Verified Expert Brand Designer: Lake Buckley

In 2017, Lake Buckley turned down an in-house role at Patagonia to launch her freelance design career in a 400 sq. ft studio in Brooklyn, NY. Since then, the RISD-trained designer and art director has helped founders bring their mission-driven brand to life. We spoke with Lake about why she chose to become an independent designer, what makes a successful client collaboration, and what projects she’s most proud of (hint: one of them involves fig wasps).


Why she likes working with founders:

I think entrepreneurs are less jaded. They’re putting a lot more on the line and so because of that, oftentimes, they’re going to be a bit more awake at the switch, a bit more passionate, and down to do things in a non-traditional way. I really enjoy the level of excitement that they bring to the table because there is no one forcing them to start their own company. It’s coming from a place of genuine belief in their idea. It’s contagious. I think it’s important to maintain a sense that you’re doing things out of choice, not because you’re forced to. I really appreciate that energy coming from founders.

On her ideal client:

“I am excited about companies that care about design and are interested in taking risks and having a unique visual perspective. I love it when there is room to be humorous, bizarre, and slightly whimsical. I have a bold POV, and I look for clients that celebrate that.”

“Lake created an entire illustration system, a photography system, a color system, elements for a tone of voice, and a detailed strategy for deploying each of these elements in harmony.” A media executive in NYC

Below, you’ll find the rest of the founder reviews, the full interview, and more details like pricing and fee structures. This profile is part of our ongoing series covering startup brand designers and agencies with whom founders love to work, based on this survey and our own research. The survey is open indefinitely, so please fill it out if you haven’t already.


The Interview

Yvonne Leow: Can you tell me how you got started in design?

Lake Buckley: I’ve always been a maker. As a kid, I had a hundred projects going on at once. Knitting shoes, baking bread, drawing, making short movies with my brothers, etc. As I got older, I continued to study design and art as well as environmental science. The art gallery world that I had been exposed too felt too insular, and I enjoyed the practical nature of design and the myriad applications of it. I studied art and science in undergrad but I wanted a more formal design training, so I pursued graphic design at RISD for my graduate degree.

It opened up design for me in a way that I didn’t even know was possible. I had the time to be purely selfish and just make. When you are being paid to get a deliverable out the door on time, there is less time and encouragement to pursue failure and try new things. At grad school there are a lot of different voices and some institutional pressures to conform to a certain design lexicon. Sometimes I agreed with those voices and sometimes I didn’t. Being forced to create work that wasn’t going to be accepted by everyone really allowed me to find conviction in my own curiosities and ideas. I am forever grateful to a couple teachers who made it all worthwhile. I was lucky.

Before that time I had worked for some startups as well as Patagonia, Levi’s and Nest, which had just been acquired by Google. After finishing grad school, I had an offer to be an art director at Patagonia but I had the sense that that job wouldn’t allow me to cultivate my own visual identity that I had really begun to tap into during graduate school. A friend and teacher had given me the simple advice: “make the work you want to make.” So I decided to be independent so I could continue to answer that question rather than the direction of hovering bosses or pre-existing brand guidelines.

Yvonne Leow: Why did you decide to strike out on your own?

Lake Buckley: After graduation I felt like I had just started to cultivate my own voice and I wasn’t ready to let go of that creative freedom. I was worried that I wouldn’t continue to develop in the same way by going in-house or to an agency. I wanted to put myself in a position where I was forced to become more confident by default of being the only person responsible for getting things done. For me, figuring things out on my own for a bit was the right process.

I started working full time as a freelance designer at 26 when I graduated from graduate school. I moved to Brooklyn a month after grad school. I worked out of my apartment for the first five months. I wanted to know if it was possible to support myself financially while being an independent freelancer. After a couple months I signed a lease for a 400 sq. ft. studio space in Gowanus, which I was horrified to do but felt necessary in order to create the type of work I wanted to make. The space also gave me more flexibility in terms of what I could offer clients. That was about a year and a half ago. It’s been a nice learning process

Yvonne Leow: Do you want to continue being an independent designer?

Lake Buckley: Being independent is less important than being in spaces that value different perspectives and an individual’s unique contributions. In order to be creatively fulfilled I require a sense of agency and freedom to make work that feels true to my voice. It is really important that I continue to develop my own vernacular, so I look for working environments and clients that are interested in supporting that development as well. I think being independent is a really powerful learning process that made me very aware of my strengths and weaknesses. I really encourage people to become independent if it’s something they’re curious about. You learn a lot.

Yvonne Leow: Why’d you decide to work with startup clients?

Lake Buckley: I started to work with startups because I had friends in companies that needed work, and I needed clients. I enjoyed the creative freedom and they saw an opportunity to apply the skills I had developed up to that point for a very cheap price. I took everything I learned, worked really hard and hoped for the best.

Working with startups can be fun because it’s a clean slate, and we get to envision who they are and how they engage with their audience from scratch. I really enjoy working with an engaged community where the company mission is an aspect of their personal identity.

Startups are usually relatively small, which means they are agile and fast moving. I love when there isn’t a complicated hierarchy of decision-making chains. The more people required to sign off on an idea, the more diluted that idea often becomes. Keeping up momentum is important in maintaining focus and inspiration too. Sometimes startup clients are more willing to take design risks because their ideas are usually breaking a pre-existing mold. This always excites me.

Yvonne Leow: What do you enjoy about working with founders?

Lake Buckley: I think entrepreneurs are less jaded. They’re putting a lot more on the line and so because of that, oftentimes, they’re going to be a bit more awake at the switch, a bit more passionate, and down to do things in a non-traditional way. I really enjoy the level of excitement that they bring to the table because there is no one forcing them to start their own company. It’s coming from a place of genuine belief in their idea. It’s contagious. I think it’s important to maintain a sense that you’re doing things out of choice, not because you’re forced to. I really appreciate that energy coming from founders.

Yvonne Leow: What’s your ideal client relationship?

Lake Buckley: I am excited about companies that care about design and are interested in taking risks and having a unique visual perspective. I love it when there is room to be humorous, bizarre, and slightly whimsical. I have a bold POV, and I look for clients that celebrate that.

Some red flags would be if a client ever responds to a question about design with a one-word answer. It indicates that they don’t value the work, and their minimal effort and attention will most likely continue throughout our working relationship. If a client doesn’t value work, they won’t want to pay for it either.

Yvonne Leow: Are there specific industries you’re interested in?

Lake Buckley: Yes, I’m interested in experiential work, branding, film and photography. At this moment, I get stoked about anything relating to female empowerment/health, nutrition/agriculture, education relating to erotic intelligence and podcasts.

Yvonne Leow: Awesome. In your experience, what makes a client relationship or project successful?

Lake Buckley: Successful relationships like many have been built on trust, respect, clear and frequent communication. On a personal note, some questions I might ask myself include:

  1. Do I want to do this project?
  2. Does it fit with my financial reality?

Another important question: Is it something I believe in? Will it result in something interesting? Will it enable me to work with interesting people? Do I have the bandwidth? Are they flexible on timeline and can I make it my own? Does this project fill a gap in my portfolio? Will I have full creative freedom? Will I learn something new? Usually successful relationships answer positively to many of these questions. Bad client relationships have mostly been caused around tension resulting from a lack of trust.

Yvonne Leow: Looking back, what project are you most proud of and why?

Lake Buckley: This year started off with a super fun project that included vintage jello molds, building a 36-foot long table and learning about the intricate life of fig wasps. In the fall, I started working with some amazing women who care a lot about holistic nutrition. They have a complex vision of what health is, locating it somewhere at the intersection of community, biochemical realities, genetic and cultural inheritance, emotional wellbeing. When thinking about the best way to tell their story, I was a little stumped. How do we weave so many separate, but connected narratives together?

The community table seemed like the best way to communicate the many stories that shaped their rad brand. It was a way to show the complexity and the interconnectedness of nutrition and community health. I asked them for 36 morsels of inspiration that have been critical in shaping their company. We then spent two weeks expanding these morsels into stories (hence, fig wasp research). Once the stories existed, I could begin to map out and imagine the giant table composition, 36 stories = 36 square compositions = 1 orthographically photographed table composition. The project was conceptually solid, the execution was stylistically fulfilling and challenging, and the team effort was tremendously socially fulfilling as well. Plus, I got to include my grandmother in the final image.

I’m also grateful to have worked on a project called “Vote With Your Tote” with a group of creatives last year. The goal was to create a documentary that targeted the governor of NY, and put pressure on him to change plastic bag legislation by instating a ban/fee hybrid law. I was proud of the strategy behind it, and that the creation relied heavily on the participation of bodega owners and people we met on the street. It felt good to amplify the voice and experience of other people. It was recently announced as a finalist by Fast Company for the category of ‘World Changing Ideas Awards,’ which is exciting, but there’s still a lot more work that needs to be done in order to get the right legislation in place.

Yvonne Leow: Very cool. What common mistakes do you think founders make when it comes to branding?

Lake Buckley: Bringing in designers too late. Thinking that it’s about making things look pretty.

Yvonne Leow

What’s your pricing structure for rates and fees?

Lake Buckley: At a high level, it’s important to figure out what my hourly rate is because then I know what I need to survive. Then it’s about knowing how much time each various service takes, then I multiply my hourly by this time-tracked number so I have a general sense of the baseline cost associated with each service. The only problem with hourly rates is that it means I am selling my time versus my work. In general, I believe in charging clients based on the value of what I’m offering so defining a project rate is generally a better approach. Value pricing is very dependent on the client and the project. Of course, I do have an hourly and a day rate.

I’m also offered equity quite often since startups are usually cash poor. I’m rarely interested in taking equity though, and if I am, I account for risk, which usually means I am charging 4x or more of what my immediate rate would be. There are rare occasions when I request to be paid with equity, but it’s not the norm. I tend to work with companies, mostly Series A, that have already raised a decent amount of capital.


Founder recommendations

Lake Buckley is our creative director and the genius behind our pre-launch Instagram brand expression. She so thoughtfully captured our vision of integrating the many themes of nourishment that matter to us as a company, from food, to nature, science, history, heritage, community, and family–with each post a separate educational vignette that fits into a broader dining table scape.Julie Sawaya, LA, Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Needed

“Where do I begin with Lake? She came recommended by the head of the creative agency we worked with as a brilliant designer and thinker. We’re a pre-launch company with a great deal of funding and an ultra-ambitious launch plan, so we needed to hire a brand designer who was also a creative visionary—not just someone who could whip up a visual identity, but someone who could fundamentally contribute to the values of the brand through visual means. Lake created an entire illustration system, a photography system, a color system, elements for a tone of voice, and a detailed strategy for deploying each of these elements in harmony.

She’s also that rare designer who can explain her thinking and collaborate beautifully with an executive team, eliciting their thoughts, creating an atmosphere of cooperation, and translating them into a visual language that everyone loves.” – A media executive in NYC

“Creative illustrations that reflect the “feeling” of the message as well as the content. Excellent narrative help with attention to detail. Very good at listening and never took it personally, when I wasn’t precisely happy with wording, layout, or anything. Extremely upbeat, quick to respond and reasonably priced. Couldn’t have been happier with the work and relationship.”Jane A. Morton, MD, Palo Alto, Founder, Droplet