Turning Doubt Into Creative Fuel With Rob Bedford  ## Metadata - Author: [[The Deeply Graphic Designcast - DGDC]] - Full Title: Turning Doubt Into Creative Fuel With Rob Bedford - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/a48346ef-784a-4e17-8535-2f1dedafa753 ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **How Juiced Studio Started And Grew** - Rob describes Juiced Studio as a six-person creative agency focused on licensing, games, and making cool merch and brand work. - He traces the studio's origin from freelancing for bands to landing clients like Netflix and Funko through persistent pitching. Transcript: Rob Bedford I am the creative director of juiced or juiced studio ltd if you are feeling fancy uh and we're a creative design agency based up in the north of the uk and we're just all about making cool Shit we're a small team of six we work a lot in the licensing and games industry and we just like to make cool stuff whether that's brand development style guides merch kits whatever it Might be we just want to make cool for cool people you know i mean and that's kind of what's always driven me you know i used to be a freelancer back in the day like for bands because i was in Bands and all my buddies were in bands and kind of as that kind of phased out and i started the agency all my buddies were in game studios all of a sudden. And then that just kind of had a really cool knock on effect. And that's how we got into the licensing gig. And that's how we found out about, you know, like that's how we discovered like Netflix and worked with those guys and the guys at Funko. And yeah, we just like to make cool stuff for cool people really at the end of the day. ([Time 0:03:42](https://share.snipd.com/snip/645dfad0-765b-4b5e-a0c1-b38462405f0b)) - **Underdog Mindset As Strategic Advantage** - Rob turned being underestimated into motivation by treating the studio as the underdog and outworking competitors at expos. - He views repeated face-to-face outreach as a strategic strength over chasing social metrics. Transcript: Rob Bedford Resonate with you? Because it's honestly something that like it's what I use to drive myself. You know, I always feel a little bit like the underdog. You know, I started the studio right before like a global pandemic which was, in hindsight, not a great idea. But all of our clients that we had at the time suddenly were no longer clients. And we had to pivot really, really quickly to find new clients. And it almost felt like every decision we made was kind of, we were followed by something. We were always on one step back. Yeah, it always felt like they were kind of a little bit behind, and we were always knocking in just a little extra hard. A little extra hard is not very good English, sorry. But we were always knocking just a little harder than we had to. So it took years for us to kind of honestly feel like we were taking off. And I feel like it was kind of around the year three mark where we started getting a little bit of that recognition for oh wait this is a cool design agency and that was when we landed we landed Netflix and Funko back to back on pretty long term contracts which we were like super lucky about but it felt like oh we were like in a queue of other design agencies and you know like there Are like dozens upon dozens of design agencies and loads that, you know, we're friends with a bunch of design agencies, but they are sometimes like, you know, 10, 15, 20 years old or 10, 15, 20 years into the game. Turned six in October so we are still sometimes considered quite a young agency and a lot of people look down on that a lot of people you know we did have a client once and this was maybe two Years ago we were pitching for a project and we just got told that yeah like you guys are cool have cool work but uh this won't go past you know our you know seniors because you're a young Agency and we don't work with young agencies so being the underdog is like something that i've always kind of considered as oh wait like we are the underdog this is just going to drive Me you know people are going to say no and that's fine but that's going to make me want it even more that's going to make me want the next project more the bigger project more and that mentality You know led us to kind of do this whole world tour thing that we're doing at the minute which is just hitting as many exports as possible because i you know our social media like presence Isn't the greatest and we kind of let it slide a lot but where our strength is you know it's me going on knocking on dog obviously we met at an expo and like five you know five weeks after that Expo i was at another expo yeah six weeks after that which comes to the next week i'm at another expo yeah and this year it's been on average like one expo every five to six weeks and i'm just A firm believer of you know go knock on that door and if they're not going to pay attention to go knock on it again and knock on it again and knock on it again and just kick the door in until Someone at least says hello. Nick Longo Yeah. Rob Bedford Yeah. Nick Longo Or to open the door. Yeah. Rob Bedford Open the door. If they open the door, great. ([Time 0:09:30](https://share.snipd.com/snip/f8769f22-3a03-4974-ba26-60a4e36e511b)) - **Losing A Dream Client Taught Pricing** - Rob recalls losing a dream client after underquoting and learning the value of proper pricing. - That loss became fuel to price appropriately and chase higher-value projects later. Transcript: Rob Bedford So I remember an expo a couple of years ago. We I got put on the spot really, really badly by a potential client. And they just asked how much we would price for like a style. And we had only done one in entertainment at that point. It was like just as we started getting into the licensing game. They went how much do you cost in the middle of a meeting at an expo and i was like oh oh god what was it so i just said like what the price was for this last project and i hope who i hope who i'm Talking about doesn't watch this uh because she's lovely she is like absolutely she's a star and she just went i budget to this. And it was like six grand higher. And like, we lost that conversation because we were just too cheap. Yeah. And we were just the episode. Yeah. Oh, yeah, absolutely. It's a true. It's a weird position. But you know, the value of money is important. And I felt like a real underdog at that point, because we were like, we this is like a dream brand for me specifically. So we've chased it ever since under the guise of going, hey, like we were like too cheap for you once. ([Time 0:16:27](https://share.snipd.com/snip/1ad78855-db14-4320-882f-57bca029b5a7)) - **Never Quote Blindly At Meetings** - Ask scope questions before giving a price and offer small/medium/large ballpark packages instead of an instant number. - Keep a phone doc with average scopes to show clients three options and tailor from there. Transcript: Rob Bedford Um i would do none of those things i would be like well what's the what's the project what's yes exactly i need to hear that first yeah yeah and that was something i should have done back Then but i was caught so off guard because this is like one of my favorite brands and i had like twinkles in my eyes. I was very much like, oh, I'll give an answer right now. You know, I want to jump in. But now I'm a lot more reserved with that. And I would just be like, well, what's the scope? You know, what deliverable list do you want? Do you know that? Are you wanting a ballpark? You know, if you don't have like a scope ready, I can give you three like different scopes right now. And I usually have a doc on my phone, which is just an average style guide, small, medium, large. And then I can just put it in front of a client and say, look, these are just estimates for very average size projects. Whereas if you wanted something that is a little bit more bespoke, we can work with that. And you know, sometimes that does happen, you know, when we get asked to do a, you know, a kind of a quote, you will give like three quotes, like a small, medium, live scopes. ([Time 0:18:10](https://share.snipd.com/snip/3d0ba5c3-d3b7-43f8-95c1-cc06edfe96a4)) - **Refresh Portfolio And Use Physical Leave-Behinds** - Regularly audit your website, portfolio, and showreels and update them every few months to reflect your best work. - Use tangible leave-behinds and merch at expos to create memorable, physical touchpoints with prospects. Transcript: Rob Bedford Build back and better? So for me, it was like I looked at everything i didn't like i was like i'm gonna just redo it so for me i think you know any sort of creative should look at their you know look at their website You look at their portfolio show reels any of that stuff and go every few months go is this up to date you know for one that's like an important thing but like with the building your own table Thing that's kind of what we were doing with this world tour right like we wanted to do this hour way which is knocking on doors you know we don't do a lot of like work in our local area anymore And that's just because like the sorts of projects we want to do don't really come up very often yeah well and yeah like sometimes like people are coming to us and like oh can we do this project And i go yeah cool like let's talk about the scope and the scope might be too small sometimes they might not have the budget for the scope of what things they want but also we do work a lot In like the licensing and games industry now there's loads of game studios here but not really licensing so we don't really work locally but even our local network we do a little bit of Work with that in terms of like who are the other designers that we're friends with and you know there's a bunch of like small agencies and freelancers like ourselves like agency like Ourselves sorry that we're pals with and we have this little network and you know i think that ([Time 0:21:20](https://share.snipd.com/snip/253c35aa-1e65-4bbc-b049-531e2be15b6a)) - **Struggle Built Resilience And Systems** - Early business struggles (invoices, hiring mistakes, near-bankruptcy) taught resilience and forced structural change. - Rob treats setbacks as tests that refine the studio and its processes. Transcript: Rob Bedford So i there's a couple of times um making my first invoice yeah was you know when i was a freelancer years and years and years ago um and i asked my mom how to make an invoice i texted being like Mom how do i make an invoice i have no idea and i was just like taking like trying like i was just taking payments by paypal and just like winging it and it was just this one band and say oh you Just send an invoice and i went i don't know how to do that so i had this horrible template that ended up making based off like a template made in Word. Yeah. And that was something I realized I had to learn things like pretty quickly. And I was like, oh, damn, like if I'm doing this, I need to do this like a little better. Another time was this was kind of like me putting on my big boy pants for the first time. And the agency was, we were maybe like a year and a half old at the time. Yeah, about that. And we made, before I say this, the guy is like a legend. He's lovely. But he wasn't quite the right fit for the role that we had at the time. And it was doing kind of these tasks that I didn't want to do at the time and we you know it didn't work out you know he's a great guy but I realized like oh wait I should be doing this and it put Us like steps back like way further back than we should have been and it was very much like a I need to like put my big boy pants on here and I need to like book up a bit so that was like a time kind Of like that and it just made me look at the business a whole lot differently and you know it was a good thing it happened though all of it like you know these things are sent here to like you Know test us you know I think at one point in that like instance I think we had like 50 quid in the bank at one point and we were like so close to the red line like we were so close it was like month To month obviously it was during a pandemic as well but it was so month to month it was like so hard to do and I was like right we need to make some changes here and if we can't make changes obviously We want exist but we did make changes that way yeah which is great right so yeah but all these things that you know I fully believe that not just in like creative not just in business but Everything is sent to us just to test us and now they get too philosophical on that you know everything is just stepping stone that's gonna get you close to where you need to be and whether That's you know a long step a jump a dive you know you've got to do those steps regardless of the anxieties or the fear you still have to move forward because if you don't do that you're gonna End up on little side quests, you're going to sidestep and you're not going to be going towards the right place. And, you know, I fully believe that in every day, every walk of life, regardless of it is creative or business, you do these things and they do happen, but it's about getting back on track With it. ([Time 0:31:47](https://share.snipd.com/snip/09f230c4-d84d-4609-a535-4d03b4129442)) - **Turn Rejection Into Fuel** - Rob admits bitterness can be motivational and reframes rejection as fuel to prove doubters wrong. - He uses negative feedback as a consistent source of drive rather than dwelling on it. Transcript: Rob Bedford I'm going to make a joke about this first and i'm gonna give a serious answer uh but what i'm gonna say is that bitterness fuels me let it fuel you good okay love that that's a great way yeah Yeah mantra it's a it's a joke i've had for years and it was because an old clothing brand in our area uh i applied for a job there and they said I didn't have the right degree or whatever it Was. This is like seven or eight years ago now. And I remember being like, I'll just do it myself. And, you know, like it was this joke paraded, but like bitterness fuels me. But I fully believe, you know, like anything that kind of feels like it's going to stop you, just let it push you. Just let it push you. Like those no's, like that's just fuel to get the yes. Yeah. You know, if someone says no to us for a project and that's all be fine. I just use it to fuel the fire. ([Time 0:40:23](https://share.snipd.com/snip/dfb2c105-1724-441e-bb95-2d0be522aabb)) - **Delegate And Build A Peer Circle** - Learn to delegate early: let go of control so tasks move out of your inbox and the team can scale. - Build a circle of peers to critique work and support decisions when you're the solo founder. Transcript: Rob Bedford Of it came naturally. Some of it was a real bad learning curve. So for me, like right at the beginning, I really struggled to let go of tasks. For instance, I wanted to do everything. I wanted to control everything. I was like, I need to do all the design work. I need to do all the email admin. I need to do all the business development. And this is when Niamh is working for us, by the way, when she first started. And I couldn't let go of anything and i had to learn really really hard to like let go of stuff and it was kind of like the the control freak in me has to let go so we can do things better so now Obviously like everyone's on projects i oversee projects neve oversees projects and we've all got our to that like to do lists and task lists and i just go please do this i need it out of My space and you know that was like one of the biggest things that kind of was like a learning curve for me but other things that was like really hard was you know like spreadsheets like I hate spreadsheets i hate numbers i need to love them but i hate them right but then other things that came naturally was like just going and talking to people like that was like super Natural and I think part of that is because I was in bands for years as a front man so I was pretty used to you know speaking at shows doing music videos sometimes things like this and you Know those sorts of things super comfortable with but yeah a lot of like the business admin and being like a quote-unquote business leader i hate that term uh being that uh was like super Super difficult i think and i actually still think i'm learning as. ([Time 0:41:40](https://share.snipd.com/snip/5ea322e1-0b43-4f69-8fed-f2ed09156e4b)) - **Make The Leap Sooner** - If you want to freelance or start a studio, make the leap rather than waiting; experience compounds faster once you begin. - Even if it fails, you gain valuable skills, contacts, and stories worth the risk. Transcript: Rob Bedford Just do it just just fucking do it man why? So in my last day job I worked with a guy who I was still friends with and this is when I was freelancing and he told me every day for about a year and a half to quit my job he knew every day he'd Go quit go freelance full time go freelance full time and because I didn't i feel like i lost valuable time that would have been better spent crafting building my craft doing all that Good stuff i spent years being really really anxious about being what i am in terms of a creative you know it's just do it and it's hard it sucks it sucks making that decision it sucks making Like that leap yeah just do it i mean there's no like i don't have any crazy tips or anything like that but i'll say from someone who didn't who took that it took years for me to do that jump I regret that i i wholeheartedly like believe like you know you shouldn't try you should i live without regret but i wish i had done the jump a lot sooner and you know if we did the if we did The jump a couple years prior juiced might be like nine or ten years old now as opposed to coming up six so and you know time is you know finite you know we you know we don't have a lot of it on You know not to get like too philosophical but we don't have a lot of time so just do the thing and you know if it crashes and burns it crashes and burns who cares you know you did the thing. And if it turns out great, then awesome, right? You know, if you get to go do the thing that you want to do, and it works, and that is just like, that's stellar, right? And, but even if, you know, I always think that, you know, if this studio just died tomorrow, we all have great experience out of it, working with great brands, great clients, great projects. We all walk away with something. So if someone who wants to make that jump and is super anxious about it, just do it. Because even if it ends up not going the way you want, you still get something out of it. You still get so much experience out of it, life experience. ([Time 0:48:20](https://share.snipd.com/snip/1fa9e4a7-008c-4617-ad35-a10ec8b91a10)) - **Use Clear Non-Negotiables For Projects** - Choose projects that satisfy three checks: price, client, and portfolio value, and prioritize 'cool' work when possible. - Keep a simple contract rule: treat us well and we'll treat you well to set mutual expectations. Transcript: Rob Bedford And usually we have like three tick boxes and one is, you know, is the price good? Is the client cool? And is it a cool portfolio piece? But ultimately, it's like we go, we just want to make cool stuff. So like we can we can work around this if it's cool. You know what I mean? So, yeah, I don't know if that can be considered a mantra, it's all i think about you know like when i look at like draft work from anyone on the team usually that's the obviously we've got The brief in front of us but i often just go is this cool oh is this like a cool brand identity that does all these cool things oh yeah awesome cool does it fit the brief awesome cool big tick For me you know and likelihood is if it fits the brief then you know the client's probably going to be happy so for me it's like yeah i just want to make cool shit for cool people and i don't Nick Longo Know yeah i don't know like would you consider that mantra maybe it is because well, it, anything that feels like it, it tells you, it tells you enough about a person or a team or whatever It might be. Yeah. But there's still enough room for the listener to make their own interpretation of what that is. You know what I mean? Sometimes if it's too specific, I feel like it's, it's, oh, that's Rob's and that God bless them. That's great. But I want, I like the mantras that anyone can learn from, you know? And to me, yeah, it's like, to me, I feel like even the good people part is more of a focus. The good shit stuff is kind of like, yes, that's my goal, but there might be times where what you're working on is not, but the goal is to get to that thing where everything I work on is of That level. Rob Bedford But the one thing i could do for everything is the people oh hold on like hold on uh because my brain's going and i'm going oh i'm like cool neat neat cool shit good people no compromises Nick Longo Yeah there you go there ([Time 0:55:28](https://share.snipd.com/snip/e5481c2d-260f-4ebc-b407-94d5ff8b52f4))