Running a design agency isn’t something art school teaches. It teaches design, but getting your own practice up and running is so much more than that. In this series of blogposts we at Bureau Grotesk will give you some insights in the daily practice of running an art driven business.
After seven years of reinventing the wheel, our methods might not be perfect yet, but we sure know what not to do. Be smart, learn from our mistakes, so you can spent your time making different ones.
Running a design agency always starts with the drive to design. You want to work on cool projects, and do it all your own way. The business side of things seems just a necessary evil to get where you want to go. At art school the product of graphic design is taught. As soon as you start your company, it becomes a service.
Bureau Grotesk is a branding and design agency on a mission to connect culture with society. Suzanne and Thomas both studied at the Willem de Kooning Academy and set up shop right after.
Now all of a sudden there’s more to the design process than instagram, illustrator and your Posca markers.
For one you need to have clients. Clients with actual work. Jobs that pay for your business and living. Clients that trust your opinions and skills. Clients that are happy. So happy that they’ll bring in new clients.
And through all of this, your designs a.k.a. your product should be leading. Cause that’s what got you here in the first place, the urge to make kick ass designs.
We’ve been through all of that. In these blogposts we will share the most valuable lessons.
- How to fuckup presentations.
- How to work without getting paid.
- Why you should never be too comfortable if you want to make good work.
When we started out we had no clue. We weren’t prepared for any of it. So we got to figure everything out for ourselves. We wish we had someone teaching us about their mistakes. Now we get to be that someone.
Since the purpose of all of this is to help and support your journey, we’d like to know what you’re struggling with. What you always wanted to know or what you never dared to ask. So reach out and we’ll tell you how not to do it.
Fail better,
Thomas van Asselt,
Bureau Grotesk
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