New-gen business: Design from any device, anywhere

room in your mind for new words as every sector has become a part of the data-driven business culture “like a child who learns to swim by jumping into the pool” during the pandemic period.

During the outbreak, you started hearing the term “new generation business” more. To explain this transformation, we wanted to start with the software developers and designers themselves.

The cloud-based Artboard Studio solution, which provides pay-as-you-go service and eliminates the use of powerful and expensive devices for design, has emerged as a fast and collaborative tool to be used by Turkey’s new generation designers.

Artboard Studio, which we met at the startups. watch event last week, also revealed the new generation way of doing business while telling the story of getting investment from 212 venture capital funds.

Let’s get the “Status Report” first. While talking about new generation entrepreneurs, let’s take a closer look at the situation of designers all over the world whose working order has been disrupted. A lack of powerful devices in workplaces forced them to work on their own without their coworkers.

Existing design practices have struggled to meet the urgent needs of the pandemic period. Those who left their jobs faced similar problems while working independently. Applications that required expensive, slow, powerful hardware were far from feasible.

Observing this situation and by responding to customer expectations accurately and quickly, Artboard Studio solution managed to accumulate a global customer base.

NEW-GEN DESIGNER

Mücahit Gayıran, the founder of the venture, also defines the new generation designer. “The design tradition, which has been going on for years, had to keep up with the rapidly developing and changing marketing world. Too many size differences, too much repetitive work, too much time required. Adobe’s tools – the first choice of designers for 30 years – could not fix these shortcomings,” he noted.

“Sketch came first and presented interface designers with a more innovative and tailored alternative, and thus Adobe’s indestructible stronghold took its first cannonball. After that, it wasn’t enough. Figma came and took its users from Sketch. In fact, there was only one thing at the core of it: speed and interoperability.”

Depending on the definition of a new generation designer, Gayıran is a designer who can access content from anywhere and very quickly, can work with crowded teams without communication problems and can automate some parts of the design work that do not require artistic interpretation.

“In the new version of Artboard Studio, we will focus on the accessibility, collaboration, and data making sense and automating some repetitive tasks that marketing designers need,” Gayıran said.

DATA CULTURE COMES FIRST

“There is data in Artboard Studio’s philosophy and culture,” Gayıran continued. “We follow our users very well and try to understand what they need or what problems they have. Our priorities will be to implement the most needed features according to the data we have, to develop collaboration technology and to save time for our users by shortening some design processes thanks to artificial intelligence.”

10X GROWTH TARGET

Saying that the new investment would help them find software developers to more quickly implement the features they want to develop such as artificial intelligence and real-time work, Gayıran listed his investment goals.

“Our first goal is to complete the parts we think we are lacking by establishing the best team as soon as possible. Our team currently comprises 15 people, but there are only three software developers. Our goal is to recruit back-end and front-end software developers and increase our software team to 10. In the long term, we aim to make Artboard Studio a platform used by all major advertising agencies and companies, where marketing content and even measurements can be made,” he noted. “Afterward, we want to create an open-source platform and become a system where users can create add-ons or content. In this way, we will be an application where designers and advertisers design and publish more efficient campaigns together.”

USED BY 50,000 DESIGNERS

“You realize that what you are doing is beautiful and useful, only by activating it and making it available to people. If your users are happy, you have a chance; if they pay money, you are meeting a need; if they are both happy and giving money, you are on the right track,” Gayıran says, perfectly summing up the excitement created by the software.

“When we released the first demo version, our users liked it very much, they started using it actively, writing content and shooting videos. When we first asked for money, 174 people bought it in the first month, showing us that we really did solve a problem. Every month, 50,000 people from all over the world design using Artboard Studio, we are at the stage where we understand that we are on the right track and that we need to make better developments.”