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 [...]

Interns, grads, why it’s harder now than then, and a freebie. In the next month or so, in Australia, there will be approximately 2000 graphic designers graduating into around 100 jobs. You don’t need to be good at math to know that’s not going to work. But before you despair, realise that some graduates will [...]

Working from London Just returned from our annual pilgrimage where we pack up our studio and work somewhere else in the world. This year it was London to continue my research into how designers view professional development. I’ve been talking professional development with Australian designers for the past couple of months as part of the [...]