New Designers: Systemising a Creative Agency
Transforming a student-run design agency into a high-performance, AI-first studio.
Overview
Team: Andreas Kruszakin-Liboska (Lead), Mila Pavlova, Stephanie van der Meer, Wouter van den Heuvel, Louise Roose, Annemiek Haneveld Created at: newdesigners.agency
What I worked on
Operational overhaul, website redesign, design systems, team coaching, client flow
Led the transformation of New Designers creative agency, boosting delivery speed by 30% through building systems that served both clients and student designers.
New Designers: AI-first Student Agency
The challenge:
Every semester, New Designers cycles in a fresh cohort of students. With that comes high onboarding overhead, inconsistent project delivery, and constant retraining. The website was outdated, the project management scattered, and roles blurry. In short: great potential, but no structure to scale it. The challenge? Bring calm to the chaos. Build systems that work for rotating teams. Make the agency truly AI-first. And redesign the identity to reflect the professionalism it already lived internally.
The approach:
Frictionless Operations:
Rebuilt our Basecamp from scratch. Tickets are now centralized with tags like "Lead," "In Dev," and "Needs Feedback". This brought 4x more clarity in project visibility. No more digging.
Fast Onboarding, Every Semester:
Introduced Figma templates, ReadMe workspaces, and a Bootcamp Week covering agency workflows, dev handoff, and async recordings. Students hit the ground running within 3 days.
Branding the Professionalism:
Redesigned the New Designers website in Framer, now fully responsive and animated to reflect our studio vibe. Clear client CTA, updated team visuals, and portfolio integration.
Future-Proofing with AI:
Launched internal GPT agents for ND Designers and Developers, plus initiated a workshop series to train students in AI-assisted workflows. We're building the first AI-first student agency.
The impact:
4x Increase in Operational Clarity:
Project statuses, ownership, and deadlines became instantly trackable. Clients now receive async updates without having to ask.
30% Faster Project Delivery:
Introduced Figma templates, ReadMe workspaces, and a Bootcamp Week covering agency workflows, dev handoff, and async recordings. Students hit the ground running within 3 days.
Doubling Team Efficiency:
Following our strategy session, role clarity doubled team output. Tasks that took a week now take days, and students report higher confidence levels.
300+ Follower Growth & Better Recognition:
Social reach increased, and clients now view us as a professional studio, not "just" a student agency. Next step: convert visibility into pipeline.
Hear first hand from my colleagues
A few honest words from the people I built with.
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