Dojo is 4 years old. Where has the time gone?

February 06, 2012

Four years ago, on the 1st February 2008, Tom and I created Dojo Design Studio out of necessity and desire. The necessity to unleash our full potential and not be held back creatively, and the desire to create a design studio that would gain a reputation of effective results driven design.

Tom and I first met at another design company where we worked side by side for nearly three years. During this time we got talking about our plans for the future and found a common desire to start a company of our own. I can’t speak for Tom but for myself it was also a need to be free to produce the level of service that I felt was lacking.

Some of the companies I worked for did not put the client first, something that is alien to me. You see, design should be seen as an investment for both the client and the design company. The reason a client needs design is to make it easier to sell their products or services. If they do not receive a return on this investment, then you have simply failed that client, and yourself. When the client sees the benefits that effective design can bring they will continue to invest in you.

So, a year of planning and building funds we decided to take a leap of faith. Due to contractual reasons I left the design company first and set up in a small office smack bang in the middle of Glasgow City Centre, right on the corner of George Square. I will never forget the buzz I received walking into this office on our first day of trading. It was phenomenal.

Tom joined me three months later and during this short period we had already gained a good, steady client base, most of which came from the renewables sector. This was, and still is, an exciting industry to work within and we quickly gained a reputation for producing outstanding solutions for some of the companies at the forefront of wind and solar energy. This body of work we built helped us to add other industries to our client base and we grew from strength to strength within our first year.

Then, what seemed out of nowhere, the recession hit. Like most companies uncertainty crept in and we worried what the following year would bring. What the hell did we just get ourselves into I thought. I had just moved to a bigger home and my wife had just given birth to our gorgeous baby daughter.

But we needn’t have worried. Although I had a strong print design background we made a decision that web design would be the driving force of Dojo. Even though a recession hit a lot of businesses hard, we had marketed ourselves in such a way that we just got busier and busier. In fact since the recession hit, I can honestly say we have not had a day where we have been worrying when the next job will come in. Businesses still needed to market themselves, even more so, but the emphasis moved to online marketing tools. Some may say we have been lucky. I say we were smart.

Let me put it this way, if we could not market ourselves properly, how could we do the same for our clients?

During our first four years our clients have benefited massively from our solutions. Exco InTouch made an extra 1.2 million in sales, Solar Power Scotland received over 800 leads from their website and JMV Carpets won a contract worth 1.4 million because of our web and SEO solutions. I could go on.

So, it’s now 2012 and I am so proud of what we have achieved so far, but I am more excited about our future.

We are now employers to a fantastic bunch of creative minds and we plan to expand this team in the coming months. We will soon be moving into a custom designed studio that will help us expand our capabilities and services. We also have big plans to ‘give back’ to the design community and help install our ethos into up and coming designers. More on this in the coming months.

The past four years have passed quickly. When we first started we were glad to see six months ahead. Now we are planning for the years to come and I for one could not be more excited.