Alex Read: Being a designer and agency owner
Alex is a designer and owner of Bamb, a branding and web agency made up of individual freelancers with specialist but overlapping skills. The team is and always will be small, with a focus on quality over quantity of projects. Alex handles the day to day project management, branding design and commercial photography.
What’s the most straightforward way to explain who you are and what you do?
I'm a branding designer. I make someone's business more effective by changing the way their business looks. Oh and I also do a small amount of photography.
What does a normal day look like?
A happy mess! Well, most of the time. My day will always consist of one or two client calls, replying to emails and hopefully doing some design! I always start the day with a coffee before getting everything straight so I can get to some design work without too many distractions. We have a small studio with a nice window seat, some plants and almost always have music playing.
What’s the most enjoyable part of your job?
I think it's a toss up between the freedom I get to enjoy, the variety of my workload and that feeling when you design something you and the client are really proud of.
What did it take you to get to where you are today?
A bit of bad luck that turned out to be good luck! I was working for a business where I just didn't fit in and ultimately got let go of. Someone I'd known professionally for a while called me to say that if I started working for myself, they would be my first customer. It was all the motivation I needed and I will forever be thankful for that moment.
To give me the time to grow Bamb I needed some guaranteed income, so I worked two part time jobs, cleaning Herstmonceux Village Hall most mornings and working Sundays in a shoe warehouse packing online orders until 1am. This meant that all I needed was a further £700 to pay rent, bills and cover food each month.
Some months later I applied for and was offered a better part time job at Herstmonceux Castle and three years later when my customer base was encroaching on my job at the castle, I gave it all up to work full time on Bamb.
Throughout all this time it was largely about working so hard and having those core people around me who supported me, everyone from family members who made life a bit easier, to friends who were able to win me work or recommend me through their network.
What are the main digital tools you couldn’t do without?
Regarding my design work the Adobe suite of apps is still my go to. It is a bit pricey compared to some and is far from perfect sometimes, but as a branding designer and photographer, having Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign and Lightroom is so useful.
In terms of general apps I try to minimise the use of multiple platforms. I find that if I have too many tools for different things it's death by notifications, open applications and losing things.
I know this isn't for everyone, but all I really need to run my business is a Google sheet for my job list, Slack for internal chat for each project and Dropbox to save files, assets and media files.
One of the best digital tools I use is my bookkeeping software. Everything is tidy, linked to my bank, it's my absolute bible when it comes to work. It's so easy to focus on everything designers talk about like doing great work, winning new clients, using social media etc, but running your business well and knowing where you are financially is the ultimate.
So in summary Adobe Creative Suite, Freeagent, Dropbox, Slack and Google Apps is all I need. I have tried many other apps, but after 9 years I keep coming back to this core setup.
Any advice for someone wanting to do a similar role to you?
A big part of progressing beyond your own efforts is working around or with people who are better than you. It progresses you so much faster and the benefits of having a trusted circle is priceless.
Listen to and digest things that you want to, but remember to focus on you, ignore the white noise when you need to and remember there are a lot of idiots out there giving advice and pretending to be something they're not. Everyone struggles, everyone has bad days, people probably aren't doing as well as they seem to be, just do you and do the best you that you can.
And finally, what do you enjoy doing outside of work?
At the moment life is 100mph with two young boys, that when I finally get a moment to myself, I'm mostly sleeping when I can! I still try to find the time to get out with my camera with the aim of finding beauty in nature and capturing the best image I can. I mountain bike and love a bit of trail riding. Other than that I love cooking, good wine, good beer and music is always a big part of my life.
Links: Keep up to date with Alex
Website - Bambcreative.com
Instagram - instagram.com/madebybamb