Birthday Q&A with Founder, Judy Andrews
Happy Birthday to you and Tickety Boo Creative – you don’t look a day over three!
Thank you, I like to think we have a wealth of knowledge with the energy and enthusiasm of a young agency. I founded Tickety Boo Creative in 2018 as a company that championed flexible and remote working.
I want to start by saying thank you to our awesome clients giving us amazing opportunities to produce brilliant work and thank you to my very talented and supportive team.
When I started working for myself I was inspired by two quotes:
Firstly, I feel incredibly lucky and grateful to have my own agency. I didn’t think it was possible to work remotely and flexibly as a design agency, I didn’t know of any others who did at the time. I originally went freelance to give myself more control of my time so I could balance work and being a mum. Very early on I managed to pick up some amazing clients and started working on a few small projects and it grew from there. It’s now a core part of our brand DNA and we embrace flexible working and pioneered working from home. I find that the team are happier for it, which can only mean better work for our clients.
What three things surprised you about having your own agency?
1) How much I learn from and am inspired by my clients and my team. I really enjoy meeting with and working collaboratively with our clients, getting under the skin of their brand’s challenges and understanding how they think. I relish briefs that require creative problem solving, which push us to do things differently. I love the fact that while I usually have ideas in mind for client work, my team constantly surprise me. Or they take my ideas/initial thoughts and elevate them to the next level.
2) I’d discover that it’s okay to make mistakes along the way and that it would all still be ok. Those mistakes became my learning curve and how I’ve grown as a business owner.
3) That I would love networking, I’m a naturally shy person (although if you know me well, you’d laugh at that). I’d never really been to networking events, but knew it was important in order to grow and maintain my business. My first was Blogtacular (a creative bloggers event), who then became my first client! This was closely followed by Lucky Things Blog, who is now a good friend. Both gave me real confidence; I still have some days/meetings where I’m nervous, but I think that’s good as it keeps me sharp.
Please share three of your biggest inspirations or influencers in the creative world
This is a hard question I’ve had so many influences over the years.
1) The book Smile in the Mind, Witty Thinking in Graphic Design by Beryl McAlhone. When I got my first job in branding in 2001 it was my go-to for inspiration. I loved how each example had a fun idea behind it, it was much more than the way something looked. I benchmarked any of my early projects against it.
2) My biggest design hero would be late Milton Glaser, I love how pure and bold his work is, it just seems effortless. I also love that he has commercial work as well as more artwork, which is similar to me and my work, working on both gives me a rounded view and approach for each, they inspire and evolve each other. I even wrote a blogpost about him last year. And as a designer and business owner I love this quote from him. We always aim for WOW.
“There are three responses to a piece of design: yes, no, and WOW! Wow is the one to aim for.”
Milton Glaser
3) I read Greg McKeown’s book, Essentialism, just after my 40th birthday and it was a life changer. It’s made me really look at the way I think and approach everything in life. I have a tendency to take on too much and have lots of ideas. Following the advice ‘less but better’ allowed me to take a step back and reassess my priorities and how I approach projects. I’m now much more focused and make sure I only pursue the strongest ideas and take on only what is essential. Communicating this philosophy to my team has been really beneficial to them too.
What are three of your favourite things about the world of branding and retail?
1) That brands are living things, I enjoy the initial creation part, the defining of the vision, the values and the personality as well as nurturing the brand, helping it to grow and develop, to keep it fresh and relevant without losing sight of their why. I love helping brands build a meaningful connection with their customers.
2) I’m a complete retail nerd and have specialised in retail most of my career, what I love is being in stores. Seeing how things are being communicated and where, I’m always analysing what’s working and why, I can’t go shopping without taking loads of photos. But I’m especially proud when I see my work in store. Our latest retail projects, Winn Dixie in the US and Giant in Asia I’ve not been able to see in person yet, but I’m very grateful to have wonderful clients who have shared lots of photos with us.
3) I love the fact that it’s an industry that’s exciting and fast paced and there are always new ways of doing things, new technologies, new thinking and ever-growing customer expectations.
Where do you see Tickety Boo Creative in the next three years?
Another great question, I want to build on what we’ve already achieved so far as an agency. It’s important to me that my team are secure, empowered and fulfilled and that our clients can rely on us to deliver creative that just works and makes their lives easier in the process.
We’re looking at how we can be more accessible as an agency supporting small brands as well as larger ones. We find that having a mix of projects and clients makes all the work more relevant, more inspiring and much stronger.
We also want to give back more – we’ve already run two competitions to support smaller brands and will be looking at other ways we can use our expertise for good.
I saw this quote today which I loved and further inspires me to do what I can to help make a difference.
“Be the change you want to see in the world”
Mahatma Gandhi
