Tell us a little about your business and what you do?
Layfield Design director Stephen Layfield: Layfield Design is an independent design agency with a reputation for intelligent, creative and effective design.Our clients are as varied as our interests – from small businesses and niche brands through to International corporations. Clients include: Paspaley, Chanel, Harper’s Bazaar, Rolling Stone and AMP Capital.
Where is Layfield Design headed in the future?
SL: There’s never been a strategy or a master plan. The company has evolved organically over the years. There are times when we can be working on three restaurants one after another, then a brief can come in from a publishing house and for the next six months the focus of the work in the studio can be magazine-based. No two years are ever the same and that’s what keeps it interesting.
Can you share any inspiring anecdotes as to how you got started?
SL: I started Layfield Design 10 years ago. I hated being a creative director of a large agency, I spent more time managing and less time designing, I was tired of the internal politics and had lost the passion I once had for design. What I wanted to do was regain the original passion and excitement I once had for my craft. I just wanted to design. I had offers from numerous people who wanted to be my business partner and lots of advice on the ‘dangers’ of going it alone. If I’d set up a typical design agency I would have just ended up in the same position of managing people and not designing. So I kept it simple, kept my overheads low, took projects on based not on how big the budget was, but how interesting the project was… and 10 years on I still love what I do. Last year I was approached by Apple for a Creative Director role in California. Although I was flattered, it made me realise how much I enjoyed how I worked and the work I do. Being a Creative Director at Apple would have meant, once again, that I managed more and designed less… so the answer had to be no.
Where is your favourite Surry Hills lunch place and why?
SL: Pasta Emilia on Riley Street. They do the best organic fresh pasta and sauces and the Surry Hills Hipsters are yet to discover it
What do you like about working out of The Office Space?
SL: The people. From the great receptionists that are the face of Layfield Design to all the creative and entrepreneurial people that are my neighbours and let me borrow their staplers. www.layfielddesign.com