A design studio wasn’t our original plan. Our parent firm, VEC Studio, does Product-Led Storytelling, and not the traditional SaaS content marketing. But prioritizing the crafting of stories a company’s target buyers actually want to consume over SEO pieces meant one thing: The clients they worked with had to go out of their way and distribute the content VEC Studio crafted on channels those target buyers hang out. This required designs. Custom designs to better convey story-like ideas expressed within content pieces. Designs for repurposing well-crafted articles into downloadable and distributable assets on social platforms and niche communities. And in many cases, designs for running quick story-driven, product-led content marketing experiments. At that time, VEC Studio’s clients –mostly solo and small B2B marketing teams– struggled with getting such design help when needed. So VEC Studio built a design function, hiring creatives to help any client they work with take care of all design needs related to their story-driven content marketing execution. Soon, clients started reaching out for other design help –landing pages, presentations, ad creatives, webinar designs, social creatives, pitch decks, podcast designs, and so on. Soon, the same clients started referring VEC Studio’s in-house design team to others who struggled with design help.