Let me just start off with a small confession!

For us designers, maths isn’t really our strong point (speaking for myself), so I totally knew how I wanted my header to view but I had to triple check on Google that my little crocodile mouth was pointing in the right direction… probably another reason we need collab!?

Any who, moving on to the important stuff!

I feel like growing up (mainly in school & varsity) we were often taught about competition. About competition that would appear within our career paths, how to identify it and how to deal with it. 
The word competition often tends to come across as quite a negative one – I mean, just have a look at the dictionary definition:

noun
1. the activity or condition of striving to gain or win something by defeating or establishing superiority over others.

This gives the impression that you always have to fight to be the best – and to a certain extent, that is true because nothing comes easy, you really need to work hard, but it implies that you sort of strip others down in the process.

I however am a firm believer in teamwork!
And with a small shift of perspective, this is where a little word called collaboration (aka collab) comes into play: 

noun
1. the action of working with someone to produce something.

Collab is sort of the positive version of competition where you actually come together with people/businesses alike to build something better.

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Whilst I was still studying, we used to have a month a year to work on a huge project called a ‘brand challenge’, and I mean H.U.G.E! 
Brand challenges was where one or two students from each specialization would come together to form a team in order to tackle and complete a large ‘real’ client brief. It was absolute chaos to say the least! Sleepless nights, huge stress, the spinning ball of doom at least 3 x a day (designers will know) but you know what, it was all worth it. 

I may not have said so at the time, but these annual challenges were great preparation for the working world.

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If there is one thing I have learnt this far throughout studying and working, it’s that you shouldn’t necessarily see other businesses as competition. Yes, to a certain extent there will always be the urge to be better and grow more, but in today’s times, we could definitely benefit from each other… especially within the creative industry.

As a creative, it is always helpful bouncing ideas off other creative, and more often than not, your idea and execution can only get better! It’s very easy to hit creative block, especially if you are a small business owner working on your own, and that is why you need your fellow creatives.

Every agency tends to specialize a little more in one particular field and this is where collabs become beneficial and fun! You begin to build relationships with other agencies that specialize in something else and you start to bounce work and ideas off each other.

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Shrimp has worked a couple collabs since our opening last year, and let me tell you something; they have been some of the best projects yet.

There is just something so rewarding about joining ‘creative brains’ together to achieve something even greater than you could have imagined – and not to mention it coming together a whole lot faster too.
A bit of fresh input doesn’t hurt!

It’s no secret that we are involved in a very competitive industry; to be honest, I think all industries are – especially at these times.

However, my personal opinion is that, not only is it smarter and some what healthier to work together rather than working against, but it also makes for a very happy client and at the end of the day, that’s what matters most!