Signalnoise Studio Update: Spring 2010

It’s finally starting to feel like spring around Halifax. The weather is warmer, the ducks are back at the park, and the leaves are starting to make appearances. This is the best time of year to be in Halifax, if you live here you know what I’m talking about. This time of year normally brings Spring Cleaning with it, and it’s no different with the Studio. I’ll be working on a few changes, here we go.

The past 8 months or so have been great in terms of Signalnoise Studio getting lots of new work for great clients. I officially registered the company back in February and started jumping through all the hoops necessary in order to get things properly set up. A lot of paperwork, but I had some great people to help me out along the way who gave wonderful advice. I’m still learning the ropes, but it’s going well.

But, here’s the thing. With so much client work on the go it effectively took up all of my daytime hours as well as a lot of my own time, which is usually spent working on posters, writing for the blog, surfing for cool art, sketching ideas, writing emails . . . you know, the fun things that made my Signalnoise brand what it is. I understand deadlines reign supreme, but I found myself less enthused because I didn’t have that personal creative time needed to keep me excited and make me laugh. Speaking at FITC Toronto and having the Signalnoise art show was a wonderful break in the midst of all this because it gave me some time to represent Signalnoise on my own terms and meet lots of wonderful people as a result.

So, things are going to change around here. On June 1st I will officially be moving over to working at the Signalnoise Studio full time. It’s daunting and a bit scary (which I’m told all entrepreneurs feel), but I think at this point it’s time to crank things up to 11 and see what this new landscape might yield. For the duration of my career I’ve only worked at other agencies, so this is all new to a punk like me. Guess we’ll see how it goes.

The one thing I never wanted to do was hang the Open sign in the front window, sit at my desk with a smile on my face and wait for business to come knocking. That whole scenario scares the livin’ hell out of me, to be honest. So I’ve been working on a new department of the Signalnoise brand over the past little while which will take me in a bit of a new direction. I touched on this topic during my last Broadcast and I’m busy aligning all the things necessary to get the ball rolling. This isn’t a client-based project or collaboration, this is 100% Signalnoise. I can’t offer many more details just yet, but the coming weeks will bring many updates as I document what is going on in all kinds of fun ways. Keep watch on my Twitter for little tidbits as well.

Another change is one for you guys. Having been caught up in freelance work, my blog writing, email replying and broadcast schedule went out the window and that really upset me. I always wanted Signalnoise to be a kind of hub for meeting and talking to other people who enjoy art and design to whatever capacity, so to have that put on the backburner really sucked. That being said, I’m working on a more solid schedule of updates for the blog with new content and inspiration stuff, as well as implementing a solid bi-weekly Signalnoise Broadcast schedule to keep a more solid connection with everyone. This might even be upgraded to a weekly Broadcast when I get rolling, but we’ll see.

That’s the scoop, gang. A few big personal changes coming over the next few weeks but I’m looking forward to all of it. As always, thanks very much to everyone for swinging by the blog and broadcasts to say hello. Community, man, that’s what it’s all about. Now it’s time to turn up the heat.