Branding Identity Design w/ Yo Santosa 😊😂 AIGA LA Hecho en LA speaker series

Key Takeaways

Thank you. Um first of all, thanks for being here. It's such an honor and I know you guys It's not free, so woohoo. But please drink up. The presentation's going to sound so much better, I promise. So, since we're here for the next hour, um how many here are students? Oh, wow. This is a first. Nice, okay. And then uh how many of you are actually designers who're already out there working? All right, so most of you are. The best part about being a designer is working on brands. And I've been obsessed uh about brands at an early age, unknowingly, of course. So, I remember going to a toy store with my mom and then she said she presented me with two kinds of LEGOs. She said, "You want a small one? You want the big one?" And then I saw that there was no label that says LEGO on it and the other one says generic brand and I said, "I'll take the small one." So, as a kid, I understood authenticity. And in the '90s, um you know, do you remember the hypercolor t-shirts? So, it switches color when it's hot and it switches color when it's cold, but I saved my money as a teenager and then in Singa- I I was living in Singapore at that time and you know, Singapore is really humid and hot, and so it malfunctioned and I walk around looking like this. I was like brainwashed brainwashed. So, naturally, as an adult, I had no choice but to explore my obsession, which is branding. And I have a simple philosophy in life. It's to make money doing what I love. And so after I graduated, I went to a big brain branding agency, and they asked me to do logos 24/7. And part of what I love about branding was really understand strategy and everything that like everything that surrounds a brand. And so I wasn't happy, and I asked them, "What would it take for me to go in the other department? Like to actually nibble on like the strategy a little bit?" They said, "You need a business degree." And obviously, after 3 and 1/2 years of arts and earning so much money, I'm not going to take another business degree. And so because I wasn't happy doing logos, my philosophy for happiness doesn't work. And so I quit after a week. And so I thought, "What is the opposite of boring?" And I started thinking it was entertainment. So I'm going to I'm going to do motion graphics. So I went to work at a company called Yu + Company. Uh it it does motion graphic. And in hindsight, actually, I could have gone to a smaller branding agency, and they would have let me do the other section cuz when you're at a smaller company, obviously, there's not that many people, and you're going to be able to do strategy and this and that. But my because I was impulsive, it was actually a good thing. Because the next 5 years, I did main titles for amazing projects like 300, Ugly Betty, and it was really exciting. And um I attributed my luck to work on those projects because I was in LA. Not the smog. I don't like the smog. But being in LA among the film industry, I learned to tell tell stories, and I learned that like creating to create content that are entertaining. And another reason I love being in LA is diversity. So when I first I I actually Actually, how many of you are actually born in LA? Wow. We are among the presence of LA natives here. Amazing. Um I was born in Indonesia and moved to Singapore and then came to the United States 18 years ago. And the first place I went to was Ohio. I don't know why, but I ended up there. And I felt like a foreigner with a capital F. Woohoo. Anyway. Um so I I stood up. I stood stood up like a sore thumb and it doesn't feel like home to me being in Ohio. And um it affected the way I present myself and it affected the way I presented my work and the way I carry myself. And so especially as a designer, we all have to and especially if you want to start your own business, we have to be we have to have confidence. Right now, I'm really grateful for my liquid courage. Um but we have we need to have confidence in selling our ideas. It's very important especially especially when you're starting your own business. We want to be articulate. We want to come off as an expert even though we're not. And then and be a friend to all our clients. I think all of us went through this as a change and growth as a designer. I remember when I was in Art Center, I was mostly doing black and white. Most of my work is black and white. I designed for myself. I spent as much time on it and I nitpick on type layouts and I thought I thought I was a good designer. And when I got to Y&Co, I lost all the pitches. Not only the pitches that actually go to the clients, but I lost presenting my ideas to the creative director. I even don't get to pass that the creative director to get to have my project being presented to clients. And they didn't pick my idea. So I was frustrated and I um and I was delusional because I told myself people don't know good design. It wasn't my problem. And then so this is an example actually for that I did a long time ago when I was at Yuan Company. It's a sketch for Court TV. Um now it's known as truTV. It's not bad visually, but it's it feels like a sophisticated documentary, and that's was not what Court TV was about. I don't know if any of you what watch Court TV, but Court TV's about crime, it's about drama, it's about reality, and some level of trashiness, right? There's nothing wrong with that. I watch a lot of trash TV. Awesome. But, where does it convey all that in my sketch? Right? And then it's it's about the emotion, it's about the attitude, and it does not connect to the Court TV audience. Obviously, it didn't get selected. But, you know, and there's another moment I remember vividly. I was like required I was working on a project, and I was required to use purple because it's the company's brand color. And then I hate purple. I come from a background where I just love black and white. I felt actually was when I was designing, I felt really nauseous. I actually ran out for fresh air outside. And then, you know, as I was standing outside, I'm like, breathing, it hits it hits me. Like, something is wrong because I'm designing for myself. It's it's back at my desk, I start to stop. And then it's as if like the sky parted and like, tada! It became clear to me that I I didn't see the overall picture. It's not about me, it's about solving a problem, it's about communication, and it was a such a big milestone for me as a a fresh young designer to to understand that. And shortly after, I started winning pitches, and shortly after I become art director. And I think we all struggle with this as a designer, it's like the designer versus the artist, and it's a constant battle. But, I learned with experience capturing an attitude and an emotion becomes gut instincts. And so, I was Anyway, I was at Yuan Company for 5 years. I miss branding very much. As you know, I was brainwashed since I was young. So, this was 2000-2006, and exciting things are happening. Apple introduced the iPhone. Oh my god, you remember a time when the iPhone didn't exist? Which came later on to become my best friend. And they gave us something that we don't even know we need. And then Method changed the world of cleaning products all together. It was a product that was so under-the-sink invisible, but then it gets celebrated. It's like amazing For me, it was an amazing feat to see how a brand can totally just change the way you feel about something in your head. And then I don't know if you guys know Muji. By the way, they just opened their first store in LA in Hollywood. So, Muji did this incredible solution to a CD player. It's a It's product design at its simplest form. It's mounted on the wall, and all you do is pull the string, it'll play music. Amazing. It's beautiful, but sadly it's irrelevant now, obviously. And but I'm constantly reminded how our life is surrounded by brands. The brands we surround surround ourselves with is a form of our self-expression. And um it gives people clues about who you are, your beliefs, and it's fascinating how our lives is so intertwined with brands. Um and it really made me rethink my job in motion graphics. I was having a great time, but I missed it so much, and I wanted a change. With that, has anyone here considered starting their own studio? YAY! Good for you. And then what is so For those of you who are considering starting your own design studio, what is stopping you? Don't be shy. Look at the people next to you who raised their hand and like point point them to me cuz I saw them. You raised your hand. So, what's stopping you? I'm supposed uh time and money, perhaps. Time and money? Yeah. Absolutely true. Anyone else? Failure. Yeah. Yeah. That's Yeah, I went through all that. Yes? Clients with the money. Mhm. So true. So true. Yes? Anyone else? Yeah? There's a difference between being good at creative and being good at logistics. Exactly. Well, the good thing is you guys are already thinking in the right step cuz those are exactly the things that you need to think about before you start a company. So, it was the same challenge for me as like, where do I get clients? I have student loans, I have credit card bills, and you know, to jump ship, you need a steady income. And so, I was lucky, obviously. An opportunity came. There's a mom and pop shop in West Hollywood selling yogurt, and they were looking to franchise. And they're searching for a design company to help them get there because, as you know, from a mom and pop shop going to franchise, you need everything to be uniform. It has to communicate the same brand no matter where the store opens up. So, I went over there, tried the product, really loved it, and I called the co-founders and asked them to set up a time to meet with me to present my proposal. It was unsolicited and they're like, "Uh all right. Okay." So, I I I did it. I took a week off vacation uh vacation off my time from work. I saved those for going to Paris, but of course I didn't. I used it to work on my proposal. And then on Saturday, I presented it. Amazingly, got awarded the project, and on Monday, I gave my two weeks' notice. It was It was really risky. Yeah, it was, but it was one client and actually a few of my friends asked, "Are you sure you're doing good at this place? You're not art director, and you can't start a business with just one client." But then and and they said no one can guarantee their success even if they say this place is going to be amazing. And so, but I have faith in Pinkberry. The line was already out the door. I mean, like look at that guy. He's so fascinated and happy. And then on the other hand, what is the other alternative? Like being the impulsive person that I am, I would rather fail and try again than wonder and regret what I didn't do and what I turned down. And so, in a way I wanted to prove to myself that I can build a brand, which is everything that I've always wanted to do. And of course, it doesn't hurt that the money was right. So, in 2 months actually, in 2 months I paid off my student loans, my credit card bills, and I was debt free. I know I WAS LUCKY. YAY! I I know this is like uh those stories that are just really lucky, but I know you guys can try. If if you do it, you can try. But I was very lucky. It was Pinkberry. No one knew it was going to be what it is today, and I was lucky that they were my first client. So, I started Fair Concrete in my downtown studio apartment. There's my bed, not neat. Don't make it up. Um so, and I invested in buying a very nice computer. And for the first uh 6 months I was by myself. And I think after the 6-month period, I hired my first um web developer cuz there's something I just couldn't do. So, I hired Ronnie, who's our web developer, who's still with us at our office today, but he's not here today. He just had a baby. Anyway, too much TMI TMI. And I remembered I I interviewed our first designer. She's a graduate from Art Center. And then she came in with her suit and high heels like, "Ding dong." And she walked in and she saw a bed on one side and she was The look on her face was so priceless. And I can't stop to I don't know if I were to laugh and show her that this is a professional environment, but you know, but anyway, she took a leap of faith and took the job. Love her for that. And at that point, having clients come in was out of the question, obviously. So, I think to start a company, you have to be willing to work very hard. You know, especially initially, nights, weekends, and then there's just so many things to do. And I'm not the type who is a planner. So, I don't know if most designers are. Are you guys planners? Do you organize stuff? Maybe you are. I don't know. I'm not one of those people. Anyway, so I took it day by day. I took it day by day. A client calls, estimates, and then suddenly there's legal stuff, and then HR, payroll, timesheets, and then I clean my own office when people aren't there. Shh. And then I bought groceries for the people in the office. It was just like new things just seem to drop like pop up daily that I haven't thought of. Um like registering for LA business certificate, which was bad. I didn't know until like a year in business that I was supposed to have a business certificate from the city of LA. So, I make mistakes daily and I learn learn from my experience and it was invaluable. But at the end of the first year, we moved to a studio apartment. And I chose, you know, people ask me like, "Why don't you move to an actual real corporate office space? And why do you move to an actual apartment, a studio?" Well, because the studio leases are only a year. While when you go to a corporate spaces, they want 3 to 5 years. And I was being cautious. I don't know if Ferroconcrete is going to last for a year, 3 years, 5 years? I don't know how fast it's going to grow or how slow it's going to grow. And so many challenges. So, I just want to be cautious about it. I have a question for you guys. Those of you who have your own studios, what are some of your biggest challenges as owners of studio? Anyone? Come on. Don't let me do this by myself. Drink up and answer the question. Yes. Managing the talent. Uh-huh. Manage He said managing talent. Can you guys hear? You guys okay? Okay. Anyone else? David. David owns a huge business. So does Chris Doe. Come on. You guys have to say something. Sales. Sales. Mhm. Nothing? All right. I'll go and let it go. But, you know, our biggest challenge was getting new business, like Chris said. It's It's, you know, you can have new businesses, but is it the right kind of business that the right kinds of clients you want to work with? A lot of new design company I've seen this over the years. They have to close because they couldn't get clients that pays. And what got us through the first year, second year, and third year was really pretty much the success of Pinkberry. And the momentum of that keeps the phone ringing. But, so we're busy. And when that happens, we forget how to reach out to client and how to get new clients. And we're actually going on in September this year, it's going to be our 8 years in business, but we're just now looking for a business development person. That's pretty insane. Ask Chris. Ask Ask David. He They would say, "I'm crazy." I've had that talk. We want to be strategic about the type of clients we have. It's not getting as many of clients possible, but it's less client, bigger brands. Because fewer projects that pays well, which it means we can really spend time and create better projects. So, that is one of the things that as a business owner owning a studio, at some point you got to switch because in the beginning I take every job that come at me. There was clients who actually Oh, actually, let me say that. I didn't take every job. There's a client who called me and said, "Can I want to a website?" And I said, "Yeah, okay. How much budget do you have?" Said, "$1,000." Come on. I I was green. I wasn't that green. And then I remembered I had a phone call with a client for 45 minutes. What he wanted to do was negotiate pricing to $50 less. And I'm thinking in my head, talking to me for me, talking to me for 45 minutes is already 50 bucks. Like That was so aggravating. And the only reason I didn't hang up was because I didn't want to lose. But if I would have It would have been better for me if I just hung up the phone. But anyway, that's me putting up my first sign at Ferroconcrete, the little studio. It was a sticker, very cheap. I think it's 25 bucks to make have it made. It's awesome. Um and this is our office right now. We're in downtown LA across from LA Live and it feels like home. And throughout the years I went through another shift as a designer. Once you own a business So, because when I first started Ferroconcrete, uh before that I was an art director at Youcan Youcan Company. And I knew how to do that. I've been doing that for years. Opening Ferroconcrete forced me into the creative director role and it had I had less and less time to design. At first I didn't like it, but now I start to really like it. It's like not being so immersed in every single project gives me an advantage. Have you ever felt that when you walk up to something fresh for the first time or like your friend says, "Hey, check out my work. What do you think of this?" You walk up to it for the first time and it was It's just gut instincts. Um like do you do you like is it does it feel right? What's the attitude it's giving? Is it the right personality being communicated? I think once you are so close to a computer and start nitpicking typography or layout and space, you kind of forget what is it's when when your customers actually look at that piece, they only have you only can grab them for a second, 2 seconds. And what is the feeling they're going to walk out from it? That's going to mean the difference between they're going to actually read what's on the paper or they're going to walk away from it. And so, but actually I still do design when I'm really excited about a project. Mostly rallying the team. I'm a cheerleader at the office and bartender. You know I am. So, anyway, those of you who own your own studios, I have a question. What sets your studio apart from your competitors? Come on. Come on. You have your You have your elevator speak? Nobody's going to say anything? Okay, good. You're so awesome. I build whole brands as opposed to indie brands. Ah, good. That's good. Anything else? Yes, Chris. Customer service and strategy. Mhm. Cool. David, okay. I'm not going to pick on you all night. But for me, I think being working on Pinkberry was like a boot camp, like a branding boot camp. I have no real world experience with branding except for when I was in school and then I went to motion graphic and then I started company saying I do branding. I really don't. But then I realized there is a lot of similarities with motion and with branding. One tells stories over minutes and seconds. One tells stories over years and hopefully decades. And for me, branding is also instinctive. It's all those years of loving, hating, obsessing obsessing over brands and hanging out at malls really paid off. If you have kids, let them go to malls. And then it helps me it really like walking up to a product or a brand, it really helps me deconstruct how I feel about the brand internally. Why I like it, is it the product, is it the copy, is it the packaging, is it the message, is it the vision of the company? And I feel I feel me as a branding person, I'm a matchmaker. I you know, it's my job to think well, I personally think it's easier to think of brands as personalities and it's my job to make customers fall in love with the brand. So you're the matchmaker, here's the brand, here's the customer. Make them fall in love with each other. And then I think um what and then what makes us fall in love? It's what she wears, how she talks, what she believes in, how she toss her hair. You know, it's all if you think about it, brands can be all those things. It's like how she talks, is it like hi, hello, hello. You know, it's all about how you look at a brand and that's what people fall in love with. You don't fall in love with you walk up with it walk up with to a product or a brand like I'm just in love with it. No, it's like moment after moment of experiencing that brand from online to being at the store and experience to touching the product, it's all those accumulated things that make you fall in love with it. And and I think you know, at the end of the day Pinkberry went from one store with that in mind that I tried my best to understand what brand is and do it with what I believe in. Pinkberry went from one store to a global brand and 200 stores worldwide in three in three years. And I think what sets us apart is really strategy and storytelling, which is distilling a brand's essence to give it its personality. And I believe people fall in love with personalities, not business. Anyway, actually I'm a business owner so I I don't I don't really mean that. But anyway, here's a quick case study before we move on to some other things. So TBS TBS came to us a couple of years after Ferroconcrete started and actually it was a client that I used to work with at Yuan Company. We haven't communicated after I left Yuan Company and then he's actually a huge Pinkberry fan and so he he was like he loved the product. He's like oh the branding is great and then he actually searched and looked it up and he said it's Yuan. I'm like I know her, you know, we used to work together at Yuan Company. So he invited me to pitch on the TBS rebrand and this was pretty not it was not common because we are we've done first of all we've done no motion since we started Ferroconcrete um and even when I was in Yuan Company, I was doing film titles and very little network rebrands and you can see that Court TV thing is not going to fly. And so it was risky for a small company like us. Every time somebody asked you to pitch, it means they're going to give you a very little pitch money, you're going to have to bring your team in, come up with a great idea to win that pitch. So it was almost like a gamble every time and if you if you lose, it's not even enough going to cover the resources. So It was but it was really exciting to me as somebody who was who's been doing Pinkberry and you know, we've worked on tiny jobs for the first two years but then nothing as big as TBS. So when it came in I said yes, I'll do it. I know how to do it. Yeah, you yeah yeah I'm going to going to win it and and I feel if we fail, at least we tried our best. Again, my impulsive nature. Don't think about the future, no plans about anything. But anyway, so TBS is the leading destination for comedy. Prior to 2011, they were doing sitcom reruns and but at that point they wanted to shift towards original programming because especially with the arrival of Conan, right? And then they want the brand to be sophisticated, they want to connect with viewers better, and communicate that it's a it's a channel that communicates comedy and fun. Entertaining, playful, attract a broad audience, embody the personality and attitude of the network. So, we started looking at the TBS logo, which is actually a it's a semi-circle, but it represents a half smile. It's a smile. It's a smile. And so we started thinking, let's explore the smile. And at first it was so literal. There's the vampire, the mustache guy, and like dental floss. It was like so literal. I we don't even know what we're thinking. And then we got crazy, we put eyes on the logo. Obviously, that didn't fly. And then we started putting the smile on actors. And we even got put the smile on really sad posters. I thought, get it out of the system. Let's get it out of the system. Till we get to this. It was even though it was very comical, it sparked an idea for us. And like, let's strip it down. It's there's something interesting that's happening here. And so we strip it down and distill it, and what we got was a smile in motion. It's like, you know, there's different kinds of smile. There's just the smile, there's like burst out laughing, and it's like there's those it's all those moments captured in in motion. And so we eventually got to this. It was very energetic, it was vibrant, and it was like the smile was represented as a a ball of energy. It starts in a straight line and it pops open with music, and all these fun things come out of their mouth out of its mouth. The color changes, it dances driven by the beat. But after that we started thinking, okay, this is a good solution. Let's think about how we do make it better. And then so we think, what if the smile is actually 3D? Uh we And by making it 3D we actually push the character and the personal personality a little bit more, but it it actually feels very complicated. Although we love how it starts, we kind of see volume in the way it works, it feels complicated. And so we distill it even further, and we started having a group discussion. It's like, all we need is the smile. And we can get the same playful energy from the smile alone. And so we simplified, eliminate all the elements that we don't need. And by doing this, we really expand the personality of the smile. We gave it focus, and we were able to see the little nuances in the way it moves. It's jumping, it's dancing, it's flexing. And so a stud is born. And he was entertaining, he was playful, he embodied the personality and attitude of the network, and then we won the pitch. Surprisingly. And there was reservations on our client's side. As I think as you guys start your own business, you will realize that being small can sometimes be an advantage. It It sometimes can be a not an advantage because they were saying, "It's You've never We've never seen you work on any big projects before. This was the biggest project next to Pinkberry." And so but eventually they went on a limb and gave us the job. They said, "We were the only one who really understood their brand." And so we got to know the TBS very start very well for the next year as we develop the brand further. He can bow, he can jump, he'll even wave hello. And he basically makes people smile. He's also a master disguiser. Here, poop poop poop, he becomes Conan's hair. And then even though a brand guide, this is when it comes time to do the brand guide. Even though the brand guide is never seen in public, we have to inspire employees within the company to really trust and love the brand. And for the great brand guide, we we we have him grace the cover of smile magazine. First look inside, who is this logo of mystery? And um we had the smile introduce himself in an interview and he also introduced the new TBS brand. We also remind him of the proper remind them of the proper care and feeding of the TBS brand. We want all parts of the company to really take pride and take good care of the brand. And the first part was to establish the brand and launch the new but there's also the launch of the new rebrand. So we created promo spots. We wanted to associate the brand with the talent that's involved in the entire channel. So we created scenarios like this one. Well, small it's like this the small is hanging out with Conan. Conan's teaching him the puppet dance. I don't know what he calls it but you know doing string dance string dance. And then the Big Bang Theory guys made the small into a remote controlled robot. This really ties the show to the new TBS brand. And Sorry. That was one of my favorite spot because only because we didn't script that out. Conan just sit there with this fake pillow on his lap and he's like, "Oh, he's going to pretend to bite me." He was awesome. But anyway, in some cases when we don't have access to the talents, we have to take existing footage and recut it so the small fits in the story. Here's another example. And lastly, here's a montage from the actual rebrand. Presenting the stud. So anyway, this rebrand is just the beginning. Oh, thank you. I did not expect that. Yay. Yay. Okay, so this rebrand is just the beginning. Um then the launch promo with all the actors and then there's the brand handoff. What we tend to forget, what I tend to forget, and what I learned along the way was there is the big thing is the brand handoff. Once you do a great job, a client have to take your work and really take that idea and push it to the next level and really understood what the brand guide is about, understood what the philosophy of the rebrand is, and really take it to the next level. And TBS is a great example of how amazing clients not only did they get understood the rebrand, they managed to instill this attitude throughout their entire company in different departments and they were able to explain expand on it and let it flourish. And really this is probably in in the years I've been at Ferroconcrete, I would say this is the best example of how a great client really takes a brand and take it to the next level. And and I believe when brands are cared for and evolve to stay relevant, brands can have a very long and happy life. Anyway, brands are people. Okay. So, anyway, on to the next thing. How many of you have your own retail brands? Are considering starting one? Anyone? Oh, cool. What are you starting? Is it Do we have to sign NDA or anything? Oh, cool. What are you starting? Who's the one who's raising their Yeah. Oh, okay, cool. Oh, and is it design company? Yeah, a retail company, right? Cool. Cool. Very nice. So motivated. Who else? You're here You're here cuz you want to start your own brands, you know. You just don't want to talk about it. Okay. Anyway, for those of you who are starting, are you keeping your day job? All right, anyway. The way it started with me, obnoxiously, I figured I had so much fun creating brands for my for my clients and I want my own. And then so, the impulsive personality that I have, not much planning went into it and I'll just figure it out as I go along. And so, first we need a product. I know, my mom is an amazing baker, my sister has a great sense of style, and then uh mini tarts was my favorite dessert. And so, we created really gorgeous gorgeous mini tarts. And my mom created a recipe and still my sister designed them. Silvia, where are you? Say hi. Wave. Wave. So nice my sister's here today. I know she's busy. But anyway, so we we started with product testing and then we used better concrete as test subjects. They had a hard life. Jeez. And then as a designer, obviously branding is the easy part. Like the naming and the photography and packaging store design. So it was hard work, but it was what we already know. And then comes the employee training, which started to get out of my comfort zone a little bit, but it was okay. And then so on the launch we started invite the press. We invited bloggers and it actually went pretty well and the feedback was very good. Brides magazine said it was a genius idea. Wallpaper magazine said top 10 reason to be in USA. I don't know why. And then we had LA Times, LA Magazine, all these things. It was good. It was all good. What we did not consider was the economy was so bad at the time when we launched this. Idiot. Idiot. Anyway, so we sold our tarts at 350 a tart and it was like it's pretty small. So everybody considered it expensive. We really can't come down on a price because it was very labor intensive. As you can see it was very intricate and it we I even have to put like stuff on with tweezers, put some of the stuff on top of it. And the shelf life was only a day. You can make it in the morning if it doesn't get sold at night, gone. We have to throw it away. Location wasn't ideal. I wasn't an expert at finding a retail space and it was impossible to ship even though it seems like New Yorkers really like it more than LA people. What's wrong with you guys? Anyway, and managing retail employees was a nightmare. We had employees who are late and I would walk up to the store. I have customers waiting outside. Employees wasn't there. Like can you imagine walking up to like a store and the store isn't open when it says on the door, it's supposed to be open. And they're constantly fighting, badmouthing each other. Needless to say, there was a lot of firing. I've never fired so many people in my life. But anyway, and it's also again, one of the other cons was my time. I had to drive all the way to West Hollywood in the morning at 6:00 a.m. By 11:00 I was at work and I stayed till obviously 7:00. So, it was like a long day for me every day. And although we had customers who were obsessed with it, um but still growth wasn't what we were expecting. And it wasn't the joy and the reward that we wanted out out of family business. And so, again, came back to me being impulsive. I did not put a business plan together. Nor do I know how, even if I try. So, and I look at the whole process from a brand perspective, not business. Big mistake. Don't ever try to do business, business perspective. Smartest thing we ever did was to close the physical store and create an online only retail store. And we focused on all-natural, handmade cookies. Like this lavender noir. It's a delicate layer of fragrant lavender cream in between extra dark chocolate wafer. Oh, yeah. Uh-huh. Don't say. And then this salted caramel shortbread, which is buttery shortbread cookie infused with rich caramel and sprinkled with sea salt. I know, my mom is amazing. I grew up WITH THIS [ __ ] WHOOPS. And I brought some. I brought some salted caramel, which is our best seller, and my lovely posses are going to hand up some, so you can try them out. Come on. Hand out some cookies. I'M SORRY I CAN'T bring more. There's one each. One each for everyone. Open it and pass it down. Come on, Scott. Mike, do it. Phil, Sun, you're not I I paid for you to be here for a reason. Yes, exactly. You know who you are. So, try it. Go While they hand it out, I'm going to keep drinking. I would love a refill. Hint hint. I would love a refill. Thank you. So useful, Owen. So, try it. If you have no allergies, please don't eat it. There's nothing there. Yay! Thank you. And if you like them, tell your friends about the brand. Better yet, Mother's Day is coming up. She would love some cookies, you know it. And I can't help it. I'm a business owner. I have to do a plug. Yay! Okay. I'll I'll wait till everybody gets their cookies. Thank you. There's no alcohol? What is this? There's no more I'm just kidding. No, it's okay. Adam, sit down. Please. No. No. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, guys. You're so sweet. So, anyway, we switched to a business online retail only. And you know, by focusing only on online, we we we all the up upkeep and the cost to keep a storefront disappeared. We don't need storefront employees. We don't need to manage them. And so, the headache the whole headache is gone. And also, our cookies have a 1-month shelf life with no preservatives. It can last for a month. Gone are the day when we I can make it in the morning at 6:00 a.m. and we have to sell it by the end of the day and there's no wastage. We also open up our customer base to only having customers in LA and West Hollywood area to the entire nation. Crazy, right? The joy of online online business and and the cookies are also shipped easily shipped across the country. So, we rented a kitchen to bake it and then um fulfillment and corporate office is in downtown, which is the first floor right across from Fair Concrete and that means I have no commute. And then did I mention I live in the same building as Fair Concrete and Fruit on the fifth floor? My commute is the shortest of any one of you here possible unless you work at home. I just took an elevator down. So, we also noticed that with cookies gifting was a big market. So, we created our version of the gift basket. We created a felt basket and a test tube that acts as a your message in a bottle when you want to send somebody a note and added a cute product like the salt and pepper hug. And for corporate, the birdie letter opener. We even created the lust basket. Yes, lust basket. It has a mini vibrator in it and very very popular during Valentine's. Get it. Get it for your girlfriend today. And as we grow, we understand our business better. It's again it's the step-by-step process of really learning what we're doing. And so, our busiest days are major holidays like Mother's Day, Christmas and there's the all those non-holidays months that are just really quiet. So, those months we focus on corporate orders and client gifts because these these corporate companies actually really when they order, they order 100 basket at a time for their events, for their client gifting. And so that we understand our business a lot better. And we also focused on connecting us with the right brand partnership. Like Dean & DeLuca carried our cookies during the holiday and it was a really good exposure for us. And it And if you guys know Dean & DeLuca, it's like it's known for years. They've been around for decades as the like the gourmet go-to when you want to buy gourmet stuff. And so for us being a part of their website and part of their product offering was a stamp that ours is a gourmet cookie. And they really actually really loved our cookies so much that they want to start carrying it in their Madison Avenue and SoHo stores in New York. And which means we're back in a physical space, but with no overhead cost. I'm not paying for rent. They give us exposure to their already existing customer. So it was great. Nothing to lose. And so we're also in William Sonoma basket for Mother's Day. Mother's Day. And even though unfortunately, we took a slight detour, Fruit has become the company that we set out to do when we first started. It after the pivot, we actually are finally well on our way and revenue has tripled every year. And we I learned a lot of from this experience so far and not not without making mistakes, you know, I will do it again in a heartbeat, but next time I'll be that much smarter. So anyway, while all this Fruit is happening Ferro Concrete team sees that the whole process of how Fruit grew out of an idea to from an idea to starting a business. And I always encourage our team in the office to really start their own businesses. If you have an idea, let's do it. Let's come up and like talk about it. And because Ferro Concrete wants to create a lot more brands. And it did not go unnoticed by Owen, our art director at that time, and Sang, which is our web developer. Stand up. Where are you guys? Yeah. Oh, just say hello. Yay, support. But anyway, they came to and they they talked to me and they said, "We want to change the fragrance industry." I'm like, "Wow, okay." And invited me to be a part of it. I was so honored and I loved the idea and like I did not even hesitate to get involved. And we hated the way fragrance is portrayed. It's not about me or you, it's about Matthew McConaughey. And it gets worse. Sweaty, moisty men and women, really? You want to smell like that? And then fragrance shopping at the stores is really overwhelming. Like hundreds of smells all mixed together and like after a while your nose gets tired. You don't even know what you're smelling anymore. And so Commodity is born. First we team up with a fragrance old old French fragrance house and crafted the scents here in the US. And product naming is all about me and you. It's like stay away from names like Obsession, Eternity. Woo. Make it relatable. Make it relatable. And that's why we call it Commodity. It's like fragrance is as is your necess- your everyday necessity. It's names of scents is an extension of your personality. You could be a cloth person or whiskey. Maybe you're a book person. It really defines who you are as a person. And it's since it's only online retail, we created the home fitting kit, which is like save your nose from the in-store fuss, take each scent for a test drive, and discover what works for you in the comfort of your own home. It's $9. But it's credited to your bottle purchase once you have purchased make a purchase. But anyway, we broke it down, right? The then this here's the what the other people are doing it. It's like that much premium juice, that much celebrity endorsement, and the rest of it goes to retail markup. For us, the whole thing is about premium juice and packaging. We can't reveal the price. We're still figuring that out. Pricing is an art form, by the way. And let's just say premium fragrances for under 50 for now. And so it's a try-at-home premium fragrance for a fraction of the price. No celebrity endorsement, no in-store fuss. Unlike but unlike Fruit, this we need an initial investment for this because it's a much bigger deal than just starting a cookie company. It really there has to be manufacturer manufacturing is going to be involved. So, we went on Kickstarter to test our concept. And in 30 days, we almost tripled our raising goal. And this is an initial proof of concept, especially for investors. Those of you looking for investors. And so we begin our search for funding. Investors love the brand. They said, "It's the best brand deck I've ever seen." And then, "But where are the numbers? Where's the money going? Where's the business plan? What's the cost of customer acquisition?" And I'm like, "Huh?" And then, "Yikes!" These are all the things we're not accustomed to. Again, we started from a designer brand perspective. You think after Fruit I would learn, but anyway. For For business people, they would not even start with a brand at all. They would start going on the numbers, going on Excel. I hate that program. And start putting numbers together. And even before they go to present anything to anyone, it's about the numbers. But we didn't, so obviously we didn't know how to do it either. So we hired a chief financial officer for a day. He said, "Give us a rough draft." Of course, a day we can That's all we can afford. It wasn't perfect, but it was enough to get us investors, which is good. So, we narrowed down to the right partners and we we had good chemistry with really one of the investors and but she wanted us to move to San Francisco, Silicon Valley. And then uh bring in her own management team and she said would handle just the brand portion of it. For us, first of all, we love LA, yeah? And then it defeats the purpose when we're only handling the brand portion of it. Defeats the purpose of us wanting to be in the trenches and discovering and learning all the nitty-gritty of starting a business. I think first and foremost as us young people who are starting something, we want to learn and that's I think the biggest pleasure I get of like doing these things. Whatever it is now, but it's learning. And so, eventually we found another investor who is amazing and he lets us drive the company, but he mentors and guides us and so far we're learning a lot from him. So, we officially officially launched this year. It was very well received. Esquire says, "A new cologne brand that's looking to shake up things up." Fast Company says, "A branding agency reinvents the perfume business." Allure Magazine says, "The Warby Parker of perfume." Yeah, that's the best one. Thank you. So, again, so unexpected. Cheers. And um one of the most my most exciting thing was when Conan made a joke about our whiskey scent. Conan, here we go. A fragrance company has just come out with a cologne that smells like whiskey. Yeah. It's perfect for the guy who wants all the stigma of alcoholism, but none of the fun. So awesome. Right now, we're barely in our initial stages. We're still refining the business model, refining pricing, product groupings, shipping pricing, whether it's free or it's not, like offers and but it's very exciting and definitely I'm learning a lot. But for us it's also very important getting eyes on the brand from press, bloggers, Instagrammers, and it's like always diligently reaching out to them. By the way, I have six try on kits looking to give away. Look under your chairs, Oprah. Really, look under your chairs. There's six of them. Huh? On the bottom, BOTTOM. YAY! I TAPED IT. I TAPED IT TO THE CHAIR, SO THERE should be six. If the seat next to you is a yay, if the seat next to you is empty, could be yours. Did we find six? It's tape underneath the chair. Anyway. And it's three girls and three guys. So, if you're a girl and you got a guy, maybe be nice and switch. I don't know. But anyway, I hope I We found all six. If not, just uh I don't know. Find it later. Anyway. So, if you love Commodity, tell your friends. Better yet, get a try home a try at home kit. Mhm. Again, apologies, but it's good business to plug, right? Okay. Anyway, it's also really important to get eyes on the brand. So, we created something fun. We call it the one-minute model. The turn yourself a I turn yourself into an unbearably sexy fragrance model in a minute or less. Yeah. And then, do you have what it takes? A perfect 10 just won't cut it. You've got to be a 20. Like, you're not good-looking until you're professionally good-looking. So, it's really a parody on the perfume industry. And uh here's Scott Macey. OH MY GOD. HE IS HE IS OUR DIRECTOR director of design and strategy at Ferroconcrete. He's looking awesome. Scott, say hi. Come on, Scott. Get over AND SAY HI. MIDDLE HIS WIFE WASN'T HAPPY WHEN WE sent her this photo. He did By the way, this is on the side. Yes. On the side note, he doesn't look like that in person. I don't know. But anyway, no no no. No no no. No, on the side note on the side note, he didn't do this willingly. So, we actually We actually took his photo and then we just put it on this guy without his consent. On the other hand, Mike, who's our art director. MIKE SAYS HI. YOU SAY HI. Not only did he do this willingly, he chose a woman's body. SUCH A GOOD SPORT. LOVE YOU, MIKE. BUT ANYWAY, WE ALL AND THEN WE also created a Audi Bear. He was our scent sommelier. And after single He said, "After single single-handedly making commodity amazing," he took credit for everything we did. So, I've decided to take a sabbatical. And so, we sent him roaming in the streets of New York Fashion Week and then he was sniffing around and spreading good smelling cheer. And we If you tweet him, you see him on the street, tweet him cuz he's carrying that briefcase with the tweet, he'll tweet back. He's actually wearing a Bluetooth headset and then he'll say, "What are you wearing?" I know it's kind of creepy, but people do it. And then he'll find you based on what you're wearing and give you free home try-on kits. He was so popular at Fashion Week and he was invited to after hours parties. And now, Audi Bear is back in LA. So, Fridays when we at the whole office we got to drink, we take him out. And if you see him on the street around downtown, say hi. It's probably Owen or Kylo in it. Now we know who it is. Um so, 1 Minute Model and Ode Bear really helped spread the commodity name uh through the press, blogs, but really it landed us con- contacts in the fragrance industry. And it also landed us customers and even retail buyers who wants to carry our product in their stores. But most importantly, it sets us apart from just a fragrance company to an actual fresh fashion brand. And so, very happy about that. And today Commodity still works out of Faro Concrete. And then with Fruit next door, um we love the synergy of the three companies together under one roof. And like we everybody works and collaborates with each other and share ideas. And for Faro Concrete, we want to create brands that last. We want to make sure we evolve with technology and demand and stay relevant. There's just so many amazing amazing companies, design companies who has disappeared because they failed to evolve. And for Fruit, we want to keep doing the company we set out to do as a family and really stay passionate. And we want to be the go-to gourmet cookies with style, spread the sweetness, vibrators sometimes. And after all, cookies are proof that life is good. And for Commodity, we want to change the way people shop for fragrances. Always try to figure out a better way to tailor a scent to fit our customers. And personally, I would love to someday soon go to bar, bump to somebody, and say like, "You're You're wearing Tea." And I'm wearing Tea's my favorite fragrance out of the But anyway, that would mean we're a household name. Hopefully, one day. And for you, if you guys are considering starting your own studio or retail brands, do it. Now that we've all mastered Photoshop, in Scott's words, do something bigger for yourself. Let's think bigger. And don't be afraid to fail and try again because, you know, we learn from other people's mistake. Learn from my mistakes. Come on. I have failed and grow and learn a lot and the time to do it is when you're young, when you don't have a family. It's not as hard to take a risk. As you get older older it's going to get harder. And it's exciting to be young designers like you at this time because you know, you want to be the next frontier and to be in a place like LA it's like, you know, Venice is that now going to be the new Silicon Valley. At least that's what people are saying. In my opinion it's downtown LA. But, you know, start game-changing ideas. Be motivated and be willing to work very hard. Because, you know, the key is to surround ourselves with really good people who are very driven, who shares your vision. And in that I'm going to shout out to my team for Ferro Concrete, Fruit and Commodity. Especially those who are here. Scott, Mike, Owen, Sam, Zack, Phil. Anyway, I have to do that. Not only do I pay for them to be here. And for me I want to remember always remember as I grow to always remember that if I'm not good at it, find somebody who is because I want to surround myself with good people and most importantly trust them. A company is or a startup is just a company. It's just an empty structure. It's the people that makes it a company. And I look forward to building more brands and a girl can dream, but my dream is to one day have my own building with commodity on one floor, fruit on one floor, Ferro Concrete on one floor, my apartment on the top penthouse. And I look forward to the invention of the health pod like in Elysium. You know, it's a great time being a creative. Robots can do automated things, but really creativity still takes people and heart. So, with that, thank you, AND WHO'S HUNGRY? ACTUALLY, UM PINKBERRY, a friend of mine knew the owners. And at one point, I went to a meeting and I was with her in the car on some other meeting for another project. She said, "Hey, my friend is starting a yogurt shop." I was like, "You want to invest?" And she was asking my boss to invest. And I'm We're both thinking, we're like, "A yogurt shop? Not really." But anyway, she started like asking me, like, "Are you sure you don't want to take a look at this company? They are actually doing something amazing." And so, I eventually did. So, it's from a friend that I found out they're looking for agencies. Yeah, you're welcome. Thanks for paying. I'm just kidding. Anyone else? Yeah? Well, the proposal itself didn't really sketched out what we were going to do. It pretty much I kind of put together with images and examples of great brands out there. Like, I put I think I put BMW, Volvo in there, and like how Nike, like a brand when it's done right, it can get to this place. And I kind of put a little short stint about like what I think Pinkberry is, how people are passionate about it, and what they should be, and they should be known as the first one who reinvented yogurt. And like, basically, it convinced them. At the end of the presentation, he said the co-founder said, "This is the first presentation I have that I got goose bumps." And he said, "How much are you looking for?" I'm like, uh-huh. I was like I was like so excited, but I was like, I wrote on a piece of paper, pushed it. Anyway, yeah, so that's uh that's how it happened. When you start a company, really there is those monumental moment like monumental projects that really brings you the next 10 projects. There's a lot of like little projects we've done that nobody even care about, but TBS one was one of those that people every time they come to us still for network rebrand, they will talk about that and they say we love what you did. And what when the Today Show came to us, they actually said, "We're the Today Show." And they're like pretty mighty cuz they are big and they know they were on the press for so long because they are losing their audience uh to Good Morning America. And so basically they said we don't have any pitch fee. We've never done anything without a pitch fee. Without a pitch fee, which means you're paying your employees to do an idea to present to somebody with no payment and you might not even get the project. So it's really huge investment. So we actually turned them down. We said, "We don't do projects without a pitch fee." And then incredibly, we were so willing to let it go. Incredibly because we couldn't afford it as a small company to actually invest even 5, 10, 15,000 dollars on like a pitch. It's a lot of money. To a big company, of course, it's fine. They have a lot of overhead and they're they earn a lot more money, but it was so we couldn't do it. And then they actually came back and said we said our team really wanted to work with you guys. So what do you charge for a pitch fee? And so we said our number and they're like, "Okay." And so that's how it happened. And we did had no idea we were going to win. We actually it was actually one of the hardest pitch because we presented the first time, they loved it, then narrowed it down from six companies to two. We went to New York to present. After two, they actually No one has ever asked us this to present another round, make changes, present another round. And so we did. Which was a lot more investment on our part, but we finally got it. And one of the things that they actually also said was we're a small company. All these other companies that you guys are pitching against are much bigger and we're afraid you don't have the bandwidth to do it. But anyway, it's not a problem. I think it was probably about 50/50. They might differ They might differ in opinion and say like yours never around anymore, but it's not true. I was there. I was there. But yeah, about 50/50. But it did I have to say really it did take attention away from Ferroconcrete and I wasn't fully invested in Fruit. And what I've learned with like starting Commodity or Fruit or Ferroconcrete even, you need to have good people in place who are very very invested in the in the company. And you as somebody who is like a part of this and a part of that, you can oversee a lot of things, but you need somebody there day-in-day-out in the trenches to really understand and love the brand. And like with Commodity, he has a Owen and Song has a full team one just invested in it. And Fruit, my sister was amazing. And so and Ferroconcrete, Scott, Mike who's the only two that's here today, but amazing who actually really if I'm not there, things will run. It's going to be okay. Yeah. No, that's a good question. I've always wondered, you know, like is graphic design the word graphic design for us is it still relevant? Because you know, me and the the co-founder of Pinkberry's we worked together for many many years. And every time he introduced me, actually when we were doing Pinkberry, I was he wanted me to present to the investors. And he actually took me to Seattle to present to Howard Schultz who's the owner of Starbucks. And he presented me as the graphic designer. And I kind of you know, I was lucky to be in that room in the first place, but the idea of introducing me as a graphic designer, I feel did not communicate the breadth of what we do as somebody who does brands. You know, a designer, I don't know where the line draws between a designer and a a somebody who does brands, but I feel like you know, people who do branding really understand how things and objects and products and websites and packaging, everything is everything is trying to speak to you. And it's not just making a book, it's not just making a packaging. It's all the cumulative of all those things and see it as one vision, as one language, and make it come together. And it you know, when brands come to all of us who's who I know some of you does branding, too. It's not like you just start Hey, a company comes to do branding and like let's put some stuff on a paper, this looks good, this color looks great. It's not you come I always start working on a piece of I love writing on a piece of on emails, on Mac mails. So, I always just put objectives and everything that the the client is trying to do. And then after that, I push that aside, I think about if I really like this brand and I if I like this brand. So, what are the things I want to say about this brand that can I that I feel can connect people to this brand. I'm a matchmaker, remember? I That's how I feel. So, I start putting words that I think it should be. And then I started connecting what the objectives are with what I think it should be and where does it connect? And once I put that together, I summarize it really simplify it into just a paragraph. And after that paragraph, it's only then I start looking at visual exploration. I start looking at inspirations, and it's always good to look outside of the industry. Say, I'm branding yogurt, what I looked at was Space Odyssey. I looked at movies, I looked at when I was branding Hustler toys, I was looking at cosmetics. It's like being inspired by the things outside of the category. Actually, I think by bringing that into the category, you're changing the way people look at it because once you're like, you know, if you go out today and look at what is the frozen yogurt, what is the the signal for frozen yogurt? It's always that white table and the plastic glass invisible chairs because Pinkberry started it all, but now everywhere you go, picture of tangy frozen yogurt is a white background with a very minimal a couple of raspberry and you know, it's it's Now that Pinkberry's at that point, how do they change? And unfortunately, we don't work with them anymore. I'm sad to say because I really love their brand, but at some point, it was like the founders left, investors come in, we want to turn profit, we want to be the biggest franchise. And it when the founders first started when we worked together, it was about creating something different. It was about changing the way people look at dessert. Nothing they did was ordinary. And so, I felt that they've come to a point where they have to dramatically change the way they are perceived because they are not as cool as they were before. Yeah, I think that's a really good question. Like I said, I'm very impulsive. I had no business background. And what I did was just pretty much, let's start a brand. What's the first thing we need to do? Find a product. I did not know anything about business. And trust me, talk talk to my sister, every single day was a fight. Like every single day, I had no idea what I was doing or getting a license permit to actually bake something in your kitchen, get a kitchen permit. This was all just learned day by day. I talked to the contractors, I talked to the people who find me a location, the real estate agent. I just tried to ask them as much questions as I can. So, I learned from them. Cuz yeah, and of course, I have a few clients who's done it before and they became good friends and asking them was really helpful. But I think I think Chris Do would actually say this too. Connections. He always tells me connections is very important. The people you know who are your clients or your friends, you never know that they could one day be the one who enlighten you in a lot of things. Even though you've never brought up the subject of doing retail, do it. They might actually know some people or they might actually have that past experience and can tell you a lot about it. I think Scott can answer this question very well. First you ask them what is your budget. We don't We We start projects from here to here. And then First of all, it would already weed out the people who can't pay that much, you know? And Not that we're being mean, but it's just like we want to work on We know we have a goal to work on the projects that we want to work on with the right amount of money so we can make a good project. So, with that they already weed out a certain certain type of people. And I mean I don't know what your reasons are for turning some of the other job. You can always say you're busy, our time is booked, maybe we can revisit it in the future. I can The best thing you can say when you turn somebody down is to say I can recommend you a few people who might be available cuz, you know, even though you don't want to be their client in the future, they might want to come back to you or just don't burn that bridge. Yeah. I think it's really And again, Scott can answer this better than I do. You want to answer this question? But it's it's really basically understanding client always have to have a a creative brief. They have to have an objective why they're spending this amount of money to hire a design company. So, look at We start looking at their objective and then we we thinking about what we can bring to this objective. Like say if they say, "I want to attract this demographic." Then you look at what this demographic like and what are the things that they would be attracted to and start creating an idea based around that. Whether it's I don't know. I don't know, skating. Ah. Anyway, but it's really about putting together a piece of paper. A piece of paper with an idea of a clear definite plan of what can be done to bring them to the next level and understood what they are trying to do. I think that's how I explain it. Yes? No? Yes? Yes? Did I get an A? Okay. Okay. I'm getting hungry. Any more questions? Wait, am I too early? Is this Is this like really early? Did I not get your Did you get your money's worth? YES. YAY! THANK YOU.