I don’t think Studio Uzi started with a proper plan.
I just knew I wanted to build something of my own.
I’d studied design, worked across different things, made things, changed direction a few times, and eventually realised branding was the part I kept coming back to. It gave me space to think beyond just how something looked. I liked getting into the story, the idea behind the business, why someone was starting it in the first place and how all of that could be turned into something people could actually connect with.
That side of branding always interested me more than making something look nice for the sake of it.
I wanted to work with founders at that early stage where everything is still a bit messy. They know what they want to build, they know how they want it to feel, but they can’t always see the brand yet. I liked being the person who could make sense of all of that.
Studio Uzi came from wanting more freedom too.
Not in a dramatic “quit everything and follow your dreams” way. I just wanted more control over the work I was doing, who I was working with and what my days looked like. I wanted to build something around the kind of work I actually cared about.
At the start I definitely didn’t have everything figured out. I was learning how to run a business while doing the actual design work, trying to work out pricing, processes, clients, boundaries, all of it. I think a lot of the studio has been built that way actually. Do the work, learn something, change it, make it better.
Then motherhood came into it and the way I looked at the business changed again.
It made me much more aware of my time. I couldn’t work in the same way anymore and I didn’t really want to either. I had to get clearer on the kind of projects I wanted, how I wanted the studio to run and what was actually worth my energy.
There have definitely been points where I’ve wondered what I’m doing. Some months feel really solid and others feel like I’m making it up as I go.
The studio has changed a lot since I started it. The work is better, the clients are different, the way I think about branding is different. I’m a lot more confident in what I want Studio Uzi to be now, but I don’t feel like it’s finished or fully defined.
