Every Wednesday we're bringing you a little dose of amazing things we have seen, written, or are building at a small studio. Each share from us will leave you understanding more about what it means to do work driven by identity and impact.
How we served the world the sporting life partner for people of colour.
Weusi is the sporting life-partner for people of color; The only one leveraging sport as a cultural currency for promoting an informed lifestyle of adventure for the BIPOC community. Here's how we crafted Weusi's identity.
As we ticked and tocked into this new year with great expectations, with you by our side, we are confident that we are set to serve many memorable thrills. So, let's start by sharing our theme for the year with you: "To the Clouds." A promise that makes the world our creative playground.
Facilitating collaboration between brands and creators.
Designing at the intersection of product and brand by building systems and experiences that are rooted in transparency for creators and brands who crave collaboration.
How can we encourage this taking action more, especially as our mighty little studio grows? A big way is to celebrate the person who took action. Celebrate their inner-child. When we celebrate, we reflect on what went well and give gratitude. It motivates us, and rubs off onto others. It’s contagious.
We’re hiring two impact-driven creatives for our 10-week summer internship program! You’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like to work at a small studio, from Identity Architecture and Studio Operations, to Branding and Product Design.
a small studio is looking for some great new additions to our team this winter and we’ve just posted two new opportunities! Are you a copywriting wizard, or a junior product designer with some serious UX design chops? We want to meet you!Check out our latest job postings linked below to see if you might be a good fit.
An ever growing discovery engine to hold all the incredible creations we come across as a virtual studio.
What could easily be seen as a distraction, we like to see as inspiration. So we took a whole week to let our squirrel flag fly and the result was SQURL; an ever growing discovery engine to hold all the incredible things we come across as a virtual studio, for anyone to browse.
a small studio’s first retreat! Together we reflected on what it means to bring peace.
This retreat is where the whole studio meets up, hangs out, talks shop, and most importantly, connects. As we are a remote studio - meaning everyone lives and works in a different city - this retreat was crucial, as most of us had never met in person!
What are the key building blocks of a small studio?
At a small studio, we utilize several essential departments and processes to help with the everyday ebb and flow of our work. We rely on these building blocks to deliver on our clients' vision and build lasting relationships. These areas all work together and support each other so that we’re able to bring peace to our clients and creatives.
A first-of-its-kind movie experience that brings you closer to the creators than ever before.
Creator+ is partnering with diverse, digital-native storytellers to disrupt the status quo of film production. It’s not just movie stars with thousands of fans anymore; content creators are gaining millions of followers who want more than just a peak into their lives. Followers want to feel connected to their favorite creators. Creator+ gives content creators the opportunity to bring their artistic vision to life, while granting fans access to exclusive content and the chance to connect on a deeper level.
Meet the four-legged members of the Pet Department!
A perk of being a fully remote studio is that we get to spend more time with our furry coworkers! Whether it's napping in the cutest position possible, or asking for attention in the middle of a Zoom meeting, they always know how to brighten our days. Our Pet Department has its own Slack channel (for very important business conversations), but we wanted to share their cuteness for the rest of the world to enjoy.
An ecosystem of online tools designed to amplify the process of discovery.
Consulting is no walk in the park. Meeting clients, hosting presentations, conducting surveys, preparing reports, and being looked on to solve big organizational problems is stressful and time-consuming.
Making data centers more accessible and actionable for remote managers and digital natives.
Let’s face it, data centers are complicated. They’re massive buildings full of biometric security, cabinets stuffed with servers, and an endless map of wires & cables, all of which requires triple-backed up power grids and up-to-the-minute temperature control. (exhale)
We’ve been operating as a Remote studio since 2020 and this is what we've found works.
We’ve been operating as a remote studio since 2020. When everyone went home to work at the beginning of COVID, it just kind of worked, so we stuck with it. We’ve learned a lot along the way and we’ve made countless changes to the way we work.
We used to have a lot of meetings. I think it may have been the growing pains of moving to a remote studio and the pressure of trying to maintain a collaborative and social atmosphere while virtual.
In fact, our Notion was like a process inception that explained everything we do, everything we want to do and every blue sky thought we ever had about what we want to do that it was both inspiring and demoralizing.
When I first came to a small studio, it felt like I was learning to speak a new language.
Suddenly, I was being invited to “jam” sessions. I was double clicking on things other people were saying, and calling out squirrel when tangents went astray. Gradually, each new word and phrase worked its way into my vocabulary.
Late last year we hired for an entirely new type of role. Our somewhat separate service offerings had grown into a more holistic framework (Identity-Driven Design) and we had finally figured out what we needed to bring it all into place.
Enter Sarah!! We began hiring for a Visual Designer and got an encouraging amount of interest. We narrowed it down to about 30 candidates and from that list of 30, there was already a whisper of this “Sarah” making it around the studio - as we went through our hiring process the top 4 candidates rose to the top; all incredible. No surprise, Sarah was amongst them.
Sarah was the first interview and she set the standard. She wowed us with her passion and sense of self, floored us with her charrette assignment, and impressed us with her candid openness about dreams beyond a small studio.
In the short (although not really that short anymore?) time she’s been with us she’s changed the studio for the better and has exposed us to a whole new world of experimenting and expressing through design. She’s just a full-on advocate for loving stuff and we are so happy her path crossed with a small studio!
We’re a collection of creatives using our gifts to bring peace to people’s lives.
We’re a collection of creatives using our gifts to bring peace to people’s lives. Since a small studio’s first days in 2017, this has been the unchanging piece in our approach to design and relationships.What started as a branding studio in Seattle, in a physical space no less, with founders Troy and John, has turned into an identity-driven product & visual identity design studio that has embraced the virtual world and all its perks - hello world!
When we decide to take on a new projects, we’re always looking for something different to past projects or something that will challenge us in new ways. Operating at capacity, we can only have 4 projects on the go, so it’s a big decision for us! The relationship we have with a partnering team and the designing we get to do has a huge influence on each and every member of our team.