How to turn your creative passion into a career: Top tips from Kate Moross

(Image credit: Kate Moross)

Kate Moross needs no introduction in the design world. Renowned for their typographic illustrations, Moross has worked with some of the world's biggest brands, and now runs their own London-based agency Studio Moross

Speaking at Adobe Max 2020 recently, Moross shared their experience of starting a business and the process of transforming from a one-person show to a brand with now 11 employees. The passion Moross has for their job, brand and colleagues is clear when they talk, so much so it's not hard to see how their passion and talent has led to such success. 

In the final part of Moross' presentation, they shared some valuable tips on how to turn your creative passion in to a career. Here's what they had to say...

01. Build great relationships

"I've never felt that success was something I’ve measured by creating an iconic piece of work, because I don’t think I fall into that bracket," Moross explains. "For me, success is building up great relationships, building up great recommendations and having clients and artists that use our services who want to come back." 

But it's not just about the clients when you're running a business, Moross says. "Success is about bringing in new people into the company because they’ve heard about how we work and want to join."

02. Don't get too comfortable

"Obviously you have to make sure what you’re doing is enjoyable," Moross advises. "And that you have enough time to relax and be switched off from your work so that when you come back to it, it’s exciting again. Make sure you have enough challenges, that your work isn't too easy and you’re not too comfortable – feel like you’re always pushing yourself forward."

03. Invest time in software 

"In the design, visual arts and motion graphics industry, the software we’re using is pretty much the most important thing," says Moross. "We use programmes like Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects, Premiere and Cinema 4D to create everything that we make. We have to always be pushing those softwares, understanding them and keeping up-to-date in order to keep moving forward and  creating things in new and innovative ways. 

"We’re always excited about new features in software because it might gives us an opportunity to maybe do something different," they continue. "And I do think those features influence design, there are obvious classic, historic features that will stay around forever and we’ll always use, but sometimes something new comes in and it will revolutionise the ability to make work."  

Want to get started with Adobe's creative software? Download the Adobe Creative Cloud suite and bring your artistic visions to life.  You can watch Kate Moross' full presentation over on the Adobe Max website

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Kerrie Hughes

Kerrie Hughes is Editor at Creative Bloq. One of the original CB crew, Kerrie joined the team back in 2013 after moving from her role as staff writer on 3D World. Since then she's written regularly for other creative publications. Kerrie's work for Creative Bloq involves managing the team and the site's content, developing and maintaining commercial partnerships, and finding innovative ways to bring Creative Bloq's audience the content they're looking for.