Sticky Notes with CJ Cawley and Jack Chitty

This week, we're getting into the uncomfortable conversation you have to have with yourself when promoting your business on social media. The line between marketing yourself as a designer and becoming a design influencer.

This week, we’re talking about the red flags we look for before agreeing to work with a new design client.
Finding clients is one thing. Finding the right clients... well that's a whole other story.
After years of working freelance, running our own studios and making plenty of mistakes along the way, we’ve both developed a pretty good radar for the little signs that can tell you whether a project is going to be brilliant… or an absolute nightmare.

This week, we’re talking about everything it takes to run a successful creative business that has absolutely nothing to do with being good at design.
We share the skills, traits and ugly lessons we’ve picked up while building our own independent studios.
We get into:
👉 Why being a great designer doesn’t automatically mean you’ll run a great design business
👉 The sacrifices we’ve made to build our studios
👉 Why sometimes you have to put the pencil down and think like a business owner
👉 How your ego can damage otherwise healthy client relationships
👉 Why marketing yourself isn’t optional when you work for yourself
👉 The importance of ambition, hunger and continuing to push yourself forward
👉 Why resilience matters when your work, content and ideas are constantly being judged

This week, we’re continuing the case study series with a look behind the scenes of Jack’s latest brand identity project for Verdex - a premium all-wheel-drive robotic mower.Rather than leaning into the same overly technical, futuristic visual language used by much of the industry, Jack took a completely different approach: retrofuturism.We get into:👉 How retrofuturism became the central creative direction for Verdex👉 How Jack developed a logo around slopes, freshly mown grass and the letter V👉 The small optical adjustments that make simple logo marks actually work👉 How tone of voice can make highly technical products feel more human👉 Why one strong creative lens makes every design decision easier👉 How finding the right client can lead to some of your best creative work

This week, we’re doing something a little different and taking you properly behind the scenes of a real brand identity project.CJ breaks down the identity he created for Anti-Boring Content Club, a Berlin-based influencer marketing agency built around one very simple belief: most branded content is boring, predictable and completely forgettable.We get into:👉 How CJ approached designing for a brand with an extremely long name👉 Why the logo was deliberately designed to feel boring at first👉 How the idea of hijacking and hostile takeover shaped the entire visual identity👉 How to know when a creative concept is being pushed too far👉 Why clarity should always win over cleverness👉 Why even something as small as a business card can become part of the brand story