Big anniversaries often prompt a bit of reflective thinking. Much to my happiness I've just hit a decade of self employment, 10 years since I started The Usual Studio. Here's my honest take on what I've learnt so far...
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Business
Highlights of The Usual Studio’s best bits from last year, reflecting on the rest and revealing two new things that are about to be launched.
Returning to tried and tested ideas is the easy option when you're feeling tired, time’s a ticking or the deadline is looooming. But what if you took a giant step back and thought of another way of doing things. Perhaps you recognise there is a need for reinvention, you’ve started questioning the old ways of doing things, imagining new ones and you need a plan to get others on board.
After exploring the topic of whether designers should be friends with clients, or just friendly recently, it’s a good place to lead from and discuss how to choose a designer to work with.
You’ve identified a business need for a designer - perhaps to create a brand identity, re-brand an existing one, launch a brand magazine or design a website - but how do you go about finding the right person to fulfil that need?
After almost a decade working from a home office and loving doing so, I’ve decided to switch things around and move into something more akin to a co-working space for part of the week. You might be thinking well that sounds very ‘on-trend’ but here are the real motivations behind the change:
I went laptop shopping a few days ago. This is not something I do often so quite frankly I was a bit excited and clearly an interested potential purchaser when I headed into my local independent Mac shop. Entering the empty shop (bar 3 staff), we headed purposefully for the 2 models I was interested in.
Make them fizz! No, I’m not advocating cracking open the bubbly for every Tuesday morning meeting. I’m talking about the feeling that’s created in the room, the simple pleasure of meeting face to face, leaving with a smile on your face and a brain sparking with new ideas.