How Kirsten Modestow Started a Branding & Design Agency in Her House and Thrives Outside of a Major City — The Busy Creator Podcast 75

Kirsten Modestow (@KModestow) is the founder & creative director of Brigade, a branding and design firm in Massachusetts. Brigade focuses on consumer packaging and communications; they create brands for products, and help them stand out on shelves. In recent years, this has translated to digital promotion and social media as well.

In this conversation, Kirsten discusses her origins as a young designer, learning from her elders, how she started Brigade in her house and where the company is now, and examines the curious culture of an agency that grows fast and lives in an open-plan office.

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Show Notes & Links

Brigade focuses on food & beverage clients, within the packaging and communication media types, so not everything.

In-store design materials include more items — shelf talkers, point of sales, mobile-friendly websites, etc.

"Do you have to create a whole persona just for a box of crackers?"

—Prescott Perez-Fox

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Lately, consumers are more educated and more finicky — they want information

Nabisco, Kraft - big companies in consumer goods

 Wheat Thins on Facebook

Kirsten started working out of her home after relocating to Western Mass.

Land Rover

Svedka vodka

To accommodate the growing team, Kirsten converted her garage into a studio

5 colleges are located in the Amherst-Hadley area, but none have a graphic design course

Boss is sometimes a four-letter word

Kirsten started at Hill Holiday in Boston

Brigade has grown from 5 employees to 20 in the past 2 years

Recruiting is tough outside of a "design center" like New York, Chicago, London

Brigade's first Project Management hire was a photographer freelancing as a graphic designer

"No one is on top of each other; they're alongside them."

—Kirsten Modestow

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Brigade is [finally] at the point of getting cold calls from potential clients

The Dieline

Tarik El-Khateeb

"Production is a huge part of design!"

—Kirsten Modestow

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Hatch Show Boston

Dribbble

"Side projects are the internal fuel for agencies and small firms."

—Prescott Perez-Fox

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The Cult of The Overworked

Open floorplans create challenges (just ask Lucy Kellaway)

"The Middle School Cafeteria", Prescott's term for single-table, open-plan offices

"Good ideas come from everywhere."

—Kirsten Modestow

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"Open plan only works if people give a crap about each other."

—Simon Sinek on office design

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Five Guys Burgers

 Kirsten Modestow on Twitter

 Kirsten Modestow on Facebook

 Brigade on Twitter

 Brigade on Instagram

 Brigade on Facebook

 Brigade on Spotify

Tools

Asana

Harvest

Producteev

Float

Open floor plan (with caution)

Techniques

Focus on your main goal — pick a "story" and do it well.

Build your "dream team" from unconventional people — even if they aren't traditionally qualified

Create mentorship programs within your company/agency

As a boss, give someone "the big shirt, so they can grow into it."

Use daily "pow-wows", twice-weekly traffic meetings

Apply 80/20 thinking when it comes to routine work vs. exciting breaks

Habits

Continually evaluate your work, and whether it should be submitted to contests

Share work within the office; build culture of helpfulness to combat ownership/jealousy

Critique as a group for larger projects

Build office rituals, like picnics, lunches, bowling outings

Arrive at the office early, before chaos starts

Work toward 8 hours of sleep