Creative, technical, business
These are the skills we need to operate our studios. We differ from other businesses because of our primary skill; creativity. The other two skills are there because we need technology to execute our creativity and we need business skills to make a living and to help us manage the creative/technical process.
The skills gap
We all gained a solid understanding of the creative process in our tertiary training. Over and above that 'understanding' we develop our innate creative skills through constant practice, research and observation.
Out technical skills are based on our tertiary education but largely developed through trial and error, the occasional short course, Adobe conferences, web research and by talking to colleagues.
Our business skills come from observing our previous employers and their practice, by consulting with accountants and through research and reading. If you were in the UK or US you could gain a diploma or degree in Design Management that would help you run your business better. Not so in Australia unfortunately.
It seems to me that we need a set of basic business skills.
We need to find the type of clients that we think fit best with our creative and technical skills. We need to get out there and design demand for our studio; to market our services in a unique way.
We then need to know how to show clients that design has value; establish the case for design.
Then we need to get a solid brief that we can respond to and clarify the direction that the client is heading.
And we need to match the brief with an estimate that values your creative and technical skills as well as making a profit for the studio.
Then we need skills to manage creative staff. An area that we have definitely not been trained in.
If you need any indication of how good business practice can improve and grow a design studio take a look at some of Australia's largest studios.
Cato Purnell Partners is a classic example where Ken Cato has always had a business partner to handle the commercial side of the studio.
As small operators we need to develop these business skills or get a business partner who has that skill. In the US and the UK these types of skills are developed in tertiary courses. Take a look at the UK Design Business Association and its
program of short courses. In the USA there are two outstanding examples. The California College of the Arts has an excellent graduate program in
design strategy. The Pratt Institute has a high powered
Masters program in New York that boasts some of the USA's largest corporates in its alumni.
The closest we come to this is the
Masters of Design at RMIT.
Are we ready for formal courses in design management? Would designers and design managers pay for a graduate diploma or degree in design management?
I would like to hear your views.
Email me and let me know.
Greg Branson