Drew Hodges from Spot Design opens the AIGA conference on Smart Business Models by describing how his agency transformed from a design studio creating a posters for Broadway shows, most notably, RENT, into an ad agency to capture the  hundreds of thousands of dollars in media commissions. This is a good lesson in making the necessary changes in your organization in order to take advantage of opportunity.

Matt Owens discusses how he works collaboratively on projects with other young designers under the name Athletica. By sharing an office, they reduce their overhead, and by approaching clients as experts in various areas they are able to attract business that they could not independently. Nonprofits can learn from this approach to collaboration.

Douglas Riccardi, from Memo Productions, a protege of Tibor Kalman, the legendary designer from M&Co., describes his journey to attract respectable clients and produce outstanding work. Keeping his business small while tackling large projects, he found that his personality was was his key selling point. In the face of daily mediocrity, he urged designers to “push to do something fantastic.” A good lesson in that your recognition comes from doing great things that get noticed, not in doing good or mediocre things consistently. Nonprofits that seek wider visibility from the public and funders need to things dramatically in order to get noticed.

Joe Duffy and Eric Block describe their latest venture, Duffy Partners – essentially, the relaunching of Duffy Design before it was swallowed up by the advertising conglomerate. Nonprofits can learn from this process of building up, selling or merging the entity, and starting again.