Arts
As a freelance motion designer, sometimes you find yourself taking on work that you’re not particularly passionate about just to pay the bills. But what if there was a way that you could exclusively work with brands who align with your personal values AND make a good living in doing so? Today’s podcast guest will show you how she created a successful niche studio that supports veganism and plant-based living. About Roxy Vélez Roxy Vélez grew up in Ecuador but moved to the US to study a master's degree after she finished her studies in graphic design. After she finished she moved to New York to become a freelance designer. She then moved across the world to Berlin and gradually made the transition from freelance motion designer to becoming a studio owner in 2018. Here’s how she did it. How Vexquisit Studio was born Vexquisit Studio works exclusively with vegan products, brands and organisations. The studio was born from Roxy’s desire to work exclusively with brands that aligned with her personal values. She worried that being freelance and working for agencies would mean that she would be assigned to projects for companies that went against her personal beliefs. It was also difficult for her to say to colleagues that she didn’t want to work on certain projects because of her beliefs because she loved working for the agencies and the people that she worked with. She felt conflicted because as much as she believes in veganism, she also had to pay her bills. Meanwhile, in her personal life, she had started to become more involved in vegan events. This allowed her to build more connections in the vegan community which, in time, helped her to start her studio. How to find clients who align with your values Roxy found clients who are aligned with her values primarily through going to vegan events and conferences. Of course, the emergence of Covid-19 has put a stop to these in-person events, however, Roxy says there is still ample opportunity to connect with the kinds of clients you’d like to work with online. In fact, online events mean that you can easily find international clients, too. She also credits LinkedIn as a great way to find new clients. She follows lots of vegan companies on LinkedIn and makes sure she spends some time actively engaging with them - liking and commenting on their posts. She also says that content is key. It’s important that you spend some time creating content for social media to promote yourself. Creating work that has meaning beyond just making money Many freelancers will get to a stage where, beyond just making money, they want their work to have impact and meaning. Roxy says that when she worked for agencies, if an ad went viral she would feel nothing - it wouldn’t make a difference to her work. Whereas now, if she works on an advertisement for a client that goes viral, or even if it just becomes popular on social media, it has the potential to contribute to less animal consumption, which is a cause that she feels incredibly passionate about. Roxy also updated her portfolio to reflect projects that she knew her ideal clients would find appealing to help her to win more clients. How to raise your freelance rate to give you space to breath Whilst Roxy was setting up her studio, she decided to raise her freelance rate to give her more financial freedom to work on her passion project. She decided that if she was going to spend her time doing work that wasn’t ideally what she wanted to be doing, it made sense to charge more for that work. The best way to raise your rate is to just communicate the changes with your clients - some will say no, but make it clear that you can still work together if you have availability, but that you’ll have to prioritise clients who are willing to pay your new rate. How to find people to support your mission Roxy found her first freelancers through animation community groups on Facebook. From there, her first hire recommended a friend of hers and from there, the studio has grown to a consistent team who are all personally invested in their work. Roxy isn’t in a huge rush to grow the studio into a huge business - she has a great working relationship with her clients and the people who work for her, and as long as they continue to work with brilliant clients on projects that excite her, she is happy to continue that way. Most of all, it’s important to hire people who genuinely care about what you’re doing because when people care, the quality of work speaks for itself. What are the kinds of clients that you’d really like to work with? Would you like to start a niche studio one day? Leave a comment on the episode page and let us know! Read the full shownotes.