Design index

A strategy that turned a loss into a profit I had the best week in Perth. One of my meetings was with a designer I have been mentoring for the past 12 months. Over a coffee, Frankie explained how this year’s financial figures proved she has successfully transformed a loss-making part of her business into [...]

Learning about design from a designer in Portugal. Some people aren’t just good at designing, they’re good at communicating. And not just good at using design to communicate. They’re good at explaining what the practice of design is. I don’t think it’s about having the ability to draw and to write. It’s being able to [...]

Photo by Radovan on Unsplash Bored, disengaged designers. Sometimes managing a studio is a little like being the entertainment director of the P+O Cruise ship 'Designer'. It often falls on the studio manager to keep designers engaged, motivated and focussed. And that's no mean feat, especially (as a business owner) having a stable of loyal, [...]

Why does your design business exist? Is it to make money? To work with good clients who appreciate design? To deliver your desired lifestyle? To be seen as a leader in the industry? In working with many design business owners I hear all sorts of answers. The business owners who can answer this question quickly [...]

Photography by Image Workshop You can't charge for a plan, but you can charge for a strategy. Here I am, just twelve weeks into my ‘new career’ of design researcher (rather than design practitioner), and one topic of confusion seems to be following me: the difference between a strategy and a plan. It was a [...]

The design business leadership gap The Australian design scene has matured rapidly in the last five years. We are seeing design agencies become a central part of start ups, buy-outs by large corporates and amalgamations but we have a design business leadership gap. In our work we've come to realise professional development has not kept [...]

Staying relevant: designers need business skills Clients expect that you’ll deliver all the elements of the designer’s craft; brand consistency, slick on-brief design, coding, style guides, prototyping, testing  etc. If that’s all you offer you have about 12,000 competitors in Australia. Gaining business skills could reduce this to about 500 competitors. These skills can move [...]

I know what clients really want... Many clients brief designers having already decided what the problem is and the type of work that needs to be done to solve it. They come to the designer because they think they need a website or an app or a small campaign. Here-in lies the problem. Most clients [...]

Inspiration from working in London It’s interesting how a range of things can come together to develop some very interesting outcomes. On our recent trip to London we had visited the Design Museum and were blown away by the practical examples of design thinking in the Cartier exhibition. The following day we were still talking [...]

Working from London - respect for design I've long recognised that design and designers get much more respect in the UK. I think there are many factors that have led to this. For me the demonstration of this was during a recent workshop with a Melbourne based branch of a UK design agency. The CD [...]

The stuff you learn while you are learning stuff. This year I started a Strategy Masterclass to hone my skills. It’s great – I’m really enjoying it, but it’s not just the direct learning that I’m enjoying. I’m really enjoying the stuff that I’m learning while I’m learning stuff. Let me explain. Years ago I [...]

I thank you. Working with great clients on interesting projects is the best feeling in the world. I love building a relationship, working together to achieve a common goal and then celebrating the rollout. But after that last deliverable is, well, delivered, the last communication between a designer and a client is usually the account: [...]