Writing about the business of design

Welcome to a library of articles about the business of design.

You'll find articles about current research, our experience founding and managing a design studio and about insights uncovered during mentoring sessions with Australian designers.

The articles are released weekly via a news-packed EDM. Subscribe via the homepage

Your design has impact. But…

Every design project creates impact, whether the designer or client chooses to recognise it or not. The challenge is to understand what that impact might be.

Got 60 minutes?

Don’t wait for a ‘planning’ or ‘strategy’ day to do some analysis. Snatch 60 minutes and tackle on of these tasks… you’ll be amazed what you can achieve.

Marketing has a measurement problem. Designers are paying the price

New research confirms what many designers know: the old ways of working aren\’t cutting it anymore. Let\’s look at what\’s changing and what successful studios are doing about it.

What if design has become a luxury?

You know the thing most client’s are worried about when commissioning design? That the result will flop and they’ll be embarrassed in front of their colleagues because they backed a loser.

Profiting from change in the design industry

While others dwell on the changes disrupting the design industry, you focus on the things you can change. Introduce a toolkit that helps manage costing, pricing and profit.

Why we’re selling risk management not design

You know the thing most client’s are worried about when commissioning design? That the result will flop and they’ll be embarrassed in front of their colleagues because they backed a loser.

Marketing, AI and designers

Gartner’s latest research found that 65% of CMOs believe AI will fundamentally change their role. Yet only 32% believe they need significantly different skills.

Nobody wants to meet anymore – is that a problem?

It’s happening everywhere – clients are refusing to meet, they’re requesting designers ‘just send a PDF’. That may be a problem for some, but not everyone.

Will AI commoditise your business?

When we ask creative agency owners how things are going we often hear the same answer.
“We’re busy, not profitable enough and feeling burnt out”

5 tasks worth 30 minutes of your time

Creative business owners often delay working on their business because of lack of time. Good news is, with a focused mind and a clear goal you can get heaps done in 30 mins.

Busy? Profitable? Burnt out?

When we ask creative agency owners how things are going we often hear the same answer.
“We’re busy, not profitable enough and feeling burnt out”

The social cost nobody talks about

There’s a silent change that has crept up on the creative industry. It’s not about tech, nor is it about $. It’s not even about clients. It’s about isolation.

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