Ferdinand Sorg

over 2 years ago · Leipzig

Big collab we did for more than a year. Now on our website (:

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ferdinandsorg retweeted

over 2 years ago

This, among many other reasons, is why we want to foster partnerships with our clients 🫶 @hejsmalltribe @stvxmvnn @ferdinandsorg

justin_schueler's tweet photo. This, among many other reasons, is why we want to foster partnerships with our clients 🫶

@hejsmalltribe @stvxmvnn @ferdinandsorg https://t.co/CfHRiV48cQ

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ferdinandsorg retweeted

over 2 years ago

Ageras marketplace hover animation prototype. by @ferdinandsorg #productdesign #motion #prototype #figma

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Lead UX-Designer @starglobally

over 2 years ago

@figma

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Who to follow

Dominik Witzke

@dominikwitzke

over 2 years ago

@figma have I reached a new level? strokes on flatten text does not render properly

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ferdinandsorg retweeted

over 2 years ago

We have designed and prototyped multiple concepts for the Ageras Marketplace onboarding flow. Users can select various criteria to match with relevant experts. by @ferdinandsorg #productdesign #motion #prototype #figma

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over 2 years ago

WIP I worked on for Tellow

over 2 years ago

Account balance UI and animation for Tellow

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ferdinandsorg retweeted

over 2 years ago

Diving into the research and discovery phase for a new branding for a client in the solar industry. Fun! #greentech #sustainability #branding #strategy

hejsmalltribe's tweet photo. Diving into the research and discovery phase for a new branding for a client in the solar industry. Fun!

#greentech #sustainability #branding #strategy https://t.co/eLIGFg6YZb

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ferdinandsorg retweeted

over 2 years ago

In 2023 @hejsmalltribe silently launched a premium design subscription service as an experiment, a proof of concept, called Assembli (https://t.co/aw5YRNN0GG). After recent trends in the design agency and freelance world, where the "unlimited subscription" was popping up in almost every corner, we decided to evaluate the idea. Assembli was born, and we tested a few website and business concepts. While we did have a few clients subscribed for 2-3 months, we quickly realized that this way of working and collaboration is far from what we want and love as a team. If you are a freelance designer or small studio browsing Twitter in the last few months, you quickly get the feeling of missing out on the big and simple idea that will bring you big money in almost no time. Just make it a subscription service, sell your $5k/month package, and see your MRR increase. Obviously, picking up the dominant rhetoric here, I think it's clear for me to say that this is and will be, in most cases, far from reality. While I am sure you can make a lot of money with this approach, I doubt the overall sustainability and longevity. How can you foster true partnerships and a sense of deeper involvement with your clients? How do you scale without burning out, outsourcing, or hiring more people? We picked the name Assembli very much on purpose when we were diving into the concepts of the idea: "Assembly can denote the process of putting parts together to make a machine or other product." — Leaning towards the metaphor of an assembly line in a factory. Clients submit their requests on a board, which is the initial step in the assembly line. A worker promptly reviews the requests to ensure smooth progression to the next step. Typically, this involves immediately creating visuals in Figma to meet the promised 48-hour turnaround time. The process includes assembling, exporting, reviewing on the board, and moving on to the next item, following the same procedure. We decided to sunset Assembli and the idea of a subscription-based service after roughly 4 months. This was an easy step and felt totally right after all, especially since we intentionally set out to test the idea and the business case. We were not emotionally attached and didn't invest all our time or money. While I don't want to criticize this approach in general, it didn't work for us. Through practical experience, we realized that it wasn't suitable for our needs. I'm glad for those who can successfully implement this approach for themselves and their clients, as there is a strong demand for this type of work in various design fields, including websites and marketing assets. Overall, we worked with three clients and talked to two potential companies. We did not experience a huge interest and found it hard to convert leads, which could be due to a dozen of reasons. However, I want to state that it didn't work on autopilot, as some posts here might suggest sometimes. This experiment further helped us to better understand and shape our own positioning as a boutique studio. What we offer now and how we work couldn't be more different from what I described above. We are selective about who we work with. We want to talk to our clients, get to know them, understand their background, vision, and needs. We want to be your ally, your partner for as long as you need us. We truly believe in the benefits of partnerships and collaborations, focusing on quality over sole efficiency and quantity. If you want to dive a bit deeper, I just published the initial version of our website, which we promoted via Twitter and LinkedIn for a couple of weeks: https://t.co/kYLPZzXZgX In conclusion, I believe it has been worthwhile to try. It has greatly assisted me and the team in focusing on our vision, strengths, and determining how we wish to collaborate.

justin_schueler's tweet photo. In 2023 @hejsmalltribe silently launched a premium design subscription service as an experiment, a proof of concept, called Assembli (https://t.co/aw5YRNN0GG).

After recent trends in the design agency and freelance world, where the "unlimited subscription" was popping up in almost every corner, we decided to evaluate the idea.

Assembli was born, and we tested a few website and business concepts. While we did have a few clients subscribed for 2-3 months, we quickly realized that this way of working and collaboration is far from what we want and love as a team.

If you are a freelance designer or small studio browsing Twitter in the last few months, you quickly get the feeling of missing out on the big and simple idea that will bring you big money in almost no time. Just make it a subscription service, sell your $5k/month package, and see your MRR increase.

Obviously, picking up the dominant rhetoric here, I think it's clear for me to say that this is and will be, in most cases, far from reality. While I am sure you can make a lot of money with this approach, I doubt the overall sustainability and longevity.

How can you foster true partnerships and a sense of deeper involvement with your clients? How do you scale without burning out, outsourcing, or hiring more people?

We picked the name Assembli very much on purpose when we were diving into the concepts of the idea: "Assembly can denote the process of putting parts together to make a machine or other product." — Leaning towards the metaphor of an assembly line in a factory.
Clients submit their requests on a board, which is the initial step in the assembly line. A worker promptly reviews the requests to ensure smooth progression to the next step. Typically, this involves immediately creating visuals in Figma to meet the promised 48-hour turnaround time. The process includes assembling, exporting, reviewing on the board, and moving on to the next item, following the same procedure.

We decided to sunset Assembli and the idea of a subscription-based service after roughly 4 months. This was an easy step and felt totally right after all, especially since we intentionally set out to test the idea and the business case. We were not emotionally attached and didn't invest all our time or money.

While I don't want to criticize this approach in general, it didn't work for us. Through practical experience, we realized that it wasn't suitable for our needs. I'm glad for those who can successfully implement this approach for themselves and their clients, as there is a strong demand for this type of work in various design fields, including websites and marketing assets.
Overall, we worked with three clients and talked to two potential companies. We did not experience a huge interest and found it hard to convert leads, which could be due to a dozen of reasons. However, I want to state that it didn't work on autopilot, as some posts here might suggest sometimes.

This experiment further helped us to better understand and shape our own positioning as a boutique studio. What we offer now and how we work couldn't be more different from what I described above. We are selective about who we work with. We want to talk to our clients, get to know them, understand their background, vision, and needs. We want to be your ally, your partner for as long as you need us. We truly believe in the benefits of partnerships and collaborations, focusing on quality over sole efficiency and quantity.

If you want to dive a bit deeper, I just published the initial version of our website, which we promoted via Twitter and LinkedIn for a couple of weeks: https://t.co/kYLPZzXZgX

In conclusion, I believe it has been worthwhile to try. It has greatly assisted me and the team in focusing on our vision, strengths, and determining how we wish to collaborate.

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ferdinandsorg retweeted

almost 3 years ago

How do you tell the world that your studio has rebranded and launched a new website? Right, #askchatgpt Now we actually show you who we are and what we do. Awesome, right? 😊 Please take a look and leave some love 💕 Oh, and share!! → https://t.co/lxyhR7tJ4K @hejsmalltribe

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almost 3 years ago

@justin_schueler 🙏🙏🙏

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almost 3 years ago

@justin_schueler still has potential, but I liked what I've cooked so far @kpntcook https://t.co/LfpLuSzrIl

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ferdinandsorg retweeted

almost 3 years ago

New brand, new website, new photos. I am so excited about all of this and can't wait to finally launch it in a few weeks. <3 @hejsmalltribe @stvxmvnn @ferdinandsorg

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about 3 years ago

Check out my new Showreel! 🪸 I'm available for exciting new projects in the fields of 𝐝𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧, 𝐰𝐞𝐛𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐬 and 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠! Let's [email protected] or share this post with others who might be interested. 🤝

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about 3 years ago

ufffff thanks a lot, appreciate that ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

about 3 years ago

This portfolio by @ferdinandsorg is a pure gem. I just realized now how many thoughtful details and easter eggs it has. It's a great example of creativity and approaching things differently. → https://t.co/RnN21dHN8N

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ferdinandsorg retweeted

about 3 years ago

This portfolio by @ferdinandsorg is a pure gem. I just realized now how many thoughtful details and easter eggs it has. It's a great example of creativity and approaching things differently. → https://t.co/RnN21dHN8N

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