“Design drives innovation; Innovation powers brand; brand builds loyalty; and loyalty sustains profits. if you want long-term profits, start with Design.”— Marty Neumeier
1. What is Kocha?
Long story short, “Kocha is my grandfather’s surname, and I dedicate my studio to him. Certainly, it requires more than your best to provide the services when you represent someone you love” —said Kocha, Studio Co-Founder.
2. Value proposition design from a conceptual point of view
First of all, I started to create our value proposition design by fascinating words. Also, words limit human perception. Therefore, most people cannot imagine further than their words.
For that reason, I used “Brand Desk” to push the boundary and help me go beyond my library of words.
Briefly, Brand Desk is a stack of cards that describe how we want to be perceived by our audience. Each card contains a word and its opposite word on the other side.
Defining who we are (and who we are not)
As result, I used Brand Desk to carefully craft five words that fascinate who we are, as well as another five words of who we are not.
Respectively, we are ‘Timeless’, ‘Simple’, ‘Focused’, ‘Curious’, and ‘Experimental’.
In contrast, we are not ‘Aggressive’, ‘Exclusive’, ‘Futuristic’, ‘Mass-market’and ‘Serious’.
Furthermore, I describe each word on my terms to be more specific for my studio context.
We are:
- Timeless—Sustainable
- Simple—Honest
- Focused—Mindfulness
- Curious—Imaginative
- Experimental—Creativity
We are not (with a reason why we are not):
- Aggressive—We put people first and, then, work toward happiness
- Exclusive—We’re accessible, affordable, and accountable
- Futuristic—Fully present is our priority. We are now
- Mass-market—Instead of mass-market, we rather have our point of view
- Serious—We are serious about not being serious
Finally, I have a common ground to reframe the studio value propositions. Unsurprisingly, the ‘Mission’ and ‘Vision’ unfold itself into a clear strategy statement.
3. The strategy framework
To keep it simple, here is a formula to create our strategic framework.
Who we are × Experiences × Services = Value Proposition Design
As shown above, our formula is (Fascinating words that define who we are ) × (over 10 years of experience in design industry) × (years of experience running our design studio) = Our strategic framework to create value proposition design.
Our mission
“Building relationships and helping good people to create new value through design”
People will forget what you did but will never forget how you made them feel. Without a doubt, most of my meaningful work is usually started by a good relationship with the clients.
Building relationships are our studio’s priority—we succeed only when our clients achieve their goals. Therefore, we are as good as our clients.
In a nutshell, you may wonder how we define good people; we determine good people by how they treat other people.
Our vision
“Bridge the gap between strategy and execution”
Unlike a typical studio or agency, our studio is owned by the designer and serves as the primary contact. Consequently, we leverage our expertise to craft our services.
After all, we approach a project from a strategic point of view and make a positive impact through experienced execution.
“Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.”—Japanese proverb
Our strategy (2017–2021)
“Under the concept of—Design studio as an art museum”
- Building an agile design studio framework (1–3 years).
- Curated designer (artist) with the client project (artwork) (1–2 years).
- Start over, working on a new studio concept (collection of exhibits).
4. Our studio framework
At the time I wrote this article (Feb 2019)—I’ve learned (the hard way)—to develop some of our studio’s framework and define our value proposition design, which includes:
Our core values: How do we run our business
- Anthropology—We identify and deliver our value from the perspective of the people who use our products and services.
- Balance—We are striving for the best possibility via fewer possible resources.
- Creativity—We allow our minds to make new connections between seemingly unrelated ideas.
Our design process: How do we design
- Imagination—Start from the conceptual point of view.
- Design—Visualise concepts.
- Experimental—Work through the concepts.
- Affordance—Functionalise the concepts.
- Simplicity—Constraints and simplification its forms.
Our design standard: How do we judge a good design
- Feeling—Is it appropriate and aesthetic?
- Thinking—Does it solve the right problem?
- Sensing—Does it have the right balance?
5. In conclusion
As a studio owner, there are three crucial things: (1.) Things we know, (2.) Somethings we don’t know, and (3.) Things we don’t know that we don’t know yet.
Value proposition design helps me to unpack the things we don’t know that we don’t know, and it makes other things a little easier.
We are a happy design studio in Sydney. We design mobile apps and brand identity for amazing people like you!
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