Not every day you find a studio co-led by three women, each bringing unique creative strengths. What brought the three of you together and inspired the creation of Afternoon?
We like to call ourselves an agency rather than a studio, and while we certainly aspire to create intentional design, our involvement with brands extends far beyond that. This is the core reason we came together - we each have different strengths, which span the worlds of design, storytelling, strategy and marketing, and we wanted to see the magic we could make when we put our heads together. Fair to say, we’ve had a good ride so far!
How do your personalities or strengths influence the way Afternoon operates?
We give each other lots of space to head our verticals, but also come together to offer feedback on the larger concepts we create. Our team is invaluable and is divided into these three key verticals - design, storytelling and strategy.
Although we have distinct aesthetics and personalities, of course, Afternoon is a happy combination of them, which represents a facet of each one of us
Was it easy to align your visions, or did that evolve over time?
When we created Afternoon, it was because we all recognised a gap in the branding space: we wanted to create an agency that not only gave equal weight-age to storytelling as it did to design and strategy, but also we wanted to take research (primary and secondary) seriously enough that it would inform anything we create – from a social media post to a full-on campaign. We have been aligned on this from the start, and while our plans evolve in areas like business strategy and growth, this vision remains increasingly true.
“We love solving business problems creatively” That’s such a strong statement. Can you walk us through what that looks like in your day-to-day practice? Where does the creative part begin in solving business challenges?
If it’s not clear from the client’s briefs, we ask them directly: What are we trying to solve? What has prompted this engagement with us? We take a close look at the challenge at hand and develop a creative strategy that utilises design and storytelling to find a solution.
We start by immersing ourselves in the brand, understanding the cultural context surrounding the product, and conducting research within budget constraints. From there, we create a strategy that delivers the solution in innovative and engaging ways. This could involve anything from designing a new website and packaging to creating zines or conceptualising a ground breaking event with fresh messaging.
