[…] Always that notion of the staircase. And your base has to be solid; you have to add people who fit into the hive that has been built around me. We have brought in interns. These interns often become freelancers for us, and we usually recruit from that pool. So we started with three… Or two people. Those two people, we had a very intimate, very exclusive relationship because we shared an office. We figured we’d start our super simple, and we would tell each other if we were going to add someone because that energy shouldn’t be wasted. That’s why we started with the internship, with freelancers. Once we have the person pegged, we take them in. That’s for the human side. […]

[…] We have to eat. So we have to stop with the delusions. I hate studios that say “Oh no, no, we’re going to do the best door handle in the world; otherwise, we won’t work.” But who’s going to pay your rent? My parents wouldn’t give me money for my rent. And my collection, I was the one who paid for it. I mean, everything you see today is self-financed. There’s no money from mum and dad. But how? Because we work, we have like 20 architecture projects throughout the year. And you don’t know that. […]

[…] what we need more now—because now there are 12 of us—is to have more structure. And it’s something that we are trying to build with this very horizontal approach. We don’t have specific roles in the studio. […]

[…] We were trying recently with a person who was supposed to work more the way I had, both for administrative matters and projects. But then we realised that the best solution for us might be to have a PA and to empower some of the people working in the studio to create teams without fixed roles or hierarchy and also to have a point person for each project. We are working on this collectively to try to determine how to set our practice up in a way that avoids it becoming hierarchical. […]

[…] (The ideal size of a studio is) a group of people that you can feed with two family pizzas. […]

[…] I designed HORT based on my own experience, and I want to have a very flat organization. I want to discuss things on a flat hierarchy, to listen to people. I wanted to create a space where it is possible, first for me and also for the others. But it wasn’t a strategy, it was based on negative experience. […]

[…] Maybe I was among the first ones doing it, maybe I became a reference, showing that it is possible, developing this kind of working environment where we are celebrating people, celebrating personalities, supporting them, their potential, working with them on projects. And the output is also interesting. […]

[…] “Could we have this for tomorrow?” And no, it’s not possible, and it’s not healthy to accept that sort of thing. I know there are a lot of people who accept these last-minute jobs because they need to work, because it’s a good opportunity, because they need visibility, but I find it toxic to perpetuate these kinds of practices. It’s toxic for our community, especially since we already have a hard time gaining respect in terms of wages and working conditions. More respect would also benefit the clients. Taking one’s time to do things well, to reflect, not to go crazy doing something that is going to disappear in six months. No one will see it again. It’s on Instagram, and it won’t leave Instagram. […]

[…] SE
Our whole business runs on Notion. It’s a CRM app where you can write and create databases and relational structures. You can link things together. It’s probably the best tool I’ve ever worked with. You can hook it up and send emails. Things like that. […]

[…] AR
We spoke about hiring another small team within international magic, so yeah. I think around about 8 to 12 is a good number. Otherwise, it becomes unmanageable and you spend a lot of time managing people […]

[…] You can’t run a successful office just by being a great designer. I came to realise that creativity versus management is a false dichotomy. I’ve seen inside the studios of established artists and the idea that art is some kind of free zone is a big illusion. Many artists are actually really, really great managers and know how to surround themselves with great people. Yet art school is probably the worst place to learn any of this. Why is it a taboo? […]

[…] Last year, we created a new role to lead our design and business operations. That has freed up a lot of my time to work with designers on proposals. Most of my time is spent on developing ideas with the team, writing proposals, working with clients to develop briefs and generally keeping a hand on the wheel. […]

[…] I work a lot with freelancers for animation projects, short films, and technical things. There are a lot of freelancers who specialize in certain areas, but I oversee all of it as well. At the end of the day, it’s a very small studio. We grew by doing small projects and it’s not hard to manage because the teams are small. I’ve never had a team of 10 people working at the same time on the same project. […]

[…] I know I’m good at certain things and suck at others. When you start out at school you get the impression that you’re going to have to know everything. But it’s not true: you don’t do everything well. There was also the idea that once you get out of school you’re a graphic designer, you can create models, etc. The profession has evolved a whole lot, and so have we. Now we do more art direction than graphic design. I like to do art direction and hire a good team of designers. […]

[…] Creativity is not about age hierarchy, it’s not because you are an elder designer that you have better ideas, and with the classic vertical hierarchy it’s not easy to communicate. The horizontal one makes it easier, more efficient, that’s probably why creative occupations function more like that. […]

[…] FH
Another big learning curve was realizing the difference between time-based and sales-based rewards. That was when we started to meet with Michael and figured that there is no space for “yours” or “mine” within Dinamo, and that everything just is “us”.
 […]

[…] JB
You could call that a strategy maybe? It is a great filter to decide: if it isn’t equally interesting for everybody involved, it’s probably better we don’t do it. The same way we don’t differentiate between tasks or projects anymore, but just take everything equally seriously. […]

[…] The seeds are always planted in advance, by thinking out how a project is going to unfold while taking the time to explain instead of just jumping right in and briefing everyone in haste. […]

[…] You’ve got to learn to bounce from one thing to the next, trust the people you work with, and nurture the relationship. And mainly keep an eye on their work and get updates without putting too much pressure on them. […]

[…] DL
we believe that you can only create things when you feel safe, not afraid to get judged on the mistakes you make. So we give people a lot of freedom. There’s not so much control. There is the freedom to shape your own part. Often you see that the way people evolve also defines the way the studio’s direction evolves. […]

[…] DL
How to work with staff, where do you project your reality and your fear on someone and where does the other person start. How can you create space for the other to feel safe in a studio like ours – but I guess there are moments of tension between people everywhere. And I want to try to have a culture where irritation, fear or whatever is blocking us, can be discussed and resolved, and so build trust and grow together. […]

[…] JE
What has been the success of our work is that we build the right teams around projects, we find the right people to bring on board. We have a group of people we love working with, so it creates a nice rhythm to the projects. We all know each other, strengths and weaknesses, and how to bounce them out. […]

[…] JF
You never really know someone until you work with them. […]

[…] The body of the work is the sum of a group of around 20 people, a lot of whom have been with me for more than 20 years. They’re not necessarily minimalists. They all have their own strong aesthetic, but for the time they’re with me, they try and fit in with the rules. I’d always rather have a good architect than a minimal architect. […]

[…] I’ve made a point of making sure that the salaries are significantly higher than in other offices in London. It’s what I would call a shutout call. I don’t ever want someone coming and saying: “Can I have a word with you? I think I should get a bit more”. […]

[…] It’s possible for me to communicate in the office, considering everybody equal, as long as I’m describing myself and acting as a graphic designer.
 It doesn’t give the whole picture though, everyone knows that it’s my studio here anyway. I have to buy the toilet paper, and the coffee, and that stuff, but just like in communications: it’s good to have no hierarchy. […]

[…] Everyone is working as a fixed employee and has a fixed contract, with social payments, and some of the health payments coming from the office. It’s important that everybody has a good and clear, clean feeling about their job at the studio. Since the beginning of Covid, we’ve never sent anybody home. I mean to work from home yes, but no temporary unemployment, no shorter working times, and lower wages. We never did this and we’re not going to do that. This is very important to us, because people working here feel secure. […]

[…] Whatever works best for the project. I’m more there as a creative director to guide, to help designers to push their ideas further. I always say I know where we have to go, but I don’t know the road to get there. We need to leave it open to get to an answer, then you will be surprised. If you give strict design directions, you also limit the results.
It’s more coaching, guiding, and directing – not in a dictator’s way … Unless we get to five minutes before the deadline! (laugh) […]

[…] when you are 6 years old, you don’t make a statement like: “Oh yes I’d like to be a manager!” (laugh). I learnt it on the way, I’m learning it … I’m still learning. […]

[…] The weekly review. I know this might not be a big fan favourite but up until now I think the team has appreciated communicating and having supplemental interaction on the work we’re doing. It’s crucial in terms of coordination. […]

[…] How to Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul by Adrian Shaughnessy is one of the only ones I read all the way through, about fifteen years ago. It was educational; not foundational but educational. […]

[…] Twelve years ago I had a discussion with an old pro, someone who had been in the business forever, and he said: “In my career I’m most proud of the fact that I always maintained a good relationship with my employees.” I often think of that, and my inability to say the same rankles me. On the other hand, I have often over the years been critical of that utterance, because I feel it’s unrealistic. […]

[…] I also have a responsibility toward the team and its development, toward each member’s personal growth, their career. I don’t see myself stagnating in the ten years to come. […]

[…] That’s also the reason our office doesn’t really work with freelancers: we have an ideology; we like to develop a language that is our own… it’s not for the world. It’s for people who work here. It’s not like we have a freelancer and I tell him ‘hey dude, we should do this, this and this’ and then we don’t do the idea and then he goes to his next client and regurgitate my idea. That’s why we don’t work with freelancers. […]

[…] But since it’s impossible to do everything, I need people I can trust. I made sure to have people around me who are competent in fields that I am not competent in. […]