Meet the Service: Designer Behind The World’s Leading Brands

Welcome to Meet the Service, a newsletter by Fishburners, where we meet the expert operators and strategists who are scaling their impact across the ecosystem. In this series, we’ll be diving into their world as the experts of their chosen domains, hearing all about their experiences, valuable lessons and practical advice on the art of building, growing and operating startups.?

Sara Servan Studio: Creative studio specialised in Branding, Illustration and Animation.

Welcome to the fourth edition of our Meet the Service newsletter! This month, we’re thrilled to introduce you to Sara Servan Studio, a creative studio specialising in Branding, Illustration, and Animation.

In this edition, we had the pleasure of interviewing Sara Servan herself. Sara shares insights into her journey as a designer, her experiences working with global brands, and how she applies her problem-solving skills to help startups establish strong brand identities.?

We’ll also delve into the importance of visual design for startups, Sara’s approach to creating impactful visual identities, and hear her valuable advice for entrepreneurs navigating the early stages of their startup journey.

Get ready to uncover the dynamic synergy between design and entrepreneurship with Sara Servan Studio. Let’s jump right in!

Hello Sara, it’s great to have you with us today. To kick things off, I’m curious to hear about your journey as a designer. What sparked your passion for design, and how has your journey led to your involvement with startups?

Hi! It’s great to be here too! I’ve always loved art, and during university, I discovered that I could use art to help people and businesses, that’s when I fell in love with graphic design.

While living in Hong Kong and working as a designer, I started making videos and fell in love with storytelling. Then, the world went fully digital, and videos became the most consumed content format. They are the best way to market or explain almost everything! And that’s when I got into illustration, when I realised that to be able to tell stories through video, you either need a production company, or you could do it all by illustrating characters, scenes, objects, etc and animating them. So I would say my journey so far has been a mix of: my eagerness to constantly upskill and learn new things, my clients needing new services that I didn’t offer yet, and trying to adapt to a fast-changing digital world.

You have an impressive portfolio with many notable clients. How has your experience working with global brands like Amazon, Unilever and GoPro informed your work with entrepreneurs? What insights and lessons have you carried forward from those collaborations?

I worked in agencies for 7 years, and that’s when I got the opportunity to work for big global brands like Amazon. These years really shaped me as a creative designer, being able to challenge myself, learn from other creatives and feel confident in the work I was doing (It’s pretty mind-blowing seeing your design live on big brand’s websites and social media). The biggest lessons I took away working from these big brands is the importance of getting the basics right. You can’t build a strong brand identity without having a really clear foundation that ties to your wider company’s vision and these all start by implementing good design practices. In my experience, learning how to clearly communicate with clients, create leading design frameworks and operate using strong project management processes are crucial to ensuring your building your business with strong foundations. Investing in good design early will save you (and make you!) a lot of time and money in the long run.

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