Made in Toronto - Evelyne on Founding Co-Effect and Navigating the Realities of Agency Life
Welcome back to our blog series, where we get real with Toronto’s standout design business founders. Today, we’re pumped to chat with Evelyne Au-Navioz, the brain behind Co-Effect (https://coeffect.ca/). Evelyne’s here to spill the tea on finding your niche, what she looks for in team members (spoiler: coffee chuggers and design wizards welcome), and what it’s really like running a design business day in and day out.
Whether you’re a design veteran or just curious about “what is going on inside their head” (meme intended), you’ll want to stick around. Let’s jump in and soak up Evelyne’s business tips, stories, and a healthy dose of design wisdom.
The Story of Evelyne’s Design Journey
Evelyne’s journey into design began with a crossroads between science and fine art, eventually settling on design for its practical edge and multidisciplinary nature. Before founding Co-Effect, she worked on environmental education projects with non-profits and contributed to design exhibits and special projects through George Brown College/Institute without boundaries. Teaming up with Roman, who came from an advertising background, they aimed to create a more structured and impactful venture, leading to the launch of Co-Effect.
Initial Learnings
Yatri: How did you set apart co-effect from your competitors and what were your initial challenges?
Evelyne: When we first started, there didn’t seem to be as many people focused on designing for non-profits or within the social sector. So, back then it felt like we had more of a niche. For the first few years or so, we were able to secure projects through word of mouth. We also had a compelling angle: we both had a design background, but I had direct experience working in and with various non-profit and community-based organizations and Roman had a formal design agency background.
Now, over 10 years later, the market seems much more saturated in this space. So, in many ways, there are more challenges now than when we started. I think one of the mistakes we made earlier on was that we focused predominantly on getting to know organizations, clients, and such instead of connecting with other designers. Of course, it's good to know your clients and their sectors, but I think it's also important to recognize your fellow designers as an important network. That way, if you do need to expand your team in any way, then you can always reach out to people. Now we see a need to branch beyond just referrals and word of mouth and do a little bit more proactive marketing as well. So our story is a bit reversed, where we didn't encounter as many common challenges earlier on, but now we see some of those challenges popping up.
Yatri: Did you use digital marketing as one of the tools to bring in more clients?
Evelyne:No, we still haven't really done it for ourselves. We do social media and digital marketing for our clients, but we've just done a little bit of social media for ourselves. If anything, we made a bit more of a concerted effort to be included in certain directories or get pre-approved for the government tenders, so we were on those lists for several years as well. To be honest, the majority of our work has come from having good relationships with a client and them being kind enough to make a referral or bring us along if they leave that organization and go somewhere else. But the thing is, at a certain point and a certain size of agency, that isn't enough.
Converge Event Identity, Co-Effect
Yatri: How did you ensure financial stability during the early days?
Evelyne: We were lucky in the sense that we were able to ease into creating Co-Effect. Both Roman (Co-founder of Co-Effect) and I had jobs that granted us a certain level of control and flexibility of hours. I was doing contract work through the College/Institute, and Roman was working as an independent consultant. It obviously came to a point where we did have to make that final leap, but it gave us a bit of a bridge to be able to work together and successfully complete some projects before fully committing to the creation of the Co-Effect. We also reviewed what our take-home needs were and what level of risk and sacrifice we were able to endure to start a business. Luckily, I think with the design, it didn't necessarily require too much overhead at first. We did set up an office, but that came a little later and we scaled our spaces over the years: first in a very small space in the east end, then a shared space amongst a few other designers and architects, then in a building with another agency in Liberty Village and in our own building since pre pandemic.
Yatri: How did you handle the legal side of the business initially?
Evelyne:That also came through speaking with others. Roman had a friend who had a similar-sized design business, established a few years prior. He shared a lot of contacts and resources with us. We were introduced to our accountant and he was able to also go through the legal registration with us as well, and then help set us up. We had also been exposed to some of the legal aspects of running a business through previous jobs and businesses run by family or friends. I had registered a couple of businesses prior (the first when I was in high school) so, I had some understanding of the formal registration process. Roman also had a lot of experience in terms of formalizing processes from being in agencies and then working independently, which felt a little funny at first when we were just starting as a small team, but it's super important to have those in place.
Out on Screen, Festival Branding, Co-Effect
Growing and managing
Yatri: How should one find their niche?
Evelyne: School is a great place to experiment with your interests. I can't speak for the agency experience directly, as I had a different route that led me here. But from what I've heard from people who have gone that route, I would be inclined to go to maybe smaller companies or in-house roles because that's where they're going to want to have you use your different skills or wear different hats. When you're going to a larger company or a larger agency, my understanding is that typically they're hiring for one particular skill/role, and so you might not get as much of an opportunity to try to use your full skillset. And then from there, you can zero in on your interests and niche based on what you like to do and what skills you are good at.
Yatri: What qualities do you seek in the person you're hiring?
Evelyne: Being able to communicate well about your work and the rationale that led you to make certain decisions is key for us. Within our studio, we try not to have too much of a particular style. The work we do ultimately has to be for an audience, and we're usually not that audience. When we meet with a designer, we want to make sure that they don't have too much of an ego in that sense. The style, the aesthetic, and the specific font are not so important, per se, it's more about the reason behind your choices, what’s being communicated through your work, and to whom. What decisions did you make along the way and what informed your decisions? Who influenced you and who will be impacted by the outcome. Somebody who shows thoughtfulness is going to stand out for us more than somebody who shows technical skill, which is tricky because then is a small business. I guess the attitude that we've had, which maybe might shift at some point, is that the skill can be developed, but critical thought is crucial. Finding designers who can articulate that is important because ultimately our job is to articulate to our clients why we've made decisions and how they answer their needs, challenges, or objectives.
One Stop Talk, Co-Effect
Yatri: What has been your biggest learning experience?
Evelyne: Growing from a small team and understanding what your business needs beyond creative capacity can be challenging. There are also a lot of RFPs (requests for proposals) and such out there, and sometimes they don't always fit exactly what you do. Our most long-standing and biggest projects have come from proposals or opportunities that we didn't necessarily fit exactly, but we found some parallels and presented those. Those projects opened up a door and now we're doing more strategy work because of that. So, I think it's important to get comfortable with being a little bit uncomfortable sometimes and taking some of those risks.
Yatri: Is there anything you would do differently if you started again now?
Evelyne: I think the big one would probably be focusing on building connections within the design community a bit more because I think it's something that we didn’t cultivate until more recently.
Semaine de la Francophonie Identity, Co-Effect
Advice to design entrepreneurs
Evelyne: I think we all have different wins and challenges. I would say, if starting out make sure that you are comfortable with not just design because most of the job is not design actually, it's all the other pieces. And it's important to make connections with people, especially if you're reaching out to people who are or were in similar situations. Those connections will give you the resources, knowledge, and support you need that might be beyond your direct wheelhouse or capacity. I would also say to take advantage of mentorship. I think there's more of a willingness to share business knowledge now, amongst professors and teachers and one should take advantage of it. There are also some grants for emerging businesses. We didn't really take advantage of these and maybe they weren't as prevalent, but there seems to be more support for businesses starting up now. For example, if you're a woman starting a business, there are whole groups that are dedicated to helping launch female-identifying entrepreneurs and women-owned businesses, there are 2SLGBTQI+ business associations and many others, that all have accelerator programs to help support entrepreneurs.
Yatri (Follow up): Any resources you would suggest people look at to get useful information?
Evelyne: I feel like other people on my team would be better at answering this question! But we've spoken about RGD, and I think they've become a lot more robust in terms of all of the different resources, information, and events they provide/organize. I think it also takes a bit of searching on your own and reaching out to the people around you. That’s why, if you can connect to other designers who are maybe a couple years ahead of you in terms of their journey, then you can also hopefully learn from them and what resources were helpful.
Help Ahead Website, Co-Effect
Takeaways:
Discovering your niche is very helpful.
Building good relationships with clients and fellow designers is key to creating a supportive network.
Your colleagues are your best resource.
Critical thinking is more valuable in the long run than technical skills.
It’s important to take advantage of available resources and mentorships.
