Visiting Grit was an interesting experience getting to see an actual work environment populated by all of their employees and seeing what an independent design studio is like in my own first hand experience. Initially I walked in and was like wow this is what a design studio that pulls in enough money to be near the heart of Denver looks like. For my own personal experience as the head of the studio was presenting. It wasn’t anything too pertinent to design, but being a Hawaii local I could not stand the way that he pronounced all the Hawaiian words. Other than that it really gave me a good look into the way that design studios operate and the kind of clientele this specific studio worked with. What I found more interesting than the owner himself and the work that the company produced was the kind of designers and workers in his employ. Every single one of the designers was good in a variety of different fields making a relatively small studio able to address any design job through such a small amount of staff. I’m not sure how many studios hire specialized designers like illustrators and 3d artists there are but I feel that this kind of studio catering to so many mediums really allows them to create whatever is needed for their clients. This prompts me to think about the possibility that there are studios out there that are completely made up of UI or UX designers or solely typographers and what that kind of homogeneity does to the work environment and if that is a kind of work environment that I desire for myself in the field. It was really interesting hearing form the one non designer in the office and their role as a brand strategist and writer, account manager and how that kind of job plays into the overall office ecosystem. What I found really interesting about this studio was the impact that the legalization of cannabis in Colorado gave them the opportunity to become the pseudo premier weed brand creator. Arguably I think that these packaging designs allow for some really cool products regardless of product itself, but having a kind of taboo product allows for more creative freedom to a wide general market and not having to worry about children. What I found pretty genius about this studio is that they found their niche of making weed brand identities so much that they’ve started generating random weed brands so that they can be bought without having to add a new project on to the schedule through working ahead.
