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 [...]

A scholarship for female startups Design is a great career for both sexes. Working in design makes it possible to combine any mixture of doing, producing and managing. Strange thing is, research continually shows that women are more likely to be doing and men seem to be managing. We want to help change that… Our [...]

Working in design plays with your head ... Two things happened last week worth sharing. The first was part of our regularly 'design yak' - a breakfast meeting of like-minded designers. During the discussion (we have a topic each month) a designer shared her frustration at losing a project on price. Yep, happens all the [...]

Read your website and socials through the lens of a client who is researching, looking for a new design partner. It’s astounding how similar everyone sounds.

Photo by Jordon Opel on Unsplash Hunters and farmers I’ve always found it incongruous studios need to ramp-up new business activities when we are busiest. Seems bonkers, but research proves it time and again. Sustainable businesses need constant client renewal. One would think, with all that research, someone must have found some kind of formula [...]

Photo by Tim Gouw on Unsplash Persuading others (to do what you want). In a world of co-creating and collaborating, the ability to persuade others to your view point is a really valuable skill. Would you be surprised if I told you that forcefully arguing your point of view is the least effective way of [...]

Photo by Adam Birkett on Unsplash Too black for Snapchat. It’s easy to think that bias is embedded in ‘others’ – people like Donald Trump, Pauline Hanson and Today Tonight producers. Truth is we all have unconscious bias and we all unknowingly embed our bias into design. Think you don’t? That could be worse – [...]

Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash Design is not a cure for cancer. They were the final words Ken Cato’s wife said as she slammed the door behind her and left the building.* Harsh but true. Design is not a cure for cancer. An early boss had a very similar message during my very first role [...]

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 [...]