Who I Am, Who I Work With, How I Help and What I’ve Learned: Six years of Begin Studio

For DesignersSmall Business AdviceSelf-care

Jan 28

Written By Amy Watt

With Begin Studio’s six year anniversary around the corner, I wanted to share everything about Begin Studio in a truthful and candid way, and take a bit of space to regroup. For my own reference mostly, but I’m sharing it publicly in case you were curious about my inner thoughts, wanted to find out more about what I do or wanted to create your own intention statements for your business. Think of this as my alternative to goal setting - a space for me to write out who I am, what I do and why I do it and follow that through for the year.

To give you some context, it’s an interesting time for me and a good place to regroup. For a range of reasons:

I’m working 20% less than I used to when I started Begin.
I’m only taking on 6-8 brand-new clients every year, which is completely different to when I started Begin and would work with 4-6 clients every month.
I’m still being a cheerleader and all-around supporter of my past clients in a way that I’m proud of.
The social media trends and grind is exhausting, so I’m choosing to focus more on creating social media that feels good, creating reels that works for me and sending out blog posts and emails that connect directly to you - rather than spending my life creating trendy reels.
I’m looking to help even more designers and go back to my roots through my blog posts and resources, which is a huge focus for 2026 and has become such an exciting project whenever I sit down to work on them.

So these are my starting questions and responses:

Why did I start Begin?

I came from an agency background where clients were often hidden behind an account manager, and work felt money-focused rather than being good or useful. I wanted to be able to connect directly with the clients that I was asked to work with. I wanted to guide them through the process, show them my sketches and generate ideas together. Of course, I wanted my design to make a difference and for myself to find more independence through founding my own business. But I also love the act of helping, and that feeling when you are chatting excitedly with a client about their problems, and then something clicks and I know that the design that I’ll make is a perfect fit and is really going to benefit them.

I also wanted to share my experience and connect with other designers. So I began to help new designers with their skills and portfolios through my blog posts, emails and resources. This is a big focus for 2026 and something that I’m so excited and proud of.

What is Begin Studio?

Begin is a thoughtful and friendly one-person studio that is a solution for all design needs. I’m a very versatile designer with experience in branding, websites, illustration, packaging, marketing, seasonal campaigns, ads, print and social media - so instead of working with 5 people, 5 different invoices and 5 different meetings every week, you can build the brand, marketing and design of your business with just one. I structure my services to focus on establishing the brand first, then building out the rest of our work together using the core brand as the foundation.


What kind of clients come to work with me? What are their problems?

My clients are almost always looking for their branding to have joy, approachability and consistency. They know that design is important and tend to have ideas or mood boards about how their design could look, but are often looking for a helping hand to bring their vision, brand and social media all together as one. They are often at the beginning of their business journey and looking to create the foundation of their brand (hence the name Begin Studio!). Or they have been working for a handful of years, spending a lot of time doing all the design themselves, and are now looking for a person to collaborate with whom they can trust completely. They might struggle with:

Having too many creative ideas and not being able to bring them together.
Not being able to show-up consistently or strongly because of the way their brand feels.
Feeling like their branding is holding them back from reaching certain clients or getting their products into certain stores.
Wanting their business to feel more them and be a stronger reflection of themselves.

I take all these problems forward during our strategy and ensure that we tackle each one by ensuring the work feels consistent, intentional and they have a full brand toolkit that they love to use and see themselves in.

How do I help my new clients?

Collaboration is the foundation of Begin. I’m not a designer who will design one logo and then send you the bill. We build the brand together, piece by piece, until it all fits perfectly and will take you where you need to go. I do this through weekly face-to-face video calls, frequent check-ins and weekly presentations. I don’t have a limit on revisions during the design process, so we can refine our work as much as needed. This is really important to me as I don’t want you to feel trapped or tied into a design - I want our work to produce a result that you are really proud of. And because the work is collaborative from the beginning, projects land within three rounds of changes - trust me!

How do I help past clients?

I think there’s a bit of an expectation that as soon as our branding work is over, we part ways - but that doesn’t have to be the case. I am always on hand to offer support, chat through ideas, answer any questions that you have and be your cheerleader! I have a client who I hear from once a year for a yearly boost to their design, and I have a client who I chat with every month to plan out their social media together. So if you want help with more parts of your design or marketing, then my emails are open to receive one-off projects, seasonal work, social media creation and website adjustments.

How do I help new designers?

I’ve been writing blog posts and resources on various parts of my design process for a few years now. Drawing from my own experience as an agency designer, in-house designer and now as a branding studio. I write honestly about how I approach design, and clearly map out each stage of my process with thoughts, ideas and prompts to help guide viewers through. In 2026, I am turning towards this even more and have three big workbook releases planned to expand this side of my business. With the hope being that I can help even more designers with their skills by selling affordable resources alongside free workbooks/blog posts, which would allow me to spend more time on this side of my work. I would also love to run design briefs where designers can connect directly with me for feedback, and generally be a friendly, neighbourhood branding designer that folks can rely on for honest and kind advice.

Why is my approach different to others in the spacE?

I think that the frequent face-to-face collaboration is the biggest difference. There are a lot of designers who prefer to work through email or receive feedback through an online portal or form. This is great for them, and I’m supportive of designers who choose to structure their business that way. But for me, I love to bounce ideas around over coffee, present my designs and talk through ideas in real time. It makes me feel more connected to the work and closer to the client.

how will i structure my business to achieve all that I want to do?

To be able to support clients and designers in as much depth as I want to, I will only be taking on 6-8 new branding clients this year. That way, I can offer my typical collaborative all-in-one process, while also supporting my past clients with anything that comes up, and finding time to work through my ideas and resources for new designers. This breaks down into:

One large branding and design project every two months.
Space for 1-2 smaller branding-only projects every year.
Weekly space for my own marketing and social media creation.
Weekly space to move forward on my resources and blog posts for other designs.
Every evening and weekends free to achieve a good work/life balance.

What have I learned in the past six years that I'm going to take forward with me?

My laptop is my work world, and as soon as I close it then I’m allowed to switch off. This has become even more important since having my daughter and needing to completely clock-off at 5pm in order to be present for her.
If a potential client is looking for fast design or they always have tight deadlines, then it’s not a good fit for me. I love to collaborate and try out different ideas, so I’m looking to work with people who are excited to go through that process with me. It’s not that fast design is bad, it’s just that those clients need a designer who works every day and is more reactive, and that’s okay.
Be a designer who guides, but know when to take a step back and encourage your clients to tell you what they want. In my past roles, there was a feeling that the designer is always right. But at the end of the day, our clients build their businesses from their souls - and they want work that feels good to them as well as their audience. So it’s important to give gentle advice and share our thoughts openly, but if a client is really keen for their brand to be a certain colour or font, it’s not a moment to lecture them on the downsides. It’s a moment to embrace their ideas and say “let’s get that to work for you” and fold their ideas into the project in a way that balances them and their audience together. It might take a few tries, but there’s always a way, and it can be successful, wonderful and fulfilling.
The impact of my business isn’t determined by social media success or viral posts - it comes from my clients and who I support. In one week, I can get a total of 5 likes from all 2,000 of my Instagram followers, which feels like I’m not getting anyway. But then later, I could have a client tell me that the branding presentation feels like a perfect fit and thank me for my work - and that feels really important and impactful to them.
Saying no to projects will benefit me in the long term. I understand that it’s a luxury to be able to say no to projects. And I am really proud that my business is now at the point where I can say no to work that isn’t a good fit or that I can’t fit into my schedule. But by saying no or gently offering a later timeline, I can continue to work on my marketing, show up for my past clients and complete work comfortably - and that benefits me and my clients in return.

Who am I as a person outside of Begin?

I feel like I’m a typical 32-year-old millennial. I’m politically left-wing - I believe in climate change, trans-rights, and a free Palestine. I am anti-ICE and hate the rise of AI in art. I’m a mum to a tiny human, she’s amazing and I’d love to have another child someday. I wish I could make the world safe for children everywhere and I vote/donate/speak accordingly. I am often shy but lucky in friends and privileged to be able to travel as much as I do. I’m a big Taylor Swift fan and love music. I find joy in hobbies, video-games and crafts - my current favourite is cross-stitch. I read a lot of fantasy and collect books on my bookshelf (which I organise by colour). I consume a huge amount of podcasts every week. I love to rewatch shows like Gilmore Girls, Friends and The Office. I choose to give back with Begin by choosing green energy where possible, planting trees for my clients and making donations to charities that my clients are connected to. I feel small and helpless sometimes, and sometimes I feel full of joy.

If any of these notes resonated with you, I would love to hear from you and chat about your own statements for your business. And I can’t wait to look back at this in six years time and see if anything has changed. I hope not! :)

Amy x

Hey! I’m Amy, and this is Begin Studio.

Here I create unique, thoughtful brands for small businesses in the UK and beyond. I guide my clients from logo and branding design all the way through to packaging, websites and even the social media launch of their new business. I also run a small blog with resources for designers who are just starting out in the freelance world or are recent graduates.

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