Small Studio Owners & Freelancers:
Do you feel in control or is it ctrl + z every day?
Is everything working the way you want it to in your creative business? Are there weak points you want to address but you don’t have the time?
Do wish you could get a creative who understands technical best practice and the business of design to have a look at how you do things?
What if you could get a creative director who LOVES talking about design, and studio workflow in a way that leaves you (and your team, if you have one) feeling hopeful and energised with concrete next steps and tools that are proven to work in studios large and small?
Years of working in large studios, teaching design, organising professional development seminars, giving creative talks of all stripes has fed into a deep design studio knowledge and set of techniques to improve creative studio workflow.
We’ve put together a package for smaller studios (1 to 5 employees) which includes an in-person workflow review, a recommendations, training and implementation session and a followup and troubleshooting session.
This can be delivered as broad Creative Workflow Review where we pick up as many improvements as possible or as a Single Topic intensive (where we focus on a specific, known studio issue).
This be the verse:
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The core philosophy of how we work is simple. Everything can be done better. (It’s what design is all about anyway).
We apply that design thinking to how files are stored, how files are set up for each output intent, how studio job numbers run and are used, how traffic is managed, and how client emails & job tickets run. We apply it to everything.
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We connect up practical day-to-day improvements with creative workflow issues. That’s a big part of the studio efficiency picture that is often missing. When is the last time you sat down with your staff and talked about the blockers to productivity?
Some issues are mechanical and we've got buckets of practical tools and fixes for things like that.
Tackling creative workflow issues that aren’t in software or hardware is harder. It requires a deep and practical understanding of how design & advertising studios work.
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Creatives are complicated - we are smart, rambunctious, self-aware and often sensitive folks. Being able to truly see them, understand their frustrations, issues and things they are proud of helps us connect and communicate effectively.
Rather than come in tell them how it's done, our first role is to see how they're working, what their pain points are. We don't make recommendations until we've listened first.At the end of a workshop session, we want your team to feel energised and hopeful. We want them to feel like they can do this.
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The job of proper artwork setup is a can that is always kicked down the road for the last person to touch the file....
Busy creatives might grab a placeholder asset or just screenshot some text from an online font foundry (but forget to note the font name) and any number of other little shorcuts to get the first draft out the door.
It was fine for pitch, but it becomes a pressing issue and headache when you need to move into production or when you are on hard deadline.
The real kicker is that issues like this tend to have a small but cumulative effect on the overall job efficiency. Each time the can is kicked down the road the job file gets a bit slower to work on. Rounds of changes take longer because of a creative or practical workflow issue that “I'll fix at the end”.
We believe in, and teach the philosophy of stopping to sharpen the saw. -
Once you have these issues identified you need an approachable, friendly and warm approach to connect and teach an alternative way.
New ideas from a creative peer is always going to be an easier sell than a consultant that doesn’t understand the real world creative process.
We’ll work with your team, either in all-hands training workshops, or one-on-one structured training sessions to get those persistent and difficult issues unpicked.
Option 1: Freelancer / Small Studio Creative Review
If you have a sneaking suspicion that your creative workflow isn’t quite up to speed, we can do something about that.
You’re busy creating work for clients you feel like you could be moving faster, and the design process could be easier.
You’re not alone. Creative folks usually excel at solving other peoples’ problems but sorting out our own studio issues are usually found way down the bottom of the weekly WIP list.
We can provide an experienced set of eyes to run over your small studio creative process. We can recommend solutions that pair well with your existing workflow or alternative options for pain points that every freelancer and small studio has to deal with.
We want to boost productivity, address core technical fundamentals, and make it feel easier for you to create great design & advertising work.
Split into three x 3.5 hour sessions, our recommendations and suggestions will be bespoke to your actual needs, but generally will include software and tooling recommendations that go together really well, workflow recommendations and specific process and technical tips.
Combined together, this gives your studio access to some of the tips and tricks the bigger creative firms use, best practice ideas and standards we’ve picked up along the way, and even better, helps you avoid common pitfalls and mistakes that cost time and money.
What’s the vibe gunna be like?
The vibes are going to be immaculate. We teach in a way that is approachable, designer centred, kind and encouraging. Oh, and more than a dash of infectious enthusiasm for our craft, and the business of commercial creativity.
We’re about encouraging and enabling designers to fulfil their potential because they are proud of their skills (but always ready to learn more). Fundamentally, we don’t scold or belittle designers into becoming better designers, we share ideas, tips and processes and encourage them to join in.
We’ve won a few awards over the years (all which we are very grateful for) but here’s some kind words from good folks that live right up the top shelf in the mental pool room.
“Hey, did you know our pre-press team fights over who gets to prepare your files? They are always so easy to work on”.
“There is something so honest and real about the way you teach and talk about creativity”.
“I was talking with (another designer) and we were just talking about the work you do. You are the designer’s designer”.
“I have so much anxiety and to feel slightly at ease with a piece of myself is honestly life-changing, so thank you for that”.
Option 2: Freelancer / Small Studio Single Topic Intensive:
Every studio & freelancer we’ve met has an area that they are a bit worried about. It might be a technical thing or process but you know you’re not nailing it like you want to.
Tell me if this sounds familiar…
You really wish you were on top of how you setup your print files as they keep having issues? Or maybe you’re a bit embarrassed to ask other designers how they deal with pricing small jobs…
We’ve all got our secret areas in business where we hope nobody finds out we really don’t get Shopify, or barcode symbology, or file name management, or diecuts, or client emails that don’t take forever to write, or backup management… Or whatever.
If you’ve know what we’re talking about and know exactly what that blind spot is and it’s bugging you, we can help run you through that area of design as a studio workflow intensive.
What if you could be taught (without judgement) on how to fix that part of your creative game for good?
Having experience teaching design, and running many professional development sessions over the years, has given us buckets of experience at breaking down issues, creating simple step by step guides that are rock solid. Most importantly, we’re here to share our enthusiasm for creativity, not to make you feel bad for not knowing one aspect of the literally thousands of elements of a successful creative practice.
Incredibly
Experienced.
We’ve got experience working at every scale and in most creative roles. This means we get your studio needs.
We get
Creatives.
Getting in a purely IT based change consultant is a recipe for disaster. They don’t get creatives. We are creatives too, and we get it.
Super
Practical.
Many of the fixes and workflow tweaks that we suggest are easy to implement. They save time almost immediately.
Respect,
Earned.
We help other advertising studios and design firms and we share our tricks and tips generously because a rising tide floats all boats.
Forever
Curious.
We’re eternally curious and apply that to everything. Why is it like that? How does that work? Can we make it work better?
We Pay it Forward.
We’ve invested in the design community with hundreds of hours volunteering to make the creative industries better.