outside the box.
“I’m really not afraid of losing a job, going out on my own, of taking months off to do a personal project,” said Marelic. “I really don’t feel a lot of fear about those types of things.”
While Marelic still struggles with self-confidence, she is proud of how she’s grown in her years of self-employment.
“I’ve built so many skills while self-employed that I didn’t even realize,” Marelic said. “You have to make so many decisions, when the work gets done, how it gets done, keeping the project on track, it’s all on you. And those are skills.”
Self Aware
Heintz and Wagz were able to buy a house in Philadelphia, which was a major goal for the pair.
“It’s rewarding to have your own business actually fulfill your lifestyle goals and needs,” said Heintz. “We’ve been able to have a good life here, and a good balance of work, fun, travel.”
Work-life balance can be difficult for business-owners, but it’s also one of the main appeals of being self-employed.
“There are definitely people doing what we’re doing who just work all the time,” said Wagz. “But we’re the type of people who, given the freedom, we work a lot less. We’re able to give ourselves the freedom to know when we can just stop for the day.”
More, these small but mighty studios have created great and impactful design work.
“Just the two of us have been able to do some really great sites, the same level of stuff that these big agencies do,” Heintz said. “We’re doing the same things, from our apartment, from our couch.”
You could have what it takes.
Another thing all of these folks have in common? When asked for advice to someone thinking about starting a studio, the answer was: Do it.
Fred&Co.
“The worst thing that can happen is you have to go and get a normal job,” said O’Neill. “Try it, if you like it, amazing, if you don’t, you don’t have to do it forever. If it no longer serves you, you can find something else.”
Self Aware
“You can’t know everything before you start,” said Heintz. “So you just have to dive in.”
Lifelike Labs
“Just try it,” Marelic said. “It will never be easier to try it than today. You need to work that muscle of trying scary things.”
Starting a studio is bound to be scary, but it is also deeply rewarding. What it comes down to is a love for design, the drive to create, and adaptability. More, it’s about doing things instead of just dreaming about them. It’s about jumping even when you don’t feel ready. You can’t know if you have what it takes, until you try.
