10 Steps to Building a Successful Creative Agency

Justin Bolognino wears a lot of hats, among them, founder and creative director of Learned Evolution and The Meta Agency, organizer of the annual #FEED powered by Twitter event at SXSW, and as his Twitter bio testifies, he's an all-around "Synchronicity Architect." The synchronicity comes in handy when running two separate yet associated businesses—Learned Evolution is the creative digital agency arm and The Meta Agency represents top-notch visual artists who create experiences using installation art, projections, LED design, and visual design.

He convinced Brooklyn Bowl, who he still counts a client, to ditch traditional advertising in favor of social media. While that may have been a bold marketing plan in 2007, he was prescient, and it paid off in making Brooklyn Bowl a celebrated, respected brand and venue. As you may or may not know, Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas opens in 2014, a mere five years after its original location opened, and it will have 32 lanes.

While his projects clearly yield big results, his creative and business philosophies don't necessarily reflect the idea that "bigger is better." In fact, his agency has a staff of eight doing projects that are more effective and well-planned than work by agencies three times their size. When he started working with Brooklyn Bowl, Learned Evolution was a side project in his living room. They now have fully functioning offices (office dog included) in Brooklyn's Greenpoint neighborhood.

Bolognino has a lot to share in terms of maintaining balance and planning carefully project to project. He says, "One of my life's missions is to destroy the word, 'or.'" He dislikes when someone begins a conversation with, "Can I ask you a question?" Time and relevancy are important, and asking a question to ask another question or asking whether something is "good" or "bad" fall under what he considers archaic ways of thinking and doing.

While he would ask you to define "successful" (he doesn't use that word to describe his companies just yet), he's given us 10 Steps to Building a Successful Creative Agency from his six years of experience. At a time where art and technology are more closely intertwined than they've ever been, entrepreneurship and efficiency are invaluable. We were curious how he's (successfully) built brands, including his own, and we're thankful that he delivered these valuable words of advice.

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"This is the name of the client and employee game; set the tone early and don't allow for expectation to set in. This is best done with a solid scope of work, contract, and a detailed deliverables schedule. The old adage of under-promise and over-deliver always holds true."

"The 'Good/Cheap/Fast triangle' is one of the best tactics to use for setting expectations when it comes to billing. Here is our custom version that we send to clients, so they understand how we come up with our pricing for their project."

"The bigger the client, the slower they will be to respond. Avoid 'committee think' as much as possible. If you think it will take them 4 days to give feedback, build 12 into the schedule. On tight schedules, be incredibly clear about the consequences of late feedback delivery and how it will affect the quality of the final product."

"Read this book, Rework. Now."

"With our heads buried in front of computer screens, it's actually easier to get things done faster simply by picking up the phone. Having a paper trail is vital, indeed, so take notes on the call and send a bullet-pointed follow up to ensure everyone is on the same page."

"One of my favorite videos of all time (above) tells this love story well."

"Potentially the biggest misconception in business is that emotion has to be set aside for success. Emotional management, whether with employees, contractors, or clients, is a constant reality. Rather than trying to block it, learn to be a master of the delicate balance of emotion and logic."

"This map by 'Integral' thinker Ken Wilber represents the four 'quadrants' of subjective/objective and individual/collective evolutionary consciousness. It served as early inspiration for the core philosophical concepts LE was founded upon in 2001."

"There will always be deadlines that require extra attention, but possibly one of the most important things we can do to be productive is to STOP. Turn off. See a show. Tune out. Reset. A rested, re-booted mind and body will be infinitely more productive than never turning off."

"I have to give props to Scott Belsky, writer of Making Ideas Happen and founder of the 99% conference and the Behance network, who gets lots of love for most of these ideas, especially the value in working smart, as opposed to hard."

"Aside from barking at the door, I can't recommend this enough. Pets are like stress kryptonite. They're also a great excuse to pull away from the screen and take some deep breaths outside."

"The photo above is my dog, Charlotte Mingus, at her best."

"Eating a protein-rich (ideally organic/local!) breakfast within an hour of waking up is like putting high-grade oil into the engine of your metabolism, and it's a deeper energy boost than coffee. Add cold-pressed green juices to the mix, and it's the best high a morning can give you. The stresses of the day are so much more manageable with a dose of nutrition in the morning."

"Juice is best when pressed. Don't use a mechanical grinder!"

"Fighting for simple vs. complex, subjective vs. objective, and proactive vs. reactive often leads to tension, division, and sub-par results. Try to find 'simplexity,' 'sobjectiveness,' and 'pro-reactivity' as much as possible...unless you want to end up producing like our government and political system."

"The Learned Evolution logo is called the 'Seeds of Duality'...all the best creativity happens between and beyond duality, not on either side."

"'Trying' is a great way to never reach your highest potential. Allow for the most resonant, sticky, and magnetic final product possible. Let intuition and care guide you, and add unrelenting logic, but never let force take over. If it feels forced, step back and try to see how water would best flow through what you're trying to do. Typically, if a client feels forced from the outset, get out before it's too late."

"One of the most influential books I've read in the past few years is David Hawkin's Power vs. Force."

"Systematizing your organic workflow is vital, especially as you grow from a vision in your head to a living organism of humans, emotions, and time. The trick, as discussed in #8, is to create a system that allows for flexible reaction to the system structure. Too much rigidity will become stale and eventually break. Osmosis happens through walls, not just around them."