We’ve been going through a lot of changes as a team lately. We’re focused on improving the quality of our products while also heightening the experience for our clients. However, it made sense to take a step back and ask ourselves what we’re missing. How can we be inspired to be better? To do more? To be excited and proud of our company?

What Third Thursday Means To Us

Third Thursday means setting aside one day every month to spend time on our company and the brand we’ve worked hard to build. No client meetings and no client deadlines.Doing what we do for our clients but for ourselves. Since we’ve recently moved into a new office, our first few will focus on improving our workspace. But we’ll also use them to write blog posts, update our portfolio, further brand ourselves, post to Dribbble, spruce up all of our company touchpoints, get the finances in order, you name it. There are really only a few rules… No client meetings and no client deadlines.

I found this article on the cost of Photoshop very interesting. It argues both sides. Below is an excerpt from the post.

On Photoshop Being Affordable

Todd Hemker, co-owner of the design company Yellowshed breaks it down this way: “If I were buying Photoshop as a stand-alone application the initial cost is $699 and the average lifespan of any particular version is roughly two years. If you use it daily, that brings the cost to under $2.00 a day.” Or roughly $60 a month. Chances are most designers, freelance or not, make at least $60 a month. “However,” he concedes, ” if we were just out of school and working as freelance designers – there’s no way we would be able to put down that kind of cash!”

Read the full article on psdtuts.

I couldn’t do my job without Photoshop. I look at it as an investment. $2.00 a day is very affordable considering how much a website costs.

I know it sounds counter-intuitive, especially coming from a design firm, but it’s actually really great advice. I’ve recently picked up the book “Rework,” written by the founders of 37signals (creators of Basecamp, an online project collaboration tool we use) and they talk about ignoring the details early on.

They draw a comparison to architects, who don’t worry about what tiles to use in the bathroom or which dishwasher to install until after the floor plan is finished. They go on to say “Nail the basics first and worry about the specifics later.”

I read an interesting article on MAINSTREET this morning about 20 jobs that have disappeared.

To name a few:

1. Lamplighter: Back when streetlights were lit by gas lamps
2. Pinsetter: At the bowling alley, before automation
3. Ice Delivery: Before refrigerators were in most households

They also have a list of Endangered Jobs. We’re thankful for the Internet around here, I don’t think our jobs are going extinct anytime soon.

Read the full article on MAINSTREET.

During a recent plane trip, I had the chance to take a step back and reflect on the state of business, potential team growth and our longterm business goals. “Should we increase our team size?” was the ultimate question, and rightly so after acquiring a pretty extensive amount of new work. My immediate reaction was to think that a bigger company would equate to more money and success.

I’m not an MBA business grad that fundamentally gets the economies of scale. However, I have learned this: Nothing makes you feel successful more than knowing you are in control of your business’s destiny and you are surrounded by people that love their jobs.

So, the question stands… If we were presented with the opportunity to become a large agency, would we take it? After giving it some thought, we agreed wholeheartedly, “no.”

Now for the the purpose of this rambling…
We’ve decided to work hard not to grow. We want to keep our company small and build strong relationships with great clients, top-notch freelancers and industry partners. Why make our team bigger when we can recruit people or teams we feel are a perfect for a specific project? How does a client see it? Is it bad to be small? Is it worse to be huge?

In the end, we all have opinions on how things should work. I’m just happy that our opinion is working for us and allowing for creative collaboration with great people we know and respect. That’s success we can live with.