Studio Brief One - Forth+Back QnA Responses

This is the full QnA response from Forth+Back studios Niko and Tanner:

Question 1: 

How do you find the industry’s stance as a whole on smaller scale, independent creatives or studios? Does the size of the studio ever affect the volume of work one receives? 

Working for small studios inspired us to start our own studio.  The model of the small studio is one that allows the directors to scale up or scale down depending on the workload. This flexibility is nice and allows us to take on larger projects as well as more idiosyncratic smaller ones. Often times big clients will rely on big agencies to handle big projects. Big big big! The only thing is that when clients work with these big agencies, communication can get lost, the cost can be through the roof, and the overall output of creative can be more about quantity and less about quality. If small studios can prove that they generate good content and can handle large assignments, then the sky is the limit. Generally, smaller studios are more affordable, communication is direct, and ideas are fresh and new.

Something good to know too, is that lots of times bigger agencies will win the bigger projects, but then go and hire out smaller studios to do the heavy creative lifting…

Question 2: 

Have you ever been in a position, whether it be as an emerging creative or even now, where you’ve had to really ‘sell yourself’ to get work? Or has your experiences been much simpler, or smoother?

The idea of “selling yourself” is a fascinating one. You could argue that you are always selling yourself, whether that be your website and your social outlets, or your physical space and your daily interactions. There are certainly moments where we’ll find ourselves sitting with a potential client, or come about an opportunity where we might have to “sell ourselves” in a more traditional sense. But when this happens, we try to sell less, and focus more on being genuine. Clients want to work with people who create good work, who are easy to work with, and who will lead them in the right direction. With this in mind, we always try to interact with our clients from a personal level and always discuss the project and task at hand with confidence. We’ve come to find, for us, the gaining of clients and projects is less about some big Mad Men pitch meeting, and more about relationships that are formed over extended periods of time.

At the end of the day we think focusing on the work you want to put out into the world and being a friendly understanding person, will always reflect positively. If it doesn’t, then those aren’t good relationships, working or other.

Question 3: 

Do you find yourselves seeing larger scale branding projects as any harder, or less interesting than smaller projects? Have you found in your experiences to have been given less creative freedom with a branding project or have you been given a large amount of creative freedom? 

It entirely depends on the client. The more cooks in the kitchen, the harder it is to execute your creative vision. It is one thing to please an individual. It is whole different beast when it comes to pleasing a room full of people, who all have equal say, and all have their own opinions. This tends to be the case with bigger projects. Sometimes miracles happen and the room full of people judging your work are all on the same page and agree on the feedback that is given. Most of the time this does not happen, and you have to adapt and do your very best to please the clients, while still keeping the creative integrity of the project. In general, we’ve seen bigger projects get watered down, because too many people are involved and everyone wants their opinion to be heard. 

With all that said, even though the bigger projects can be more taxing, they are also extremely rewarding when you make it to the end and you get to see the impact that your design has on the world. 

Question 4:

Is Finding inspiration in your surroundings for projects such as NousTous and incorporating deeper ideas that have a social impact as well as a visual impact something that you try to do with every project, especially branding work? 

When we take on a branding project, we always try to truly understand the client and what they do, what it is that makes them special, and how we can show this to the rest of the world. Each client is different, and by highlighting this, it allows each one of our projects to feel unique. The project with Nous Tous was an amazing opportunity because the Art Gallery was also a community gathering space and happened to be in the heart of China Town. This area is so rich with color and exploding with energy, it seemed only right to create an identity limited to black and white. The idea was to create a brand that wouldn’t compete with it’s surroundings, but compliment them. We wanted to allow the art, as well as the community be the primary focus. I think with each project we try to create an impact that is not only visual, but also social. However, you can never be certain as to how far the social impact will reach. Some projects end up reaching further than you ever thought possible. 

Question 5: 

Were the social ideas behind some of the NousTous elements something you originally set out to include? How difficult or easy was it to create an identity with an idea that it has a social impact?

It is always more challenging to create a design with social impact, but it is something we always strive for. It’s often difficult to gauge how much of a social impact each project will have. We consistently just work on creating content that we think is important, and hope the rest of our audience feels the same way.

Question 6:

In the UK, there’s a clear divide between northern (like myself in places like Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle etc) and southern (such has London) studios and creatives in terms of work volume, favouritism etc. There are both positives and negatives being a northern based creative. For example, a northern design studio typically has to work harder to gain a large client/commission and don’t always tend to get the same volume of work a southern studio does, due to location, connections etc. Though the back end of 2018 saw a huge surge of northern creatives which is great. I wanted to know is there a similar thing in the US? is there a divide between north and south, east and west creatives? 

Yes. We would say that traditionally, west LA is known to be where most of the big agencies reside, and where a lot of big business takes place. However, similar to what you have said, over the past couple years, it seems like east LA (where we are at) has been booming with cool smaller studios, generating really amazing work. EAST LA REPRESENT!!

Question 7:

Probably a question you get asked a lot. What advice would you give to up and coming creative’s about making a ‘name’ for themselves, how and where should someone start?

Start from wherever you can and start now. Surround yourself with people that inspire you and that you can learn from. Take on internships and don’t think that you’re too good for a simple assignment. But at the same time, don’t let someone make you feel like your opinion is worthless, just because you are new in the field. Work for people that will be hard on you, but also want you to grow and succeed. Always continue to make work and show it to the world. Don’t sit on personal projects for too long. Set a deadline for yourself, show it to the world, and move on to the next creative endeavor. Don’t worry about finding a style. Just solve the problem at hand. Ultimately, your projects will have a similar voice because they were made by you. The “style” will find itself. Stay positive. Do it because you love it.