Research: What does it take to develop and maintain a design firm?

Giulia here again. So whilst researching the business aspect of this collaborative design effort, I found this great article from STEP magazine.

It has some helpful and nicely designed diagrams that are worth sharing, too:

The main takeaway seems to be that designers need to run their businesses like just that—businesses. While being talented and skillful are absolutely essential, nothing is more important to a designer/business person than good people skills, financial knowhow, and time and project management. As the above diagram shows, being successful ultimately depends on a combination of things, including strong internal leadership and the ability to grow and keep growing. "Competence, credibility, commitment" is a fantastic model to work by. The article also points out the way priorities often change once a startup firm goes big:


It's interesting how having a strong vision is a top priority no matter what a firm's position in the industry. Even more interesting, many of the designers interviewed in the article said that most of their time was spent dealing with business issues, not design. Some firms even hire people specifically to handle to handle business matters and management. (This was the case where I interned last semester.) A bit upsetting for the creative soul in all of us, but such is the cost of doing business, I suppose.