Our studio is on the North side of Brisbane. Until recently I thought a graphic design studio needed to be located in the city, but have been pretty stoked to find out this isn’t necessarily the case.
The culture of work is changing, has changed, radically. Our design studio out in the Brisbane ‘burbs is an example of this. I live at Sandgate, a great little water front suburb, perfect for raising kids (I’ve got three).
I started my business working from home. No overheads and no commute = no brainer. but with kid number 2 things were starting to get a little crazy and I really needed a professional space for client meetings and a quiet space where i could actually think.
On top of that it was a little awkward asking freelancers to work in the kitchen.
I thought my only option was to commute to the city and pay ridiculous overheads with inner city rent prices or find a co working space.
Brisbane’s outer suburbs are full of low rent office opportunities. I found mine through a friend who runs a psychology studio in the local area. He had an empty office beside him and after plying him with copious amounts of coffee one morning I discovered that rent in a great suburb like Sandgate isn’t going mess with your cash flow and kill your profits.
Honestly, I can’t think of a better option.
I ride my bike to work after a relaxing coffee at generations, get to know the local business owners in my area, can pop home in an instant for lunch and for a while even managed to turn a profit renting out desk space to other local entrepreneurs getting started with their business.
And as well as me, I know of at least 3 other designers who run offices from there own homes in the suburbs next door.
Considering we get to work with clients from Melbourne, Sydney, Amsterdam and California with no trouble communicating via skype, and inner city location isn’t really that important anyway.
And the parking is cheaper.