‘Freelancing is Challenging. Yes, capital C’: Jean Pongsai on Entrepreneurship, Freelancing, and Creative Vision
Graphic by Katey Williams
Before Jean Pongsai founded Studio DBJ, she filled a variety of different roles. Graduating from USC with a design degree in 2015, Pongsai went on to work at Playboy, the L.A. Natural History Museum, and multiple design firms. She even spent some time as a freelance designer.
Pongsai’s experiences taught her the ins-and-outs of the design industry. With that knowledge, she founded her own design company Studio DBJ, which emphasizes a collaborative design process.
As a guest of one of Parachute’s Cloud Chat sessions, Pongsai shared her insights on entrepreneurship, design, and more. Here are some snippets from Pongsai’s conversation with the Parachute community:
*Pongsai’s answers have been lightly edited for spelling, grammar, and clarity.
Q: What motivated you to start your own company?
A: I knew I wanted to start my own company when I felt that the solutions at the studio I was working at didn’t fully align with what the clients needed.
In true inner-child spirit, Studio DBJ came to be because we believe that there is no reason why you can’t be happy in life.
Through design, we want to support people on their pursuit of happiness. That can be starting a company, YouTube graphics or brand development. Happiness is something that should be achievable for anyone.
Q: Advice for young entrepreneurs?
A: My advice for young entrepreneurs is make sure you think really hard about the mission that you are trying to put out into the world. Take the time to define the action you are trying to pursue and the people you are trying to serve.
Q: What was your experience freelancing like?
A: Freelancing is Challenging. (Yes, capital C). When I first started out I had no clue what I was doing.
After being in the gig industry for about four years now, I learned that most people will connect to you if they can see what you’re truly passionate about. In freelancing, your offering has to be clear and hit home. A general approach in freelance will make it difficult for your potential client to trust you. During that first initial contact, you want to either inspire your viewer to want to work with you OR alleviate your viewer, because now they found someone who can help them.
Q: Advice for someone building their own portfolio?
A: When I decided to freelance full time, I started to curate projects by the type of work I’d like to get hired for and the aesthetics I wanted to develop more.
When we transitioned to a company site, we reorganized our clients and projects to support our studio mission.
What’s made someone’s portfolio stand out to me is when I can see that they’ve taken the time to give the work context so that I can understand 1.) How the project functions IRL and 2.) How deeply the designer/creative understands the clients’ goals.
Q: How do you stay true to yourself while also working on a client’s vision?
A: When I worked in a company, there were definitely moments that I had to compromise my perspective. It all comes down to the fact that that client identifies with the company or your bosses’ vision.
In order to stay true to myself, I had to find a place or company that felt aligned with my thoughts & values. (Which ended up as us creating our own).
Now when I come across a scenario that does challenge our morals & perspectives, we schedule a call to talk and workshop with our clients. We let them know that we just want the best for them, that we value their thoughts, and clarifying where we all stand makes for a healthier working relationship.
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Written by Sam Nguyen
