On Staying Small

Stefan Sagmeister on being a designer and design company at 99%:

The conventional wisdom in our business is that you have to grow and keep moving to survive.  We never grew, always stayed tiny, and it serves us very well over the years, allowing us to pick and choose projects, and keeping our financial independence from our clients.  We actually have a rather good track record, because we do select projects carefully. Most of our ideas don’t eat dust but glimpse the light of day because we find it much more helpful to spend some serious time and effort before we start working on a project, rather than suffer through it afterwards.

I feel the same way. In the last five years, our design company, Ideacodes, has had the chance to grow. While we’ve expanded a bit over the years, it’s been a conscious decision to remain small, agile and selective about who we work with and the type of work that we do. As a result, we’ve enjoyed true collaborations with our clients, creative and financial freedom.