Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Craig Reid. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Craig, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. So, we’d appreciate if you could open up about your growth story and the nitty, gritty details that went into scaling up.

What you know is good, but who you know will get you through the door.

My journey into freelancing started at the tail end of 2019, when I was in college studying Digital media. There was a program called Bridge 2 Business asking students to apply, and it would take 6 students from across colleges in Scotland to Holland on a 3 week entrepreneurship. I applied a day before the deadline, I thought “what’s the worst that can happen? They say no and my life goes on.”

Those 3 weeks changed my life.

I learned about building businesses, branding, scaling a business, and most importantly networking. I returned from Holland to my bar job and studying and thought: I’m going to build my own business, a design business.

I lost my job and withdrew from college just before the pandemic hit, not knowing what to do with myself I fell down the hole of watching YouTube and playing video games all day. Albeit I got really really good at Wii Tennis. As September rolled around I got a message from the mentor from the program that took me to Holland, and it was an invite to a zoom call to chat about rebranding the program as a whole. They knew I liked design, and I wasn’t going to tell them I had never done a rebrand before. After the call and they took me on for the project, I immediately went to YouTube and searched “how to do a rebrand”.

This project ended in a successful rebrand, and an 18 month contract as a Digital Designer with their company, and has now lead into just over 3 years as a freelance Graphic Designer (so far).

The vast majority of client projects hasn’t been what I’ve been doing, but who I’ve gotten to know and meet and learn more about. I do truly believe that the way in which you network can and does influence your success in the creative world.

So to answer the “How did i scale?” question, I’d say it came down to these:

– Take opportunities, even if it is to do design work for free, it can lead to other great things.
– Talk to people you know, engage with artists and creative people in your field, they may have a client for you they cannot meet the needs of.
– Surround yourself with like-minded people, whether it’s creative minds, or those who like the same music as you. You’ll find your people and they will find you.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I got into design through study and finding a passion for design, the last 10 years of my life have been on a journey to discover what I truly love: typography and identity design. I am a Graphic Designer, specialising in rebranding businesses with tailored typographic solutions. Simply put – logos and fonts.

I solve the problem of leveling up a business from startup to established and beyond. I meet the client’s vision with my skills in understanding a brand’s mission, values, and strategy along with expertise with design softwares. What sets me a part is my ability to meet client visions, and the network I have been building for the last decade with many experts in creative fields. I am most proud of the skills I have learned over the last few years, and going back to study at school in Communication Design.

I am a massive nerd, I’ve been playing Dungeons & Dragons for half of my life (15 years now) and have a love for video games and storytelling. The dream is to work for some of the nerdiest businesses and brands in the world, and slowly but surely I’ll get there. I did my own rebrand during summer 2024, and with the help of industry professionals (other graphic designers) an communicating with them (sending DM’s on Instagram) I was able to create my own brand mark reflective of my skills and passion.

If you are a business owner reading this, if you have need for an identity or to evolve it beyond the limits of where it currently sits, let’s hop in a call and discover what problem you are facing.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

When doing my first ever rebrand, as I took to YouTube, one channel stuck out above the rest.

It was called “The Futur” and they had a series called “Building A Brand”, this YouTube series single handedly taught me about designing a rebrand for a business from initial call to final presentation. Boy did I follow that final presentation to a T. A lot of their content is incredibly helpful whether you are in the creative industries or not.

Books wise, from the CEO of The Futur Chris Do, his book “A Pocket Full Of Do” contains many stories and lessons he has learned in his 2 decades of running a business. Blair Enss “The Win Without Pitching Manifesto” is another excellent book on pitching and sales. Recently too “how to create typefaces” has been recommended to me by several influential designers in the industry.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I am still continuing to build my audience, so I would say the initial part is figuring out who you are and what content you want to make. Is it to promote your business or product/service you are providing. This part takes a while. However, the past that takes the longest is to figure out what style of content you are going to create, and how/where will you share it platform wise since there are over a dozen social media platforms.

Definitely have a plan, make a schedule, because I am TERRIBLE at making content because I still havent figured it out. I know what to do, but honestly, its so damn overwhelming.

So I would say just get the phone out, tripod, whatever you have, and just make content. Reels/TikTok/YouTube/Carousels, whatever it is, it will have an impact and as you begin to show up you will be seen, it’s just how do you want to be seen that is the main question.

My honest advice:

1. Just make it. It will be shit to begin with, it just will be.
2. Network, network, network – trust me you’ll build something incredible.
3. You only think it’s bad because you’ve been staring at it for the last 3 days, it will be okay.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/craigreid__/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craig-reid15/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CraigReid