Looking for world class designs? Meet the co-founders of India’s first online design agency!
“The “details” are not the details. They make the design.” These words by Charles Eames, have become a well-known truth for graphic designers. They are the ones who build a bridge between the artistic and the functional, creating goal-centric designs.
Today, Graphic Design is everywhere; be it newspapers, magazines, Packaging, branding, websites, posters, books or signages. It drives advertising and attracts us to brands. This is why it is said that Graphic Design is a part of our everyday lives. The strong allure of graphics stimulates a person to feel drawn to a product, or to immediately decide its inferiority. It can also conveys a message that you know your business and should be taken seriously.
As an entrepreneur, when you’re busy managing your core business operations, you end up ignoring the graphics and design aspects. You may be able to establish and run a good business with conventional tools, but to grow in today’s tech-savvy environment, you cannot overlook the importance of expertly designed graphics.
Your company’s logo is a crucial part of its brand identity and a well-designed logo helps in improving this identity. A graphic designer is trained to make your logo not just professional and attractive, but also functional in representing your undertaking.
Meet Arun Gopidas & Ronak Daga from 01Design who are passionate about design, and turns your dreams into reality. That’s not all; they also offer 100% money back guarantee, so you can try them without any inhibitions, unlike other design agencies.
Lets meet the founders of 01Design, take a look at their journey so far, and see what they have to offer to fellow startups, SME and corporate clients.
1.What is the Name of Your Venture? Any specific reason for this name?
01Design. We want to be the first agency for anyone looking to get designs made.
2.Who is your target Audience/clients
Small and medium level entrepreneurs, traditional businesses who want to stand out from the clutter by providing them with world class design solutions.
3.Where is your venture based (city, state, country) & What are your geographical target areas?
We are based out of Bangalore, India. We are targeting all of India and plan to tap into the international markets as well.
4.What problems does your venture resolve? What are your products or services?
We provide affordable design solutions to small and medium sized businesses. We provide logo designs, stationary, brochures, flyers, social media and packaging design.
5.Share the idea or story behind the venture. How did it came to an existence? What motivated you to start your own venture?
We realised that good design isn’t accessible to all. Either it’s over priced or sub standard. We wanted to give the power to good design to anyone who requires it. We strongly believe that good design can provide the perfect first impression for your brand.
6.Who are your biggest competitors and how do you differentiate yourself from them?
We have some international players like 99designs and fiverr. But both of them relay heavily on freelancers and don’t gaurantee that the work will be done. Our strong in-house team guarantees that your work will be done with utmost quality in just 7 working days.
7.How did you identify your co-founder? Tell us some thing about your co-founder/s
Ronak and I have been working together on another design venture called Red Baton for the last 2 years. We’ve had a lot of big names like Cleartrip, TaxiForSure, Deloitte working with us. I met him after I dropped out from NIFT Bangalore.
8.How did you hired your first team members? What skills Do you want in your employees/team?
Fayaz was my classmate and our first team member. We on boarded projects which we didn’t have the bandwidth to deliver and we got him onboard to help us finish our projects. He’s excellent with design and manages projects really well. We are looking at people who are committed to grow with the company and want to make every work of theirs, their best yet.
9.What expansion plans are you looking for the next 2 years, next 5 years?
We want to tap the Indian metros and then expand into US, UK, UAE and the Australian markets.
10.Where do you want to see yourself in next 10 years?
Where Infosys is today, we want to be there in the next 10 years. What Infosys did to engineering is what we plan to do with design.
11.What are your goals over the next 1, 3, 6 and 12 months?
The goal is to make a smooth operating platform online, where designers, clients, and our servicing teams can log in and see what’s happening. Setting processes in place for smooth operations, and setting foundations for rapid scale.
12.Have you raised any funding? Or have any plans for the funding?
We haven’t raised any funding so far, we have had 30 orders coming in monthly with an average ticket size of Rs.7,500/-. We plan to hit 100 orders a month before we start raising funds.
13.What were the problems you faced during the starting days and how did you resolve them?
When we started we just had a landing page which would just capture leads. We realised that scaling up without proper technology was hard. Also discovery of such a service was another challenge. Over time we developed a tech platform which would automate half the manual work we had, and used SEO, Digital Marketing and offline activations to aid dicsovery.
14.What was the most challenging part of your journey till now? How did you overcome those challenges?
One of the toughest things about any business is getting the right people to work with you, and managing people to perform their best. Hiring the right people can make all the difference.
15.What are your hobbies? What do you do in your non-work time?
I write short stories which I want to make into a film someday. My partner likes to travel and explore new destinations.
16.Whom do you consider your idol or biggest motivator?
I look upto two people, Steve Jobs and David Ogilvy. While one was a design genius, the other was an advertising guru.
17.How has being an entrepreneur affected your family & Social life?
Definitely. Both family, friends and work demands time, and maintaining that work life balance is the toughest thing to do. We are still trying to get things right, but it’s a long journey ahead.
18.Anything, you would like to say to our readers or upcoming entrepreneurs?
Just believe in yourself and don’t listen to what people say. Everyone loves giving opinions, but always listen to your heart and do the right thing.
19.Tell us something about your education & family background.
I did my schooling in Delhi from Tagore International, post which I came to NIFT Bangalore to do my bachelors in Fashion Communication. However, I dropped out after a year into the course. My partner did his engineering in Metallurgy from NITK and is from Bhopal.
20.What is your USP which makes it unique & different from other start-ups in similar domains.
Our USP is our 7 day delivery with a money back guarantee if you don’t like what you get. I don’t think anyone else does that today in our field. At the same time, design quality is of utmost importance to us.
21. What do you think is the biggest threat to the success of small businesses & Start-ups today?
Getting yourself discovered and remembered in the minds of the consumers is the biggest hurdle I feel. And to a large extent good design can play a major differentiator to stand out of the clutter.
22. Do you consider yourself successful and by what means do you measure success?
Building a brand that people know, remember and love is what we consider as success.
23.Please share complete name, address, phone number, email id & website of Your Business & Contact Person
Arun Gopidas
#2577, 2nd Floor, SNR Plaza, 13th Cross Road, 27th Main Road, HSR Layout, Sector 1, Bangalore 560102
[email protected]
www.01design.in
Ronak Daga
#2577, 2nd Floor, SNR Plaza, 13th Cross Road, 27th Main Road, HSR Layout, Sector 1, Bangalore 560102
[email protected]
www.01design.in
