Katrina Luong
Katrina Luong
Print / Packaging Design
Creative Director of The Yellow Loft
Los Angeles, CA
www.theyellowloft.com
instagram.com/theyellowloft
So, what do you do?
“I am the owner and creative director of a print and packaging design studio called The Yellow Loft. We are located in The Unique Space in DTLA. Come by and visit we are in 205!”
If you have multiple jobs and/or skills, which one do you wish you could do more often?
Is traveling a skill set? I want to do more of this without going broke.
Give us a specific example of how you do your job like a BOSS.
I was once dealing with a client that micro managed every aspect of the project. I realized we were NOT on the same page. After 10 hours investing in the project I decided to break up with the client. After I got off the call, my staff noticed immediately that what I did was BOSS.
I simply wanted to maintain the integrity of our work and the morale of my studio.
What are all the tools (digital or physical) you use on a regular basis?
Mac Mail, Pinterest, Adobe Creative Suite, Wacom, MacBook Pro, Coffee, White Post it Notes
Learn any tips or found anything that helps you with work?
Be transparent with your team and all the troops with rally up together with a mutual understanding of the end objectives.
Dropbox is great for everyone to access content. Function Fox is our time management software to keep track of billable time.
What are you working on right now?
I am working abroad in Europe for the next 5 weeks. If this trip is successful, I will try to incorporate working abroad more in the future.
What is frustrating you right now? What is making your business hard to move forward?
The hardest part of our job is ensuring our clients give us the content we need to get work completed successfully. This really slows things down and it slows the momentum down.
Another challenge is when payments come in late (even though we have a N15 term)..this causes problems with cash flow which aggravates the overhead I carry.
If you could hire someone for $20/hour, what would you have them do to make your day easier?
Production Assistant. This person would help production builds, get sourcing and pricing of the projects we produce. They would assist in getting estimates for all the mockups, materials and processes we design for.
If you could talk to an expert to gain more insight on something, what would it be about?
Real Estate and Financial Planning.
What kind of opportunities/projects are you looking for right now?
We are looking for more hi-end specialty food/beverage and fashion brands.
Describe your ideal collaboration.
I would love to collaborate with investors willing to invest in us to design and produce products.
What is your preferred style of working (remote, in-house, on-set, etc)?
Ideally...60% at the office, 40% off site abroad
Describe a client/job/partner you would rather not have. What are your deal breakers?
Deal breakers are clients who think they are designers that vicariously wish they could do our job. Clients who have not thought through the details/scope of their project.
How should someone approach you about working with you?
This member profile was originally published on December 2014.