Before my journey began I first wanted to do some research on the field of freelance design. I had freelanced part time for many months but now I was launching a design business, and I was ready to go at it with full force. This meant that this time around I needed some industry insight to help me succeed. I was looking for insight on everything that went into running a design business: client acquisition, team management, sales and marketing, outsourcing, etc. The best way to learn is by your own personal experiences, the second best way is through someone else's.
So I went about gathering research in the exact same way I do as a UX designer. I conducted:
• 3 interviews (casual get together) with successful design agency owners
• 30 online survey responses from freelance designers
Biggest Painpoints for freelance designers
• Client acquisition
• Client management
Key Takeaways from Survey
1. Acquiring clients, and then managing clients is by far the biggest challenge that agencies face.
2. The vast majority of client acquisition comes from word of mouth referrals.
3. For most agencies over 60% of their work is repeat clientele. This means that building client relationships and loyalty is extremely important, even more important than client acquisition.
4. Meet with clients in person for the first time, instead of over the phone or by email.
• Communication is much more effective in person — you get a real feel for the client and understand their needs much better
• Renders you and your business more credible
• Weeds out flaky, non-serious, and unprofessional clients — narrows down to only the serious, committed, and professional clients
• Better establishes relationship with client, which then leads to repeat business
5. Select a niche you want to target for your clientele as opposed to using the “everyone is my client” approach. This is a much more effective approach.
As mentioned in #5 above, when I started with Blue Wonder I knew I needed to have a niche selected. From advice I had been given by successful freelancers and agency owners, as well as through my own personal experience, I knew that the way to succeed in business is to really understand the painpoints of your client, so that you can then offer a solution. Money is then given as the byproduct of value added. If everyone is your client, how can you possibly get to know their painpoints or motivations. If you don’t understand someones painpoints, then you can’t provide a solution to their problem, and thats what business is all about.
The niche I selected was the mobile gaming industry. I knew it was a huge industry that was experiencing tremendous growth. The mobile gaming industry accounts for almost 50% of the global games market. It is valued at $134.9 billion dollars. I also knew there was opportunity for UX design in the mobile gaming industry. I did my research and I found that there were many painpoints in the mobile gaming industry that I, as a UX designer could help solve.
I am:
A Founder of a mobile game development studio under 25 employees.
I struggle with:
Launching profitable games
I want:
To launch successful games that make my studio profit
Therefore, I need:
A more robust user and market research analysis
Frustrations with Mobile Game Studios (ones that apply to UX):
• Feature Creep
• Choosing the right Monetization Model
• Targeting the Right Audience/Niche
• An Effective Marketing Campaign
• User Retention
If interested on reading my comprehensive breakdown of how I laid out how, from a UX background, I could help solve these frustrations you can read my analysis here:
Before I launched my business I put countless hours into perfecting the branding of Blue Wonder as I knew branding is imperative to a business’ success. It dictates how a consumer views your brand, what emotions are evoked inside them. This of course affects whether they choose to invest in your services or not.
Name & Logo
For the name of my business I chose “Blue Wonder”. I wanted:
• A name that evoked imagination, creativity, gentleness but also robustness, wonder, and trustworthiness. Thats how I landed on “Blue Wonder”. Studies show that the colour blue is the most universally accepted colour on earth. It is viewed as the least threatening, most calming and soothing colour. It also evokes a sense of imagination and wonder. Finally it evokes a sense of trustworthiness and confidence. The very word “Blue” makes us think of the colour itself, which in turn has an effect on us and evokes the feelings listed above. The word “Blue”, then paired with “Wonder”, created a certain synergy which evoked all the feelings I wanted my brand to represent.
• A name that was easy to say, that rolled of the tongue. I didn’t want something that would’ve been a tongue twister, or something that dragged on too long. I also didn’t want something so short that wouldn’t leave a lasting impression. Blue Wonder was the perfect length, with just the right amount of syllables, and was very smooth and easy to pronounce. It also had a slight elegant rhythm to it.
• I even liked the contrast between the softness of the letter “B” on Blue and the jaggedness and roughness of “W” on Wonder. The “B” has rounded sides that are soft, flowing and gentle. They work in tandem with the soft and flowing sides of the hot air balloon. This dichotomy of the lettering provides what I felt was a subtle yet effective visual contrast.
For the logo I chose a hot air balloon with bubbles emanating off of it, fading away into the distance. I wanted:
• A logo that would evoke imagination and wonder. People seem to always have had a fascination with hot air balloons. We all know what they are, yet how many of us have realistically seen them. Imagine your reaction if you did indeed see one. The feeling you would feel. They drift high up in the sky ever so elegantly, almost as if in total tranquility. They are also soft on the eyes. They are round with soft sides, nothing jagged or obtrusive. This is what I wanted my brand to represent.
• The bubbles emanating off of it was the final touch on the logo which made it somewhat abstract. I still don’t entirely know what the bubbles are, nor do I need to. Thats what makes it such an effective peace of branding. It’s abstract art, it’s whatever the viewer wants it to be. It lets the mind wander for a second and evokes a sense of imagination.
Mood
Imagination, creativity, gentleness but also robustness, wonder, and trustworthiness.
Colours
For the colours I went with the colour Blue for reasons mentioned earlier. Studies show that the colour blue is the most universally accepted colour on earth. It is viewed as the least threatening, most calming and soothing colour. It also evokes a sense of imagination and wonder. Finally it evokes a sense of trustworthiness and confidence. I used a monochromatic blue colour scheme to give it a consistent and easing feel. I used yellow as my accent colour as it is a complimentary colour to blue on the colour wheel which makes the two colours go well together (if used properly). It also gave a certain vibrancy to the CTAs and made them stand out.
These were the websites I used as design inspiration for Blue Wonder. I liked their use of playful flat icons as a means for delightful design, the flowing round blobs in the background that make you feel relaxed, and the use of a blue monochromatic colour scheme.
1. Business is a game of solving problems and providing value. The more problems you solve, the more value you add, the more money you get paid. The better you understand who your client is (a specified target client), the better you can understand their painpoints. The better you can understand their painpoints, the better you can deliver a solution and grow your business.
2. Always give value upfront without any expectation in return. In essence be a giver not a taker. In my experience going for a sale right off the bat is a fool’s errand. People has a natural tendency to recoil when someone is trying to sell them something, whether in the form of a product or service. We as humans feel this way as the interaction in our mind comes off as disingenuous and insincere. That in reality the person selling only wants our money, and doesn’t care to really provide us with value. However in reality this is not the case with sales. If you truly believe what you are selling will change peoples lives, then why not try to sell it? However the way you must approach it is not to go in for the sale right away for reasons just mentioned. You must give value upfront (in the form of a free audit, a PDF give away on newsletter sign up, a free consultation, etc.) and once you do that, you will see that you get a much different reaction. You have now established a level of trust and respect, they appreciate your value and now understand how you can help. Always be curious in people and look to understand them and give them value. Focus on this (and not the sale) and the money will follow.
In conclusion it was a wonderful learning experience and I had a lot of fun in the process. Hopefully this case study was insightful for those of you who are looking to pursue your own creative endeavours.
