We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cooper Dai. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cooper below.

Cooper, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

I co-founded Coosi Studio, Inc. back in 2017 in Pasadena, California. My other co-founders were my wife and our classmate at the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena. We graduated and soon after started the company. That was the right direction because we all had interior design and construction backgrounds. We also envisioned establishing a platform offering professional visual design services. Underlying this vision was the philosophy that so much in business depends on creative product design. We still hold that most exceptional sales happen because of extraordinary design. All these happen so effortlessly that one might even overlook the role of visual design in their product’s market success. It was, therefore, not difficult to notice gaps in the market. The three of us sometimes went online shopping and could not help but notice poor designs. We learned that some entrepreneurs could not afford to outsource visual design. So, we wanted to create a platform where they could find high-quality and affordable marketing designs for their products. At the same time, we dreamed of creating a platform that could inspire other novice designers. They can look at our work and get design ideas to do their design themselves or hire us to deliver professional designs for them. We see ourselves as the bridge between talented designers, passionate artists, and clients.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

We are a team of visionary creative visual designers, and our company deals exclusively in professional branding services. We specialize in branding, illustration, packaging, and logo design. Our designers come from all over the world. Currently, we have members from the United States, Canada, Europe, China, South Korea, and Japan. Our team connects easily with diverse cultures. This international relatability helps us create impactful designs through unique customizations for every target market. In addition to being professionally trained creative visual designers, our senior team members are also qualified arts educators. We are arts and design instructors in reputable arts institutions in the United States. Therefore, we have reliable networks through which we find young, talented artists and designers. Often, we provide and connect them with opportunities for internships to help them gain hands-on experience from real-world projects. We are proud of our educational endeavors. We have become the bridge between novice creative visual designers and life-changing opportunities. Often, they find opportunities to learn innovative design techniques they would otherwise not learn from formal school alone. We have trained several young designers to become professional creatives.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Word of mouth has been the source of our new clients since we began operations. Most of them are referrals from previous clients. We did some creative designs for catering companies in the hospitality industry in our early days. Since then, we have had restaurants in New York and Los Angeles referred to us by our former clients. Word of mouth has contributed to our growth beyond the actual design business. For instance, the students we mentored in our early days have been instrumental in referring others to our internship and entrepreneurship training seminars. We have received many students from USC, for example. They, too, got referred to us by their peers from our early programs. We also attend local networking events to market our services. We meet potential clients as well as other designers and network with them. We have met some clients through these local social events and made contacts that later referred clients to us. We have invested heavily in branding our online portfolio. That is where we display our various exhibition designs to showcase our impressive designs. We have also established a social media presence on social networking sites like Instagram. We have received clients who found us directly through our Instagram. Some of them were referrals from other Instagram users. Paid advertising is another digital tool we have been using to get new clients using Google ad services on Google’s search engine and YouTube. While social media services have helped promote our business, word-of-mouth from clients whose trust we have earned has been instrumental in bringing us new clients. We pride ourselves in continuous process improvement to provide pristine designs.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

A team leader must first acknowledge that managing a team is delicate. It is like deciding how long the team lasts. One must also realize that a successful business is a going concern. That means always having the best team and keeping it throughout. To do all that, the team leader must encourage creativity and members not to fear making mistakes. Of course, they must also learn from mistakes, if they occur, and avoid repeating them. For this reason, the team leader ought to reward success to motivate members.

That said, the team leader needs to ensure the team operates on elaborate specialization and division of labor. That way, every team member knows their duties and responsibilities precisely. This approach to teamwork ensures organization and eliminates potential confusion or conflicts. Notably, the division of tasks does not encourage members to work alone. While the team leader must create an environment for autonomy, teamwork must be paramount. Despite being specialists in different fields, team members ought to collaborate. A branding project can help demonstrate this perspective. Typically, a branding project involves graphic design, 3-D modeling, packaging, UI and UX designs, and documentation. To ensure cohesion in our team, we encourage the team members to ‘exchange notes’ so that the design components are effortlessly interdependent. Such elements of a branding project, like colors and fonts, arise from the group’s consensus. The goal is to ensure team members are on the same page, eventually producing a harmonious project.

In addition to the day-to-day administrative activities by the team leader, hosting regular team-building seminars is helpful. These events allow team members to socialize and engage beyond their official duties. Given the friendliness of such activities, team members are more likely to be candid with one another. Thus, team members open to one another and solve any underlying unresolved issues. That way, social bonds, and mutual respect grow stronger among team members. It is such unity that propels the team forward.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.coosistudio.design/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cooperdze/

Image Credits
Design by Coosi Studio, Inc