Here are the responses from Craig at Music to the questions I sent over:
What would you say is the overall design philosophy of Music?
Communicating relevant ideas in an original and honest way.
How did you start getting clients in the beginnings of Music, particularly in regards to a promotional strategy?
We Didn't have a strategy. The company started with a few kind clients that gave Music work. The biggest promotional piece we've done to date was for our book Stuff We Really Like which was a new business push to attract like minded clients…
QUOTE: The book was born of necessity. As a new studio with no work to show people, peers, or potential clients that we even existed we needed something to present to people to announce that we were in fact a business. And as with setting up a business, certain questions are inevitably asked—Who are we? What type work do we want to do? And who would we like to do it for? And it was this self-interrogation that prompted and formed the book: we know who we are, we know the things that get us going, what we like, enjoy and love. And we want to work with like-minded people who share our joys.
Is there a particular sector that you get a lot of clients from?
Not in particular. You'd think music but it doesn't work out like that. We tend to get work from all places. We care more about the people we work with rather than the kind of work or brand (for example). So if you follow a person around as they move jobs (again for example) then you'll work on different kinds of work in different sectors.
If so, has this been constant, or does where the work come from change frequently?
What is the project you're most proud of working on?
Every single one. Every job you do contains a bit of you in it and you lose a certain part of yourself when jobs go horribly bad, but that's the way.
And what was the most difficult design situation?
There have been many. Mostly they are political problems.
Do you find yourself fighting the client for what you know will work often? Or is there a certain level of trust placed in Music these days?
Depends on the client and the relationship with them. Sometimes clients just get you and trust you, sometimes you have to build that over time. Sometimes people want things doing in their own way and get us in to do that—but this is something we don't want to do. That gets tough.
Do you have a particular process when responding to briefs?
We try to gain insight into everything that we do. Making something look good just isn't enough, you have to really solve the problem otherwise it becomes arbitrary and pointless. Everything has to have a purpose and a meaning relevant to the cause.
Your work uses a variety of disciplines, do you have people in house that can do a variety of things, or are you big on using freelancers?
We work with people that are right for the job. We not technically Designers that can only do Design. The way in which we think is what makes us Music and so we use the right production people to make things happen.
When sending work to print, do you use a particular printer? If so, is there any motivation behind using them?
We use a lot of printers. Some printers are good. Some are great. Some are cheap. Some are not that good but they try. It depends on what you want the job to be.
I think these answers have been really helpful in terms of the finer details of how a design studio work. I think their philosophy is one that should be applied to all designers, where execution of ideas comes entirely out of the concept, and everything links back to that concept.
