New creative studio Free Studio launches
There’s a new creative studio named Free Studio in the market – an enterprise promising “a fresh model offering great heavyweight, global and local talent to Australian shores. Promising to move outside the boundaries of traditional client-to-agency-to-production modes, and to be a place where ‘ideas go to be set free’”.
The announcement:
free.studio launches this week in Australia, with a fresh model offering great heavyweight, global and local talent to Australian shores. Promising to move outside the boundaries of traditional client-to-agency-to-production modes, and to be a place where ‘ideas go to be set free’.
But is this a fresh contribution to the future of work, and creativity itself?
The new studio offering combines creative, production, directing, illustration, journalistic, editorial, media, strategic, AI, tech and innovation chops from around the world with a view to making more than its fair share of work. Importantly too, the studio will offer a home-base for talent and clients to work directly together in crack, project teams. But it’s how this promise of top-drawer talent making leap-worthy work, that founder, Michael McConville is excited about today.
‘When you’ve worked with so many local and global members of our creative community, and you come to thinking about where things could go next – and where you personally want to play your part in that – you normally start by asking, what do I care about?’
‘And in that sense, it’s really easy. Always has been. I care about the people and the work. And making work I care about, with people I care about. So, the next question becomes a pretty active one – how do I get to work with as many brilliant people as possible, making brilliant work alongside them? And you recognise very quickly, that maybe building another agency with the same sorts of cost-base, multipliers and access to talent, isn’t the best way to put great talent together with the clients who value and need them most’.
And that led to this, Free Creative Studio – or free.studio as it can be found online – a creative collective with a membership component, that means the studio group is setup to cover hard-costs before a client conversation is even held. Then the flow-on effects and benefits can be felt by talent and client alike; no fixed costs that need to be covered as part of a multiplier, that McConville says ‘always become part of the cost to clients, and can sometimes come at the cost of the culture of that relationship’.
‘There’s no typical 2.2-ish multiplier in this setup’ says McConville. ‘Talent can get paid properly without most of the clients’ budgets going to cover hard-costs and a multiplier. That means that the people who work with us, are choosing to. We’ll work to set ideas free; wherever those ideas come from, including and especially from clients. Even the business model is designed to free things up and be as pure as possible. Simply putting great people together in service of each other, and the work. Client and creative talent – in whatever form they take – together’.
‘Talent and clients benefit due to better pay and lower costs. And a more frictionless, risk-free way of getting started. Talent is only cast on projects they’re perfect for, with the creative freedom that comes with not having to worry about any agenda other than the client’s goal, and the joy of making a good idea as great as it can be’.
‘I’m finding so far, there’s no ego’ continues McConville. ‘Just a group of people solving problems on repeat and turning half-ideas into wholly brilliant real things. We’re just trying to bring about a different type of setup. We know this won’t be everyones answer to ‘the future of work’ or anything like that, but for quite a few, it will be the future of their work. Now it’s just time to talk about it more openly, I guess. Eeek’.
The studio has actively said it’s not interested in retainers or long-term contracts. The feedback from marketers and members was that it would be great to have something that was quick, simple, turnkey and focused on getting projects off the ground with great people, with less time and energy wasted on the setup and admin. McConville thinks with that in mind, the studio will focus more on the types of projects that as he puts it, tend to make up ‘the 20 plus the 10’ in the typical 70/20/10 split of investment and energy.
‘When you’ve got such wide expertise and experience, they end up being people better suited to go outside the norm’ says McConville, (or Micca as some in the industry know him).
‘Everyone involved is properly top notch. We’ve got famous creatives and Titanium winners. People that in another rolewere CCO’s, CSO’s, ECD’s and Head’s of Media from Australian shores. We’ve got creative’s that have written all-time great John Lewis commercials. And producers who have been the most awarded in the world in years gone by, for very, very different shaped work. We’ve got former Heads of Tech & Innovation for some of Europe’s biggest brands. We’ve got senior creative’s and strategists in NZ, UK and Singapore. We’ve got journalists, photographers, publishers. We’ve access to TV studios in Europe and an Emmy Award winning director in the U.S. We’ve got the best AI & media consultant, I think, in the world. We’ve got sustainability consultants, digital product design, web development, illustrators, artists and designers and the usual access to makers locally and abroad. Really, before we’ve even really started, we’ve got wider capabilities than most businesses could hope for in their lifetimes. And we don’t have a cost-base that requires a client to ever pay for more than they need. For anybody that has an inkling of an idea, or a task they want to explore, they can simply call, we’ll freely throw it around for an hour or two, and between us if we think it’s got something in it, together, we’ll cast based from this very open and transparent collective, agree on deliverables and timeframes, and crack on. And we won’t put one person more on a project than is necessary; clients will have complete visibility and a say on every person they work with. Simple’.
‘Most importantly to me, is that this is about setting ideas free. Liberating those starting-points no matter where they come from. Clients have bloody great ideas. But speaking to as many of them as I have recently, most of them get uncomfortable sharing them with their agency partners. They’re on occasion, a bit intimidated. And that’s a real shame. The truth is, their types of ideas are normally a different shape or type than what the agency might think of themselves. We’re interested in those ideas as they often go beyond how something is expressed, and is more likely about the why, or the what, a business does. We’re interested in ideas that aren’t perfectly defined yet, but could be with some openness, the time and the collection of people to transform an idea into its ideal’.
‘There is more talent than ever choosing to apply their skills outside of a traditional agency, and outside of having a ‘9-to-5’. More people are going freelance, and I’ve personally never seen so many great people uncontracted. And honestly, it’s only going to go more in that direction. So all we’re doing is thinking about how to harness these changing circumstances, and people’s changing relationship with work. But doing so, while looking at it through the lens of, what’s going to enable clients to work with the very best? Because I for one, don’t want to be looking clients in the eye without being able to say, hand on heart, the people I’d recommend for a project, really are exceptional.
‘I just want to make work I care about, with people I care about. And to do that with, and for people, you need to able to look everyone in the eye and say you’ve got great people. People with great values, incredible creds, and the ability to work fantastically well together. Even from this starting point with a few clients and a strong raft of free-folk, we can see what’s possible. Now we’re making our idea real and opening up the aperture of what’s possible. And looking for more of the types of people that want to work this way and can contribute positively for clients. All anyone needs is half an idea they don’t know what to do with, or how to bring to life. Clients, creators, all your ideas are welcome. Ideas really can come from anywhere, the tricky bit is to make them real, and set them free. And that’s where we come in’
Source: Free Studio
Editor’s note: Mumbrella has changed the way it deals with company names. House style is now to use standard proper noun capitalisation on all names regardless of brand typography. Brand typography may be retained in direct quotes from releases.
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