We were lucky to catch up with Melvin Harper recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Melvin, thanks for joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

We don’t have a mission statement. We don’t invest much in this totalitarian style work ethic. I’ve worked at many brands and agencies that had a mission statement, and without naming any names, every one of them was full of proverbial.

Essentially there is nothing wrong with creating a hypothetical mission statement, (this is the inevitability of it), as a direction, something to guide or align with. “To be the best we can, always give our utmost 100% etc. etc.”, is what my Nan would call a “load of old codswallop”.

There is only one version of yourself, you don’t need to strive to be it. The constant pressure to perform contemporarily in your personal life/work life is the toxic cup of red drank we are all consuming. Even during so-called downtime we have the pressures of maintaining physical health, to eat better, the pressure to do better with one’s mental health. Pressure bursts pipes.

You need to be you, and content with it. Your best doesn’t need to come into it. It’s like some kind of Groundhog Sports day, the parent/teacher saying do your best when the reality is you can only really do what the circumstances have culminated to the present.

None of this arrests motivation, and motivation is a real problem contemporarily, motivation vis-a-vis ‘Why?’. What’s the point? “Holocaust heritage Napalm endurance”, as recording artist Jehst puts it. With all the shite we have inherited as a contemporary culture, the continuous exploitation of resource rich communities globally under whatever auspices, the polarizing socio-politics of celebrity-entertainer-politicians, the greed-inducing culture and its subsequent draconian crime and punishment apparatus… The Teenage self-aware angst ridden question is vindicated, “WHY?”.

So we don’t have a mission statement lol, but if we did it might be something like ‘consistency over dedication’

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.

My ‘business’ is design, in whatever form that takes, design is essentially a solution to a problem. ADA was formed as a design solution black-box – a design entity that takes a particular interrogative and responds with a multi-faceted creative solution. The starch of that fusion is content, marketing, brand design, and visual communications – photo and video..

ADA is a design proxy we execute commercial and non-commercial initiatives under, whether as straightforward as creating content for a business, (which is never straight-forward), or designing a DMV that is effortlessly, stress free and navigable within 20 minutes for all services, a mens’ mental health app, or a design system that improves transport efficacy by 3000% within a 300 mile radius, reduces traffic by ⅔ etc.

Good design informs the fundamentals for ADA. It becomes the foundation for the endeavor and therefore directs it prosperously. This ethos is ‘a different approach’ to my own experience with agencies, companies and brands.

Because of our fascination with historical design we launched Shop ADA, which is our ode to design and designers. In-person or online visitors can shop a continually evolving range of objects, art, furniture and gifts, sourced by ADA at shopada.co.uk

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Not so much a pivot as a wide turn.

Working ‘in corporate’, in an office, in a design agency, we all experience the same humid atmosphere of an environment nobody is really comfortable in. The more I inured the politics of real and virtual offices, gradually I understood that I cannot flourish in these environments. It’s not you it’s me.

Working conditions and hierarchies are as outdated as the prison system, with several parallels. So eventually I knew it wasn’t sustainable, I decided to give it one more try and ended up getting hired by two companies working remotely.

While I was ‘banking’ the joy in my soul was being sucked through a screen by email gangsters. You know email gangsters? The type that like to sit behind a screen and do their bullying.

I worked these two positions until I was exhausted by it all. After about 6 months of rehabilitation ADA began. The pressure of my own undertaking as huge as ADA, her respective to-do list is immense, but a kind of bliss compared to the abstract pressures of working for others.

If you’re a creative and you find it difficult to work with and/or for others, and you think something is wrong with you, it is!

Any advice for managing a team?

Set the standard. No need to be an arse about it, show the qualities and work ethic you want to see and be a part of. Meditation, oodles of it.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://adastudio.co.uk/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shop__adastudio/?fbclid=IwAR3zeumF0TJhOTCiNK73eRyBCiBXE3yvfdVHlPAkcx2RnqUakUtR58XglNg
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100084655935102
• Other: https://shopada.co.uk