Nove Studio: Fresh Perspective

Marco and Anne Cibola run a graphic design firm called Nove Studio based in Dundas, Ontario. Nove Studio provides graphic design and art direction services mainly for print-based projects. One of their latest and favorite projects is art-directing and designing Guilt & Pleasure magazine. Behance caught up with Marco and Anne to discuss the benefits of a fresh perspective and a simple mission.

When it comes to time management, Marco and Anne employ the practical electronic calendars and task lists that many of us use to track progress and deadlines. While the pair doesn't always work together, they keep each other posted. As they explain, "Sharing ideas, and discussing briefs means that we are each aware of work that needs to get done. And when possible we try to work toward our own deadline so that we have room for fine-tuning in advance of scheduled deadlines. We love what we do and we love working with each other. The challenge for us though isn’t getting work done, but making sure we get time away from work!"

Among their greatest frustrations as creative professionals are the limitations of budgets. They site the challenge of "working with small production budgets and not being able to print things the way that we would sometimes like to." However, the pair also see some benefits from restriction. They explain, "...we enjoy problem solving, and sometimes boundaries and limitations can yield more interesting results."

Taking a routine fresh perspective is especially important to Marco and Anne. "We try to step back and take a fresh look at our work throughout the process. We are comfortable and honest with each other, and we’re open to throwing something out if it’s not working and starting fresh. ...Always revisiting the initial outline is important to make sure that a project is meeting its goals successfully. But it’s often equally important to allow for change and to be flexible. It keeps things interesting. And often the end result can be better for it."

Marco and Anne keep the Nove Studio mission very simple. In their own words, "we want to be good at what we do and we want to be able to continue to do what we’re doing for the rest of our lives. We can’t imagine going to work in separate offices and not working together towards a common goal. We’re always trying to improve and to be satisfied with the work we produce. We both have this same goal as individuals, and so naturally it translates to our goal as a firm. We want Nove to represent strong work. It doesn’t hurt if other people like what we do too!"