How do smaller studios manage multiple projects? With U.I.WD., Smith & Diction, and Carla Palette

It would be nice if you could just sit and design away to your heart’s content, wouldn’t it? Forget deadlines, client check-ins and feedback! Alas, while we can dream of an ideal world, we don’t really live in it, and must diligently attend to the deadlines of not only clients, but the wider world of printers, photographers, marketers, and so on. From ideation to final delivery, project management techniques and processes help teams meet client expectations while delivering high-quality outcomes.

On top of this, the organisation required to manage multiple projects can be a trying ask for small design studios and freelancers. Balancing not only client expectations and deadlines, but the schedules and resources of the team itself requires careful planning. It’s a juggling act, for sure, but there’s no reason for it to turn into a clown show. To gain insights into how smaller teams keep things running smoothly, we spoke to two design studios and an independent creative – Smith & Diction, a design studio based in Philadelphia, Japanese-Brazilian studio U.I.WD., and freelancer Carla Palette.

Priorities, priorities, priorities

The first hurdle: the initial contact. When multiple clients reach out at once, deciding which projects are worth taking on is crucial. For U.I.WD., led by Bruno Tatsumi and Mariana Torres, the relationship is the priority. “First of all,” Tatsumi tells us, “money is not the key factor.” Rather, the studio prioritises for the long-term, evaluating clients based on personality, kindness, and shared values – will they be a good match over several months or years? Because, he adds, “building a brand takes time and trust.” They seek clients who prioritise quality and challenge the studio creatively, and perhaps most importantly, they take on projects that they truly believe in.

We prioritise the projects we’re most interested in.

Smith & Diction on the other hand, helmed by Mike and Chara Smith, focus on projects they are most interested in and stagger big branding projects to maintain a manageable workload. When faced with multiple client requests, “we prioritise the projects we’re most interested in,” says Smith & Diction’s Principal Brand Director & Studio Manager Chara, “then balance that in terms of timing against our other projects.” They ensure there’s a gap of at least 2-3 weeks between the kick-off of each big branding project, allowing the team to focus on one major idea at a time. Additionally, they build flexibility and “wiggle room” into the scope of these bigger project schedules, “so if something new and exciting comes in, we can move stuff around by a week or so to make some space.”

Based in Berlin, independent designer Carla Palette knows a thing or two about prioritising balance, having spent several years honing her practice as an independent creative. “As someone who has always had the tendency to take on too much work at once,” she tells us, “this is something I’ve had to learn the hard way over the years.” These days, she shares the views of U.I.WD. where she strives to attract the kind of work and clients she best aligns with, taking on three to four projects at one time. “Contrary to a lot of creatives, I generally also try to gauge a sense of the client’s personality before I take on a project, as there are simply some personality types that I do not work well with. 

“I also like to collaborate with other designers and creatives to take some of the load off, as well as get a new and fresh perspective on a creative brief.” Because of this, the project types will vary – a mixture of independent design clients that allow her to take the reigns as the design lead, balanced with other projects where she will art direct another designer – which helps manage the workload, and most importantly, keeps things interesting.

Just use Figma, and a good old fashioned blackboard.

An eye on the schedule

It goes without saying, effective scheduling and progress tracking are essential for project management, otherwise one might easily find themselves in a bit of a soup. And in the case of small studios without deep pockets, there won’t always be funds tucked away for a trusty project manager.

To track and schedule the progress of their projects, Smith & Diction reveal that they “just use Figma, and a good old fashioned blackboard.” Having their studio space within a former school building has its perks, with a selection of huge blackboards on the walls being one of them, so “why not put them to good use?” Using the blackboards gives the team the visual space to plan and outline project milestones. “When a new project request comes in,” they add, “we look at the board to quickly set timing expectations with potential clients.”

To effectively schedule and track project progress, U.I.WD. keeps an eye on both the macro and micro details. A weekly meeting with their entire team on Monday morning allows them to align their agendas, priorities, and project statuses for the week. Throughout the week, they hold private meetings with individual team members to review each project’s progress. “From our experience,” Tatsumi explains, “we can identify the projects that are going to take longer than others, and we build a timeline to best delegate team tasks and deliverables.”

As for Palette, the designer has found that having a water-tight contract helps to keep timelines on track. “With each project over the years,” she says, “the clauses [in my client contracts] are fine-tuned – filtering out variables that can stretch out project timeline – such as creating stricter rules around client check-ins, client feedback loops and artwork approvals.” In terms of her own process, she rigidly sticks to these check-ins, while also laying the groundwork for the brand’s strategy early on, “so the process is generally much smoother for both my workflow as well as for the client.”

Organisation became a natural process for us.

Admin, finances, and all the fun stuff

To add yet another plate for studios to spin, smaller teams need to balance client work with extra – yet very important – tasks. Beyond the actual client work, how much time do they allocate to project organisation and admin? “Well,” Tatsumi responds, “organisation became a natural process for us, and it is always a priority.” One area where U.I.WD. invests a significant amount of time is budgeting and pricing projects on the administrative side. They meticulously structure the project’s demands and requirements, evaluating their capabilities, estimating time and cost, negotiating, and seeking client approval. “We see administration as boring sometimes but essential on a daily basis and we have learned to have fun with it anyway.”

Recognising the significance of finance management, they have hired professionals to handle invoicing, client payments, bill payments, and cash flow control. “And it was one the best business decisions that we made,” Tatsumi adds. “It took us a lot of time doing that in the past, and now we are more free to focus on the creative side, which is what gives us the real pleasure of having a design studio.”

At Smith & Diction, Smith estimates that she spends roughly a third of her time on handling client communications, project organisation and administration. Like the Philadelphia design studio, Carla Palette allocates around 20% of her working week to project organisation, general admin, and self-promotion to ensure profitability and business growth. “Unfortunately we work in an industry where time = money,” she says. And as an independent creative, these are tasks that rest squarely on your shoulders. “I do believe that to be a profitable freelancer, it’s crucial to take time to nurture these aspects of your business,” Palette tells us, as without adequate project management, general admin and self promotion, “it’s incredibly difficult to keep a project on track. So it not only remains profitable, but also allows you to bring new work through the door.” 

Bringing out the toolbox

Like we covered in our this article, there’s plenty of tools out there (paid and free) to make project management all the easier. Notion and Dropbox emerged as popular tools among the studios we spoke to. As for Palette, Asana was the tool of choice, allowing both her and her clients to keep track of a project’s progress.

Figma allows the Smith & Diction team to internally track a project’s progress using a project ‘matrix’ that outlines all the necessary tasks and deliverables. Designers can then access the project file and easily monitor their progress. “As designs take shape,” Smith says, “designers fill in the matrix, so anyone on the team can check in on what's complete vs. what’s left to do.”

U.I.WD. relies on Notion and Dropbox as their primary project management tools, with daily communication taking place over Slack, WhatsApp, and Zoom. Notion, a productivity application and industry-favourite all-in-one workspace, serves a pivotal role in initiating and keeping on top of projects. “It’s a great tool that not only provides our internal team with a project list,” Tatsumi shares, “but also serves as a repository for our studio culture, mission, values, shared passwords, social media calendar and other information we’d like to share with our team.”

Personal projects are crucial for me to keep the creative fire burning.

Keeping it personal

We were also interested to know if, alongside the day-to-day chaos of client work, the studios encourage (or find time to work on) personal projects? “Personal projects are crucial for me to keep the creative fire burning,” Palette says, “so I definitely prioritise these with equal weight as my client work.” With client work alone, she adds, “I find myself feeling like a caged animal.” As a self-professed workaholic, these self-initiated projects are tackled on weekends or on the side of client work, scheduled into the calendar as a designated space for the designer to flex her creative muscles. “I find it positively impacts my client work,” she explains, “and my general headspace, so I feel it’s a crucial part of my creative process.”

U.I.WD. always supports personal projects within their team and even integrates employees’ personal skills, such as photography, into studio work. “We maintain an open and transparent environment where everyone can share any personal design or development projects they’d like to undertake,” Tatsumi tells us. “Our studio routine is generally relaxed and well-structured. We take great pleasure in working on solving real problems for our clients, pouring all of our time and creative energy. In the end, our personal projects revolve around spending quality time with our families and friends outside of work.”

Smith & Diction, while mostly focusing on client work, always supports personal projects and encourages team members to pursue activities outside of work to find inspiration. And like U.I.WD., this won’t always involve Adobe. “We absolutely support folks working on personal projects,” says Smith. “Our team mostly focuses their extracurricular energy on projects/activities that are off of the computer though. So while we don’t really spend a lot of time on design projects outside of work, the things we do spend our time on helps to fill us up emotionally; it’s important to look beyond the screen from time to time.”

So, to put it in a nutshell, managing multiple projects in small design studios (and solo!) requires a delicate balance between project organisation, carefully-planned calendars, up-to-date admin, and clear communication. By implementing effective processes (while not being afraid to work alongside collaborators, if necessary) these studios have slowly, but surely perfected the art of juggling.