We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ade Chong a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Ade, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Have you ever had an amazing boss, mentor or leader leading you? Can you us a story or anecdote that helps illustrate why this person was such a great leader and the impact they had on you or their team?

I am not going to speak about just one, but three great bosses. They have each shaped who I am and how I lead today.

Karen was my first creative director. One of the first times I proudly presented work to her she said, “Slow down.” It threw me off. I was so focused on delivering the work, I hadn’t even considered another way. She taught me to love the craft, and to take the time to get there.

Jimmy was the managing director, and he taught me that nothing is more important than having a life outside of work. He once did the math, “You spend 8 hours a day at work, 8 hours sleeping, 2-3 hours commuting and getting ready… how much time do you actually have for yourself?”

and finally, Michael. Honestly, the best thing he ever did was have my back.

I think in the moment when things are falling apart and you’re all dug into the trenches, that’s when you see what kind of leader your boss is. Michael always showed up, he stood by us and stood up for us.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m Ade Chong, creative director and founder of Studio Chong, and we help to launch the boldest consumer brands that are up on the rise. We are a remote-first collective design studio that is based between London & Amsterdam but we work with clients all over the world.

As for how I got here… it’s a very long story! I’m a child of many cultures, I grew up in Singapore and never went to University. I prefered to learn on the job. My first day at work I was convinced I’d get fired. I had joined a brilliant brand design studio in Singapore called Manic. I fell in love with branding.

In my early 20s, I ran halfway across the world to the UK to get as far away as I could from my abusive father. I joined independent agency, Impero in London. I spent the next decade turning brands around on a global scale.

Today – I run my humble studio. If I’d say one thing about it, my ambition now is to find happiness in being a creative and designer. We’ve figured out our priorities and we’ve set up a model for our studio that reflects that: from being fully remote, staying small by choice, focusing on founder-led brands and adopting flexible work hours.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I suppose you could say I’ve been through plenty of sh*t in my life.

I grew up in an abusive household. At the height of my career, I was under immense pressure at an agency – I was helping to drive the business, run my team and do the creative work at the same time. I started suffering from panic attacks and severe anxiety. My father passed away around that time too. Everything sort of came crumbling down at once.

So, I quit my job and became a dog walker for 6 months. I fully stepped away from design and my laptop.

I’d say resilience isn’t just surviving stuff and being able to take a beating. Resilience is figuring out what you’re going to do with the hardship you experienced. If anything, growing up in a house like mine, made me really care about being happy as an adult.

So, it’s become the core focus of our studio. We have shed everything we did not like about existing in this industry, and gone against it. We’ve been running for almost 5 years now and I can wholeheartedly say that I am happy, both creatively and out of work, our team is happy and our clients are happy.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

If I could name one thing – it would be to try to understand the value of design. Design is one of those things that is so intrinsically woven into society. We are around it all the time. And, perhaps because of that – people feel that they have the right to pass judgement on it. People are always shocked by how much brands paid for a rebrand but what they don’t understand is that there’s a reason why they booked an Airbnb and have an iPhone in their pocket.

It is not because of ‘that Apple icon or paperclip logo that I could have made myself’, it is because a lot of thought has gone into understanding you as a consumer, figuring out how a product can serve you better and how to create that connection with you.

What astounds me is that the creative industry is the one industry where we’re often asked to do unpaid pitches or face constant haggling in a way that no one who ever dare to do to their engineer or doctor. A good brand and comms platform can literally make our break a product but yet people are unable to connect value to it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.chong.studio/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/studio.chong
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/100278663/admin/feed/posts/