RESEARCH & ANALYSIS
Sketchbooks Research & Analysis Ideas for Week 1.
Research, analyse and communicate some core operational and functional aspects of design practice and business.
Design businesses fall into various categories that individuals fit into based on their skills, values and aspirations.
Types of Design Business
Freelancer
A freelancer is a self-employed, singular person who offers services for several jobs and multiple clients. They typically work for agencies for a fixed period and fixed rates that are either pro-rata or hourly based (Freelancer – What is a freelancer? n.d.). Freelancers have flexibility but less financial and job security.
Single Entity Studio
A single entity studio comprises an independent designer who runs a studio by themselves, managing their clients. Many talented, business savvy freelancers like Theo Inglis will position themselves as a studio over time once they have built up a large enough client base (Theo Inglis, n.d.).
Fig. 1: Teho Inglis Studio, n.d.
Collective/ Cohort
A collective is a group of entities that share or are motivated by a common interest or work together to achieve a common objective (Collective – Wikipedia, n.d). Lovers is an award-winning creative agency with a collective model. Established in reaction to a talent exodus to freelancing, Lovers new model and methodology repositions bright, unretainable creative professionals around genuinely motivating projects (About – Lovers, n.d).
Design Studio
A design studio is characterised as a niche company, with the main difference being that studios focus on specific services. Rather than the full range of services offered at agencies, studios like that of Stockwell subcontract out various project elements, such as writing, programming, video or photography. External services would also include accounts, HR and IP lawyers and freelancers (About Studio Moross - Studio Moross, n.d.).
Building up a design studio gives you an asset that you can in the future sell, unlike a freelancer or single entity studio, which is entirely reliant on the individual that runs it.
Agency
An agency is a one-stop shop because they provide a wide range of services with the brunt of the work done in-house. Services include public relations, media buying, research and creative design. Within these agencies, you have access to various professionals, from art directors and videographers to writers and strategists. They are usually hired on a retainer or project basis (Freelancer, Studio or Agency? Find the Right Match for Your Business - Appleton Creative, 2021). You are more likely to make a name for yourself in the design industry in an agency, but your financial prospects can be limited due to a fixed salary.
Design Group/ Conglomerate
A Design Group like Super Union, Ante and Pentagram align multiple agencies with streamlining complex structures and offerings, allowing clients to access talent and resources globally in a 'power of one' strategy (O'Reilly, 2021).
Designers should play to their strengths and find their niche before aligning themselves with a specific category. Designers can also be pioneers like Lover's collective and create a unique positioning in the design world. If you don't like or agree with the way things are, develop a better way of doing things - Simon Manchipp.
Influential Operational Practices
Core practices can influence, define and shape the character of a business.
Word of Mouth
Morag Myerscough mantra is 'make happy those near, and those who are far will come' (User, n.d). The easiest way to get new clients is to be so good at what you do that your reputation proceeds you, and clients seek you out.
Fig. 2: Weston’s High Street Heritage Action Zone receives a Historic England grant, n.d.
Investment
I have often been frustrated with my success in design but then not knowing what to do with the profits while colleagues in the financial sectors grow their wealth exponentially. UsTwo advises designers that the best investment you will ever make is in yourself, your own business and ventures you know and understand (Priday, 2019). UsTwo invests in creatively aligned companies and ventures like Monument Alley and Dice, which have seen considerable returns (Adventure, n.d.).
Fig 4: UsTwo Studio, n.d.
Finances
Sustain profits without growth to increasing your financial success without increasing overheads and time spent working.
Aim for more prominent clients who will become your bread and butter (About Studio Moross - Studio Moross, n.d.). They require less time and energy to manage, and the financial rewards are more significant. Profitability provides you with the financial freedom to take more risks and pursue work and charitable projects you are passionate about (Neef, 2021). &Walsh as well as UsTwo, use their financial security to give back to the design community.
Coaches/ Mentors
Professional athletes use coaches to help improve performance across the physical and psychological domains intrinsic to competitive success. The concept of high-performance coaching now increasingly features in the investment, business, and design world. Both Neef and Kate Morris verbalise its importance (Investment and performance coaches | Essentia Analytics, n.d.).
Consulting
Many clients are now going in-house, limiting our design rollout to the initial brand creation and style guide. The design process needs to evolve to include value-based consulting as brand guardians, a path that Lover's collective is pursuing (About – Lovers, n.d) and advocated by the likes of Alan Weiss (Million Dollar Consulting by Alan Weiss: Book Summary & Review, 2021).
Quality of Life
No one wants to be married to their work. Stockwell discourages overtime, and Scandinavian countries see the benefits and an increase in production with a six-hour day (About Studio Moross - Studio Moross, n.d.). Happier people are more productive. With the correct client choices, management and structures in place, a practice can be profitable without working its staff to death.
Every designer or studio's ethos, practise, and experience provide valuable insight and inspiration on which a business can be built or improved.
IMAGINE
Map a resourcing model for budget and staff allocation to deliver a project or creative initiative of your choice.
I do not prescribe hourly billing per the Million Dollar Consulting module but have fixed costs based on my value. I do, however, pay my freelancers and collaborating partners by the hour.
I have put together a costing for The Source Dried Fruit Company based on these principles. I have included the costs to the client minus the cost to the company. My company expenses are low as a sole entity, and I include a percentage of these into cost analysis based on the time it would take to execute the project to determine the overall profit.
The Source Dried Fruit project execution would take roughly two months to complete with large profit margins. I have relationships with certain printers that would ensure a 5% return on any printing work completed should the client choose to use my chosen supplier. This would further increase my profits. The two month time allocation is over and above additional work already in the system.
Final Outcome
REFLECTION
As designers, we have the skills to create world-class, profitable brands for our clients, yet we do not do the same thing.
Much like UsTwo, we should be capitalising on our skills and partnering with entrepreneurs or suppliers to create brands in which we have equity gives us a passive income in future.
I have been in talks with the entrepreneurial Society of South Africa. They have given me a creative licence to conceptualise and execute strategic packaging designs for a category of my choosing. They will find an equal equity business partner to complete the business model. The partnership requires the talents of both entities.
With complete creative control of a project and not having to bend and concede to a client's wishes, I believe I could create awe-inspiring designs
Reference: Essentia Analytics. n.d. Investment and performance coaches | Essentia Analytics. [online] Available at: <https://www.essentia-analytics.com/good-investment-and-trading-coaches/> [Accessed 11 June 2021].
Reference: Appleton Creative. 2021. Freelancer, Studio or Agency? Find the Right Match for Your Business - Appleton Creative. [online] Available at: <https://www.appletoncreative.com/blog/finding-the-right-match-for-your-business-agency-studio-or-freelancer/> [Accessed 11 June 2021].
Reference: Manchipp, S. Boris, S. House, J. Tabolt, A. Winston, S. Lecture, Module GDE730, Part 1 Practitioner case studies, [Accessed 2 June 2021].
Reference: O'Reilly, L., 2021. WPP Consolidates Five Branding Agencies Into 'Superunion'. [online] WSJ. Available at: <https://www.wsj.com/articles/wpp-consolidates-five-branding-agencies-into-superunion-1516707001> [Accessed 11 June 2021].
Reference: En.wikipedia.org. n.d. Design studio - Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_studio> [Accessed 11 June 2021].
Reference: Theoinglis.co.uk. n.d. Theo Inglis. [online] Available at: <https://www.theoinglis.co.uk/About> [Accessed 11 June 2021].
Reference: Lovers. n.d. About – Lovers. [online] Available at: <https://lovers.co/about> [Accessed 11 June 2021].
Reference: En.wikipedia.org. n.d. Collective - Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective> [Accessed 11 June 2021].
Reference: Debitoor.com. n.d. Freelancer – What is a freelancer?. [online] Available at: <https://debitoor.com/dictionary/freelancer> [Accessed 11 June 2021].
Reference: User, S., n.d. Her strong visual approach is instantly recognisable and elevates every context in which it is placed. - Morag Myerscough. [online] Moragmyerscough.com. Available at: <https://www.moragmyerscough.com/about> [Accessed 11 June 2021].
Reference: 99designs. n.d. The 10 best freelance graphic designers for hire in 2021 - 99designs. [online] Available at: <https://99designs.com/blog/designers/best-graphic-designers/> [Accessed 11 June 2021].
Reference: Adventure, u., n.d. About — ustwo Adventure. [online] Adventure.ustwo.com. Available at: <https://adventure.ustwo.com/about> [Accessed 11 June 2021].
Image 1: n.d. Teho Inglis Studio. [image] Available at: <https://www.theoinglis.co.uk> [Accessed 13 June 2021].
Image 2: Culture Weston. n.d. Weston’s High Street Heritage Action Zone receives a Historic England grant. [online] Available at: <https://cultureweston.org.uk/journals/westons-high-street-heritage-action-zones-receives-a-historic-england-grant/> [Accessed 13 June 2021].
Image 3, 4: n.d. UsTwo Studio. [image] Available at: <https://za.pinterest.com/pin/493425702921698095/> [Accessed 13 June 2021].