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 [...]

How designers are disrupting - themselves After three years of working with more than 100 design studios I've developed an understanding of how designers grow their business through disruption. If you want to learn more about disrupting your business you can use the Design Business Model section of The Business of Design. The Designing Demand [...]

What to look for in a partner. Running any business solo is tough. Running a design business solo has to be one of the toughest. It requires two distinct parts of the brain: a business brain and a creative brain shoved into the one head. While that’s far from impossible, it’s difficult to have both [...]

Design Business Council - the year in review 2016 is the 11th year of operation for the DBC. Founded in 2005 it aimed to; 1. Raise the professional practice of designers by assisting studios by developing business skills. 2. Generate more use of design by all Australian companies through direct promotion of design value case [...]

What is your onlyness? The term onlyness was invented by Nilofer Merchant, an author, and leading authority on creating business strategy to achieve success. Nilofer has honed her unique, collaborative approach to solving tough problems while working with and for companies including Adobe, Apple, Nokia, and HP. This is how she described coming up with [...]