October Studio Spotlight: Deuce Creative

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John Luu
Ok so, my first question would be; how did the three of you all first get into Design?

Kristin Moses
Good question. By accident? No, I’ve always been creative and have been making things my entire life but I never really knew I wanted to be a graphic designer. Then I went to the Art Institute and they said, “how about graphic design?” and I said, “sure”. It ended up being a perfect fit for me. It was everything I’ve ever done my whole life, coming together.

Carissa Renfro
Mine was kind of accidental, too. Similar to Kristin, I was always interested in art and commercial art and collected all types of stationary and stuff when I was a kid. I have always been interested design be it fashion, interiors or graphic design. I accidentally took a class in highschool called “graphic arts”. I didn’t want to, but I did, and after I took it I realized I really like graphic design and so I pursued it in college at U of H.

Aimee Smith
Kristin and I have been friends for twenty years and we grew up on the same street. We parted ways and did our own thing in college. I moved out to New York to hone my skills in advertising and uh… survival… and studied advertising and marketing and worked for a magazine in marketing. Kristin and I hooked back up and started working on projects together remotely and that’s how I got acquainted with the graphic design industry and applying my marketing and conceptual skills to it, which is the way we work at Deuce.

John Luu
This leads up to my next question which is how Deuce Creative came to be?

Aimee Smith
It’s really just like that. We needed each other, ya know? Kristin is the Artist, obviously, and I’m more of the talker and the conceptual person. Together as a team we’re able to, and this is true for everybody here, combine both of those worlds so that we can provide the full package for clients.

John Luu
So what lead to you two collaborating on the occasional project together to taking the plunge and going into business together?

Aimee Smith
We worked for another design firm together for a short time. There was chemistry in the way that we worked together and it brought to life projects in a way that was special.  It became clear at that time that it was time for us to go on our own.

Kristin Moses
We realized there was something missing in the graphic design community. We wanted to do more than create pretty projects, we wanted to create the entire concept behind it.

John Luu
If you had to use three words to describe Deuce Creative, what would they be?

Aimee Smith
Oh boy… wait, it wouldn’t be “oh boy” it would definitely not be “oh boy”…

John Luu
Well like three words that might make a client call up Deuce Creative or might convince a designer to say “Hey I want to join these guys”

Aimee Smith
“Fresh (Art), Storytellers and, I would say lastly “Strategy or Business” because I think that one of the things that our clients appreciate and what makes Deuce work is that we’re constantly revising our systems to make the engine here work better and for us to be able to produce work on time for clients on a consistent basis and instead of this style of “when inspiration hits, we’ll do this and send the clients some designs when they’re ready” type of mentality. There are a lot of deadlines and finance systems and I think that’s a very “business” mentality.

Kirstin Moses
Art and Strategy. We offer the total package.

Carissa Renfro
Think or Solve. I think one of the great things we do here is creative and productive thinking. We have mini breakout sessions and we’re constantly communicating about projects and thinking about ways to make existing projects work or even possible things in the future for clients or projects or Deuce. I think probably problem solving too… it’s my favorite thing to do as a designer and my favorite thing to do at Deuce, working out the kinks.

Krstin Moses
So there are a lot of words…

Aimee Smith
You can’t limit us to 3! It’s not enough words! We need our editor.

John Luu
Ok, next thing I noticed about Deuce Creative, after your work, was kind of your tagline “The Art of Strategy”. I thought it was interesting because it reminded me a lot of Eastern Classical thought and some stuff that’s going on with game theory today and I was curious as to the genesis behind that phrase?

Aimee Smith
It was inspired by the strategy and the art of gaming. We wanted something that showcased both sides of what we do. That’s also how the spaid inspired icon came into play.

Kristin Moses
…everything we do involves both.

John Luu
When I first noticed you guys a few years ago, I really liked the tagline and it was like I really wish I had come up with it first. I mean when you see something you like so much-

Aimee Smith
That’s the ultimate compliment!

Carissa Renfro
I have those moments 24 hours a day.

John Luu
I first heard of Deuce Creative through a mutual colleagues, and I noticed soon after that you guys were winning a lot of awards and getting some pretty good press. I’m sure that your previous work experience fed into that but was curious as to how Deuce was able to hit the ground running so fast?

Aimee Smith
Because we had to? When we started Deuce Creative we didn’t have a portfolio to show, so we had to work hard to build it. We didn’t have a website that showcased our work until January of this year. Long nights… long days and long nights. We used to all live at Kristin’s townhome and work all day and all night.

Carissa Renfro
We always look back and joke about how when we first started the evolution of the Deuce brand actually is kind of a nice example of how lo-fi things were. We used to cut our business cards out, remember?

Aimee Smith
That’s right.

Carissa Renfro
We cut them by hand with X-Acto blades, we had business cards that were hand cut for the first couple of months.

Kristin Moses
Because we were so busy.

Aimee Smith
We were busy, we didn’t have any money and we just needed a business card.

John Luu
Do you guys have any advice for younger designers who might be looking to start up their own agency or firm?

Kristin Moses
When we started our firm I think we had a very clear idea of what we didn’t want to do and I think the experience really helped. I know a lot of people get out of school and think “oh I want to start my own firm” and I think that’s a terrible idea. I think it is so important to work somewhere else and try to figure out what works and what doesn’t work and where there’s a need for something and try to fill that hole, which I think we did really well.

Aimee Smith
Have a strong sense of who you are as a designer and as a brand.

Kristin Moses
And figure out how you are going to be different than any other design firm. I think that’s why we’ve been really successful and why all of our clients are repeat clients and why we get referrals so much, because we did think all of that out in the beginning. I mean, it’s a lot of work but it’s worth it.

Aimee Smith
I think the way you incorporate your business is important. Not legally but how you choose to structure it, is it a partnership? Is it a sole proprietorship? Is it three partners? I mean, I can’t imagine having done this on my own. That brings up a whole other question; having a business partner is like being in a marriage, you have to have to be really dedicated to that person.

Kristin Moses
I think it’s important to have a strong business sense. You just can’t just simply have a good design sense because half of my job is not designing, it’s logistics and running this company and the money and the invoicing and figuring out what we need to do and what we can’t do. And so you’ve got to want to do that type of thing, too. It’s not just sitting around designing all day. It’s a lot of project management, putting out fires, fixing things and making sure everything is running smoothly.

Aimee Smith
And understanding that you are answering to every client that you have, I mean every client we have is our boss. It’s not like we don’t have a boss. We have so many bosses.

Carissa Renfro
One thing that might be helpful for aspiring business owners in the design field or just even students coming out of school—it has been really interesting to work for Kristin and Aimee from the very beginning because I witnessed the entire process.  I suggest definitely working in a small firm, you learn a lot about the structure and organization of it from the base level.

Krstin Moses
Because everyone is wearing more hats, the smaller you are, but it’s also nice because as a smaller firm it’s more boutique and I think the clients have more access. Sometimes when you get too big you can’t service your clients as well as you could when you were seven to fourteen people. It’s a jump.

John Luu
I looked on your Facebook page and I saw that Deuce Creative has like over 300 fans, what is your take on agencies engaging in social networking sites and having that level of conversations take place with your clients, your vendors, and, I guess, your peers in other agencies on such a public forum?

Aimee Smith
We just launched our Facebook page and it took a lot of internal meetings and discussions. We had to plan out what it was going to look like and be careful about the information that we’re presenting and not self promote too much. It needs to engage the viewer but not be too personal so we’re constantly having discussions about the content that we’re putting up on the Facebook page.

John Luu
Do you guys have like a process through which content get approved and posted?

Aimee Smith
Yeah, we all contribute but Carissa does a lot of the work on the Facebook front so she’s sort of our expert on Social Media

Carissa Renfro
It’s definitely a balance because Facebook started with individuals, you know just people, and college students specifically and it’s evolved to where it’s beyond just college students. Now there’s this huge presence of businesses, so it’s interesting looking at different Facebook pages and choosing what to write about. It’s actually a fun little extra thing. We just try to do one thing a week, keeping friends of Deuce and clients of Deuce posted on what goes on day to day.

Aimee Smith
And it helps for clients and friends to understand who we are as designers and as a team by sharing articles or designers that we like or people that we’re following. I can’t think of any other forum where you would be able to communicate those types of preferences or information-

Krstin Moses
– on a weekly basis. Even email marketing gets old and people, they stop reading your email blast but Facebook is very current, it’s with the times and I think you have to do it. And I think a lot of our clients too are looking to us and asking for those things and so we want to be current in the avenue of marketing and in what’s happening and what’s going.

Carissa Renfro
And right, that’s definitely an added bonus to having a Facebook page for Deuce, clients of ours that are very much interested in social networking online. It’s the best research tool because we’re doing it so you want to be as much of an expert in setting something up for a client and by doing that you just have to do it. It’s not like you can read about what it’s like to be on Facebook, so that’s an added bonus.

Aimee Smith
It’s an added bonus for our clients too when we can promote them and what’s going on with them. And even I think for clients who don’t have their own presence online in terms of social media, they’re interested and it’s a lot of work to keep up and it’s kind of a perk in that way for them too.

John Luu
What would be your response to people who feel that social media is just a fad?

Aimee Smith
I think it will change and evolve, like everything else, as it already has but it probably won’t go away. For now it’s a really great way communicate and whatever the next thing is, we’ll adapt to and adopt that.

Carissa Renfro
I agree, I mean already you’re starting to see tons of press about backlash against Facebook and “Facebook is out, Twitter is in” but it’s just a matter of time before Twitter is out and the next new thing is in and so but yeah, Social Media as a whole will never be out but the format will definitely continue to evolve.

John Luu
I guess my last question would be: for the young design student still in school or to a professional designer looking to improve, any advice for them to help them grow as a designer? And what firms and agencies might by looking for?

Carissa Renfro
Look at design as much as possible, good and bad. I mean obviously not just design but being a designer you wear a bunch of hats.

Aimee Smith
Or shoes…

Carissa Renfro
Yeah, here at our office it’s a bunch of shoes. Every person here comes in with a different pair of shoes everyday. But as I was saying, look at design, look at everything. Our job is based on consumerism and so there’s nothing that you can not intake when you look out your window that doesn’t have to do with being a graphic designer. So I guess to sum it up, be an observer, an observer of all things. In addition to interning and doing all of those other things, observing is the key because we’re designers but we’re also consumers and we understand what it’s like to be a member of a target audience and so, yeah, observe.

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To learn more about Deuce Creative please visit their website at www.deucecreative.com or click here to become a fan on Facebook.

If you would like your studio featured on AIGA Houston please contact John Luu, info@houston.aiga.org for more information.


By John Luu
Published October 5, 2009
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