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Back in the 90s, local independent design studio is not as prevalent as today. The majority of established design studios came from overseas. One of the most celebrated design agencies in the country, LeBoYe, is arguably the first mover in establishing local design studio. There is also MakkiMakki that was established in 1991.

Then, in late 90s, DesignLab was founded. One of the five founders, Nia Karlina, set up the design studio with the help of her roommates and neighbours back in the US.

“Now that I think of it, we were quite mad. We started a design studio during a financial crisis and we had no budget. We compiled our portfolio and started pitching to friends,” said Nia.

16 years later, the founders of DesignLab made another bold move. They asked three of their designers, “Do you want to run this studio?” The designers had three days to make decision. They were given a set of tasks and they had six months trial period.

When TFR visited DesignLab in late 2019, Ngah Muli Ong and two of her colleagues have been running DesignLab for five years since the handover.

“The first two years were the biggest hurdle. As an employee, you get paycheck at the end of every month and that’s it.” Being the boss, on the other hand, turns the table over. “After payday, we have to look at the numbers. Are we making enough? Can we continue the operation? What’s important for the long-term growth?”

Aside from operations, the newly-minted executives also slowly shifted the way the studio built relationship with client. “It used to be designers working for clients. We want to move away from that and be their partners instead. No one is beneath or underneath anyone.”

In order to do so, the designers have to change the way they pitch and present to clients as well. It is no longer about what looks cool on the screen. It is about what resonates well with the target audience. On top of that, it has to be backed up by research and data.

“When client comes to us with a product, we will conduct research on what the target audience relates to, their social life, favourite music, films, where they usually hang out, what they like to wear. We then compile the visuals based on the information. We want to create visuals they will most likely respond to. That way, even if the client dislikes the design, we can back it up with the findings of the research,” Muli explained.

“The argument is no longer about what the clients like and dislike. Clients disliking the design is fine because everyone has personal taste. As long as their target audience responds well, they will be pleased.”

This method receives positive reaction from the clients. “People always assume designers sit in front of a laptop and create circle or square, but those are actually small pieces of what we do.”

Clients with big budget could bring in research agency to support design studio. Otherwise, Muli and her team have to carry out the research, regardless of how small the scale of research is.

One thing that seems to stay the same is the size of the team. Unlike design agencies with partners and worldwide operations, Muli keeps her team small. “We had large team in 2014. Funny thing is, we had more overtime with more people onboard than with fewer people in the team.”

The bureaucracy is simpler with fewer people as things don’t have to go through several stages of approval from certain people. “Designers are allowed to explore with their work. Each person handles the whole thing.”

Compared to the 90s, there number of local design studios is steadily growing. The story is almost similar from one another. It started with freelancing gigs. From the portfolio acquired through freelancing, designer can start pitching to clients.

The business model of a design studio has a low barrier to entry. Meaning, the cost of entry is not as high as businesses that require stocks, warehouse or physical location. At most, designer only needs laptop and printer in the beginning. A lot of designers already have those tools since university.

However, like most low barrier businesses, the exit point is also high. Competitors or newcomers in the industry could overthrow the business since the market can easily penetrate the business model. In design studio case, it’s client’s loyalty.

With more studios popping up, clients can explore their options in hiring design studios. They can opt for short-term contract then move on to other studio. The downside is company can take design pitching for granted. For instance, open pitch to as many studios as possible to compare prices. It diminishes the value of design itself.

“We’ve been to a pitching with long line. There were companies asking for a long list of tasks and setting short deadline. We said no many times. Set your boundaries,” said Muli.

One of the solutions is having a distinctive style or specialising in a certain category. For DesignLab, it is packaging. “We never mention we specialise in packaging. However, when we do annual review of our work, it is heavily dominated by packaging,” said Nia.

Another thing that can make or break a career is attitude towards competition. “We cannot do everything on our own. For instance, we have client that commissions us to design shopping mall signage. We call other agency specialising in wayfinding because they know what material to use for signage and they have in-house architecture and interior designer.”

Muli’s mantra is focusing on your strength instead of thinking of strategy to take down the competition.