First Six Months
14.06.15
BrandCraft is six months old. Currently working remotely whilst visiting friends and family in the UK, I take a few moments to reflect on the first months after founding my studio.
Our first six months have been manic. We have started our first long-term projects with two global companies and have finished new brands for a variety of great clients in HK, London and Japan. With the help of three great team members, Joel, Peony and Marine we have produced some projects that I am really happy with. Whilst the long hours continue, we are settling into a rhythm, and hoping to start a couple of studio projects within the next six months. We also moved into the delightful ‘blueprint’ co-working space and have met not only friends, but collaborators and have started networking with creative communities in HK. The shared studio has been absolutely formative for broodio.
Travel has become a necessary part of our work, the flexibility that Skype and cloud file sharing allows, permits me to work with the HK-based team from anywhere. This business model, being based in HK and with flexible enough schedules that can be maintained from anywhere, has meant it possible over the past six months to have met with clients in Tokyo, Taiwan, Macao and also to spend the odd period of time working remotely from Phuket, Seoul, Chang Mai, London, Italy and Shanghai. Currently in the UK, attending weddings (!) and catching up with family, has also allowed me to visit a couple of current and past clients in London and Brighton, which has been fantastic.
The constant inspiration that comes with travel has spawned ideas for some studio projects, one already complete with our friend and collaborator Gregor Wilson and a few more in the pipes for later in the year.
Broodio was born six months ago as my freelance projects started to get bigger in scale and we are now a small team of three creatives. Our target is not world domination (!); it is simply to do meaningful and great work that makes positive, lasting impact. I want to continue to make work that lasts, is not built on fashion or trend but has relevance both today and tomorrow.
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Our half-year manifesto
I thought it would be useful to summarise our first six months as broodio with a kind of work-in-progress manifesto. Here goes;
i/ Culturally humbled and nuanced, never crass or crude, we aim to be considered and balanced.
ii/ Always learning, always migrating, fermenting and developing we must be forever evolving.
iii/ Minimalism lies in the balance between necessity and purity that is only found, through the constant focussing and re-focussing of our obsessively hypercritical eyes.
iv/ Beauty is not simply symmetry. Subtle, critical imperfections teach us that beauty requires character.
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Final word
Our website journal will not be used to tell you of our newest projects, but rather to tell our honest thoughts of the successes and struggles of starting our design studio. It will not be copy-written, so do please excuse the odd grammar mistake!
Until next time, Adam.
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About the author, Adam
Adam is the design director of BrandCraft. BrandCraft is a branding and design consultancy based in Hong Kong. We specialise in branding, visual identity, corporate identity and rebranding.
Adam is a branding consultant and has worked with clients in the UK, USA, Hong Kong, Tokyo, South Korea and China. He has had self-initiated art and design projects exhibited at various galleries and museums including the Victoria & Albert Museum of Art and Design and regularly writes about branding and design theory.
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