It was indeed conceived while in our final year of studies and then officially opened a few months after we graduated. We did all have studio experience of sorts throughout our university years. I’d spent 4 days a week for a year at a studio through the university industry placement program, so I’d had a taste for how a small business runs. But from memory we navigated the challenges with great naivety. Because we were all so young and without great responsibility in life, we probably approached it with a little bit of reckless abandon. There wasn’t really a plan for it to work and if it failed there was nothing riding on it.

I feel for creatives starting businesses when they have a family and a mortgage to balance as there’s a lot of pressure to get it right. For us it was able to evolve slowly and naturally. Even after running a studio for so long, I still wonder how others are doing it, and if we’re getting it right, but from the discussions I’ve had with my peers – everyone is just doing their best and making it up as they go along. You can never afford to stop learning from others. It’s important to regularly step back, sense check how you’re navigating everyday challenges and how you can improve individually and as a collective.

It will never really stop evolving, but the longer you do it, the sharper you get. We have a lot more confidence in our process and our approach to projects than we previously had. We know how to manage clients, projects, timelines and budgets with more clarity and gusto now. We are better at identifying where to allocate our time and where not to. We can pick red flags more effectively, although there is still the odd one that catches us by surprise. Our service offering has grown greatly now, we are much more rounded rather than just the graphic designers we started out as.

We are strategists, writers, producers, directors as well as designers. You could say we’re more of a well-oiled machine these days, which makes me want to dismantle it and start again, because there’s so much joy in something new.

I can’t say I am overly structured with my time, but the day is made up of far more juggling than I’d like. We’re often working on several projects at a time; running a small studio you’re forever wearing many hats. Most days involve some form of client liaison, lots of internal studio contact and collaboration, and then a fair portion of design. I regularly try to put time away each day to see what’s happening in the design world. This might be looking at industry benchmark work, new technologies, or simply reflecting on our own processes to see how we can improve.

There’s also the odd table tennis game to break up the day. I read something about people playing racquet sports keeping their cognitive functions a lot longer – well at least that’s my excuse. We also have several Europe-based clients, which means meetings often occur at the end of the day, regularly after work hours. Oh, and lots of coffee is consumed. Filter. Long black. Espresso. Cold brew.

Throughout my design career my external influences have always changed, which I think is healthy and as the demands of the world change, where you draw from changes too. But the one inspiration that has never changed is my dad. He’s an industrial designer and has been my design hero for as long as I can remember. As kids, my brother and I used to go into his studio, pretend we were designers, play with the equipment, draw, design and be creative.

Growing up surrounded by innovation, creativity and ideas has without doubt been the cornerstone for my creative life. He’s been a business owner himself for his entire working life, so he really paved the way and gave me confidence that I could do it too. As well as being a sounding board for me, his work ethic and ambition to improve the world through design has been profoundly impactful.

I’m hugely inspired by language and words. I am forever in awe of the lyrical genius of Paul Dempsey, the profound poetry of Mary Oliver and the striking typographic work of Jenny Holzer. They say, “a picture is worth a thousand words”, but to me sometimes just a few words is worth a thousand pictures. Language has become such an important part of design and marketing in recent years. Designers need to be able to write, or at least understand and use language to their advantage.

Another thing that inspires me out of design is food and drinks. Through the lockdown times in Melbourne I used the kitchen to escape from the world. It became a space for me to explore creativity beyond design, learn a new skillset, follow processes, get lost in flow and experience the joy of high-quality food and drinks. Albeit a few too many lockdown cocktails, which I named ‘locktails’.

Cooking is a process not too dissimilar to design; the result is what you get judged on, but the process is the bit you must thrive in to get the best result. Shakespeare said “things won are done; joys soul lies in the doing”.

Every project comes with inherent challenges. My favourite place to exist is being completely out of my creative depth. This is the place where all of creativity exists, on the edge of possibility and uncertainty. These projects are a challenge but they’re an absolute pleasure. I would say that the most challenging projects are the ones where you’re not working on the edge of your abilities, the somewhat easy projects, these become a mental challenge to navigate through monotony. Nobody talks about dull jobs, they’re important to any business, but at times they can really drain your enthusiasm and drive.

As a result of that, the most challenging projects are honestly the ones that are not challenging at all.

Instagram
Motherbird Website
Motherbird Instagram
Word—Form