Hundred Studio is an independent creative agency. It began as two friends vision for how a creative agency should look, and is now one of the top indie creative agencies in Belfast.
On Monday 31st January, Craig Norwood, the Co-founder and Design Director of Hundred Studio joined us as a guest speaker, and a past pupil of the GDI course. Here is some of the wisdom he passed onto us;
- The grass isn’t always greener.
In an industry where everything and everyone are now so interconnected, it’s often too easy to compare your career decisions and aspirations to what you may see on LinkedIn and Instagram. However, these positive and aspirational posts of world travel, and great career achievements can often be far from the truth. We need to remind ourselves that LinkedIn and Instagram are just the highlight reels of peoples lives, and we aren’t aware of the potential imposter syndrome, or late nights, or lack of home-work place balance these individuals are facing. At the end of the day we are the only ones who can make the call as to whether our career decisions are right for us.
- Everyone is human.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of fear and worry when designing, and presenting design ideas and concepts. However, we need to remember that we are in an industry that is creative people solving problems for other people, and in reality those really professional CEOs and business leaders are the same as you and me. They still brush their teeth every morning, and drink a cup of coffee when they get to work, while thinking about what they may have at lunch and that’s what makes us human!
- What’s the worst that can happen?
Well truthfully, everything. As Craig said, the risk he took to launch Hundred Studio in 2020 alongside Gregg Reid was terrifying, but anything worth doing involves that risk.
Craigs presentation was a great reminder to ‘fake it before you make it’, and it put to ease any imposter syndrome I had around my work, and working in large agencies as he reminded us that if we put the work in, and we’re hired after seeing our portfolios we’ve clearly been hired for a reason and it hasn’t just been a fluke.