Restarting my branding studio after 3 years away - how do I rebuild from scratch?
A few years ago I was doing my own studio work in branding, brand identity, and brand strategy.
I loved it, but I put it on pause to go do a postgrad in a very academic field, very different world from client work.
Now I’m done, and I keep coming back to the same realisation: branding is where my heart actually is. I want to restart my studio and go all in.
The problem is the landscape has shifted since I stepped away, and honestly, so have I. I’ve lost touch with most of the designers I used to know. It feels like starting over, not picking back up.
For anyone who’s relaunched a creative business after time away - how did you rebuild your network? How did you find your first few clients again? Did you niche down (because I worked with a very particular niche of brands like beauty, wellness, interior design etc), or cast a wide net to see what stuck?
Would love to hear how others approached this, especially if you also took a non-linear path back into the field.