Kris: Hello and welcome. This is an ask Kris and Don episode where we answer a question from a designer who is wondering how important is it to specify your niche or ’nitch’, depending on how you say it. . You’re listening to design and prosper episode 131.

[Intro Music]

Kris: Hey everybody.

Donna: Hey, how are you?

Kris: Yeah, how is everybody feeling? I hope you’re all doing really well.

Donna: Definitely. So we have a question from a beautiful listener out there, Taylor Shanker, and we hope we’re pronouncingthat correctly.

Kris: Thank you Taylor. Taylor used our form on our website, which you too can do if you want to submit your very own question, just head to designandprosper.co/podcast. We love, love, love getting your questions.

Donna: love it. Thank you so much, Taylor. So your question. How important is it to specify your niche, or ‘nitch”, depending on where you are in the world. It’s pronounced a little bit differently.

And go on to say, I have a small design firm called Schenker Creative Co. where I do graphic design and data visualization. I find myself wondering if I should turn away work to focus on specific things. I don’t take on all projects, but I’ve found my speciality to be visually communicated complex ideas. A vague statement that I’ll then work examples like creating signage for a water storage park that explains the water system, or helping an affordable housing developer design their proposals, I’ve done a few business branding projects, which can be fun with the right client, but I’m wondering if it’s distracting to seem like I’m trying to do too many things. I am a naturally curious person and enjoy working on different types of projects, but I want my expertise to shine through. Please help. Great question,

Kris: Yeah, it’s such a great question. Gosh you’ve got such an interesting sounding niche there. You do seem very well placed to have a niche because what you are offering is not something that all designers can do or want to do for that.

Donna: Exactly,

Kris: It’s a really, it’s a really interesting one and it’s a real expertise based niche as well.

Donna: Yeah, absolutely. And I think that’s the key there, that expertise required to deliver that type of work. A lot of designers don’t have that. Yeah. So you can really lean into that and really own it. Really take it on as being yours.

Kris: Yeah. So the benefit of really leaning into that as your niche is that it will help you create really targeted messaging and really positioning yourself and all your content as the authority and the, knowledge based expert in this field. You’re the go to in that area. That’s exciting.

Donna: That’s so exciting. Absolutely. So when your messaging really lends itself to that, where people are actually coming to you, especially for that type of work, you’ll get known for it, people will recommend you for it, it becomes your go to. But that doesn’t mean, necessarily, that you won’t get other types of projects.

It doesn’t mean that you’ll be left out on the cold and not getting to do different types of projects and different types of collaborations. In fact, it’s the opposite of that. We’ve noticed that a lot of designers who feel like, Oh, I’m in this niche but I’m getting this collaboration request and I’ve been asked to do this and I’ve been asked to do that.

People still want to work with designers who are in a niche. It’s unavoidable. They’ll enjoy either your messaging, they’ll enjoy your values, they’ll enjoy the type of a design approach that you’ve got. Whatever it is, they’ll be attracted to you in some way and they’ll still reach out for work. So you won’t be limiting yourself to just those projects.

Kris: Yeah, because the reality is that, with your niche of visualizing data. And that’s not easy. just as a side note, it’s not easy to do. not everybody’s good at it. Yeah. Donna’s really good at it. So, um, yeah, I I love getting into that as well.

Kris: it plays up into both sides of the brain, right? The left and right brain. Because with your niche of visualizing data, so the types of companies that are likely to require that also need branding, right? So they kind of go hand in hand together. You’re probably not likely to find a client that is just going to need that, the data visualization, they’re going to need brand refreshes. They’re probably already established companies, but they’re going to need other things as part of that.

Donna: A lot of collateral, absolutely. Brochures, annual reports, you know, all the things.

Kris: And leaning into a niche doesn’t, like Don mentioned before, doesn’t mean you won’t get other kinds of projects. And this happened in our business all the time. We were more of a, a branding specialist studio. So I guess if you like our niche was branding, branding experts. And this is my personal business that I’m talking about. You’re not donna’s so, that didn’t mean that we didn’t get requests for say packaging design, which we never promoted, which we never talked about, but these projects would still come up and they’re exciting to us. And we’d be like, okay, well we get to decide whether or not we want to take that project on. And that’s what you get to decide as well. I wouldn’t be just like saying no to everything just because it’s not part of your niche. I’d be assessing it and going, is this an exciting sounding project?

Donna: Do I want to do it? Yeah, absolutely. We were very similar. Our businesses were very similar. We specialized in branding as well, but we were a full service agency. So we did some advertising as well as design. We did long document design and your reports, things like that. So we were really open to, is this a fit? And what we did with our niche is we, we looked at, are we a fit in values? We want to work with good people. We want to do good work for good people.

And so we would sit down and make sure that we were a fit. And if the work excited us, we would then pop a proposal in and we’d go from there. So, we were. It was basically quite broad. So bottom line is you are going to be doing this incredible work that a lot of people can’t do or don’t want to do.

And you just need to keep your mind and your doors open to other work if that’s what you want to do. But I think Kris was saying it earlier. If you’re really excited by this niche, then double down on your messaging. Make your content really, your messaging content really focused into those areas. Make sure the visual stimulation that you have across all of the platforms is really exciting and displays this technical skill that you do have.

And creative skill. It’s a very creative skill. It’s really incredible problem solving. And it’s so much fun with typography as well. Like so much fun. Just have that as your focus. Be really single minded about it if that’s what you want to do. But are we answering the question? I think I’m giving, I think we’re giving Taylor like, It’s great!

You can have the best of both worlds. You can, you can hone in. Like, really, it’s your choice, isn’t it?

Kris: It is. But what we do like about your speciality is that not everyone likes it. So it’s, it’s an exciting one to lean into because if you can excel at it, it can really become your special sauce. So your fundamental question was how important is it to specify your niche? And I think in your example, it’s a benefit to you.

Donna: Yeah, I think so too. I think so too. And I think the thing is, you also then go on to say, in the extended question, that you’re a curious person and you enjoy working on different types of projects.

So, I would be thinking about a bit of a promotional rhythm if you want to specify your niche where you really target that niche and you speak to that niche in, in your socials. And then there are elements of your rhythm, your promotional rhythm that is, where you speak to the broader projects that you might be interested in.

That way people can see, okay, Taylor is an expert in this field and also does this incredible branding and does this incredible pattern design I don’t know what you do tell us. I’m making it up That kind of thing. So don’t be afraid to speak to it, especially if you’ve got Curiosities percolating in different areas feel free to to show those. I don’t believe a creative who shows a lot of flavor and is seen as fickle or confusing as long as you’re clear in your messaging. I think that a full service agency is expected to show lots of different, approaches and some diversity. And that is a part of why people go there. It’s exciting. You’re working on lots of exciting projects. So it’s all about delivery. It’s all about messaging really focus on your messaging and what you want to say.

Kris: Yeah, Just on data visualization, that does tend to go hand in hand with like long document design. I’m not sure if that’s interesting to you as well, but there is a very specialized niche here you could tap into, but it could be a bit broader as well. And then you could be really promoting how you are so knowledgeable with charts and graphs and all those things, all the visual elements that tell the story of something that’s quite analytical, you know, and something that’s quite data driven and how to make it really easy to understand.

And, you know, that whole human experience, I think that is exciting. But those sorts of skills do branch across other kinds of areas of design as well. So if you’re really focusing in on how you can interpret data, Like, that could be used for, say, exhibition design, or it could be used for long document design or annual reports and those sorts of things, so even though there’s the possibility and the potential here for you to zero in on the different aspects of data visualization, it can be broader. You can really sort of pad it out.

Donna: Pad it out, for sure. And I’m getting excited for you, Taylor. Like, I don’t know whether you have seen our Get Clients Now offering, which we, which is in our shop on our website. It’s over five days, it’s a challenge where you target your target audience with a direct mail campaign I’m excited at how you could use your beautiful skill set to graph out and do some beautiful charts on how important branding is or, or any of the other aspects of your business that you want to play up.

So it’s going to showcase this niche, but you can then be speaking to other aspects of your business, other curiosities that you have in your business and target those people using this skill set. Could be really fun and really interesting, you know. So I’m just, my mind’s going, wooooh! I’m excited. So yeah, have fun with it.

Kris: Yeah, and just remember a niche doesn’t have to be one note. You know, it is a spectrum.

Donna: It is! Good comment. That’s right. So there are benefits of specialising. With your niche there really is like the benefit for your business will be clarity just simple focus Clean simple focus here. I am this is what I do But I’m feeling that that’s not going to suit your curious you like working on other things then Maybe it’s the full service studio that you need to take out for a spin instead of really focusing in.

But that’s what it would do. The benefits would be clarity and expertise. It’s very targeted marketing and, you know, because of that deeper knowledge that you have, you know, focusing on a single niche allows you to really hone those skills and you will become the industry expert. The true specialist, yeah, the go to person, which is exciting. But yeah, maintain a balance with it. You know, diversify if the project feels good and it feels interesting and it still feels like it fits within your skill set. Because, We can tell just from having that skill, how many types of projects it could apply itself to. Yeah.

Kris: Like another approach might be that you approach other design studios and say, this is my specialty. And you could be working in collaboration with projects, not as a freelancer, not as a substandard part of the project, but like come to me for my high end, data visualization services that could be the thing, like if you really want to, but then, yeah, we’re talking to lots of different people, not just you with this question, Taylor, because there’ll be people out there. There’ll be people who are like, yes, I love the idea of just doing the one thing over and over again. And then there’ll be other people who’d be like, no, I’m too curious and I get bored and I like to have that variety. So it really does depend on how you want to structure your business model. And what’s going to keep you interested and excited at the end of the day.

Donna: Yeah. Absolutely.

Kris: Well, hopefully that answers your question has given you a lot to think about Taylor. Once again, thank you so much for submitting your question.

Donna: Thank you so much.

Kris: It was a really good one.

Donna: It was a good one. Loved it. I got excited. I almost want to have a brainstorming session with you, Taylor. I was like straight onto it.

Kris: Yeah.

Donna: Great niche. And I think that it’s exciting and I can see that you could do a lot with it with your business. But again, not limiting yourself to that. So I don’t want to end on that going. It’s a great niche. Focus on the niche. Don’t limit yourself. Allow your curiosities to unfurl. Have a play with it. Let them bend and sway into each other as well. So, I think there’s so much scope for joy with your business if you do that.

Kris: Yeah, it’s exciting!

Donna: Yeah, it’s exciting.

Kris: All right, everybody, don’t forget to submit your questions. Have a beautiful week, everybody.

Donna: Until next time, Bye!

Kris: Bye!