As s a business grown from diversity, it has been an interesting year that started tough, and ended with clarity. Last year posed some confronting questions for us – What to do when your whole business is built on diversity and sustainability, and the world seems to be rejecting both?
You stop and analyse, find the cracks in the narrative and try to predict where it’s going. What we found was a strong counter-culture against US chaos, leading to thought-provoking briefs from brands who see the commercial side of progress.
Ultimately, we go forwards with a bit more gusto.
From making a series on the stories of employees pushing D&I boundaries at Australia Post, to branding low-carbon AI Factories, and launching numerous community-led programs.
As always, what we lack in old school experience we make up for with our unique ability to meet the moment. In November 2024 we financially backed Madam Speaker – a uniquely academic project with a strong change model behind it. This is the first time we’ve put both service hours and capital behind a project, so I’m excited to share where it’s at in the coming pages.
I’m forever in awe of our Director Liz Indran’s dedication to grow the right way. Led by Liz, our newest department – Production – began to shape up this year. Adding a new quality of depth to our projects and storytelling. The department did over 30 shoots in the year!
Commercially, we’ve matured and launched our new brand. Our new website is a love note to our culture and our proudest portfolio moments. Unfortunately, we’ll forever QA and criticise our own work despite the awards it’s won!
Now that we’ve ripped the old website down and put a shiny new one up, it’s time to do the same with our physical space, with planning permission to build a new custom design studio in Brunswick just approved.
2025, so far, seems to have an industry-wide cloud of AI catastrophising. For YC, we’ve been using and reviewing AI for years now. We have built custom bots for the right reasons, and ethical codes on when to put it away. We’re using AI for a positive impact where it works.
Good design and original thought is more important than ever. Lesson of the year: a wee bit of conviction goes a long way.
Enjoy our 2024/25 Impact report.
Our people told us
The addition of Liz Indrans, Client & Operations Director, as a shareholder has led to extra diversity on the board, spicy conversations, and a unique perspective on how to grow YC with empathy.
Liz and our CFO Michael Howe have been tackling how to sustain the 4 Day Work Week through capacity modelling, building out pay bands across all departments and defining our maternity/paternity leave policies.
This years theme is Levelling Up
This year’s Annual Creative retreat was hosted in Marysville, a place dear to the founders hearts and home to our second (smaller) studio.
The theme was Levelling Up—to coincide with our future office refurbishment. This included a healthy dose of reflecting on our processes as individual teams, and as a collective; improvement was the crux. We defined our roles as a studio, creating a body of work around sustainability, process and ethical AI.
We also went tobogganing on Lake Mountain and hosted our ‘Your Annual Creative Awards’.
Projects
Projects for community, equity in health, progressive workplaces, feminist advocacy, and inclusive storytelling.
Each year 5% of our work goes to pro bono hours and projects.
This year saw the first self-funded project, Madam Speaker, which included both hours and financial input from our team, in collaboration with our ongoing partner The Victorian Women’s Trust.
Our friends at science & innovation hub Colabs, got a YC web platform upgrade this year to meet the growth of their business model as they open their second space in Notting Hill.
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At Your Creative™ ☼, we’re always looking for ways to reduce ↓ our impact and do better by the planet ❁. We’ve built some solid habits ♽ into our day-to-day.
Alongside our standard recycling practices, we also recycle soft plastics, dental care, skincare and makeup packaging through TerraCycle, as well as responsibly disposing of our e-waste and used stationery. We’ve been utilising the Container Deposit Scheme here in Victoria to recycle plastic bottles, glass, and aluminium cans, and we compost our organic waste to help divert it from landfill and return nutrients to the earth.
We also run team-wide initiatives throughout the year, things like Plastic Free July and regular organising YC clean ups, where just 30-45 minutes of collecting rubbish makes a real difference to our local environment. Beyond our internal actions, we also recognise our broader environmental footprint and commit to yearly carbon offsetting through Carbon Neutral, supporting certified projects that align with climate action goals. These efforts reflect our ongoing commitment to doing business in a way that respects and protects the planet.
Designing our new studio
For anyone who has followed our story from the start (9 years ago), you will know that physical space, a studio that provides a work base for all our team, is part of the cultural fabric of YC. We’ve always strived to create an office that feels nothing like an office — full of colour, conversations and creativity.
Over the last 12 months we’ve been working with some wonderful female architects on YC 2.0, our new studio. Our location will stay the same but we’re closing the doors for 12 (hopefully!) weeks as we rip out the inside of our beautiful heritage-listed home.
The new studio combines our two shopfronts, applying a modular design system across a two story fit out with an amenities upgrade. The new second floor is designed as a multipurpose space for workshops, events and constant collaboration. This YC infrastructure project will reset the heritage buildings as one purpose-built design studio. We’ll also have room for heaps more YCers!
As we approach our 10th year soon, the leaders at YC feel we’ve got some wins and stories that others might find interesting.
Auckland Design Week - YC’s Principles of Inclusive Design Leadership
James and Lauren flew to New Zealand to hangout with arguably some of the world’s coolest, most progressive designers from across brand, motion, interior and product. In their talk, they shared personal stories of navigating the notion of being a leader before breaking down our YC process model for managing projects and teams.
The models and processes shared are uniquely YC and have been developed over nearly a decade through careful thought and constantly questioning the status quo of leadership. It felt like a big deal to turn it into a presentation. We were overwhelmed by the positive feedback and all the post-talk questions from the audience leading to hours of interesting side discussions on the point of it all.
AGDA Committee
This year our Creative Director James Lim was invited to support The Australian Graphic Design Association’s 2025-30 Strategic Plan. James is leading AGDA’s sub-committee focused on First Nations engagement with a goal of elevating support for First Nations graphic designers across Australia. Go James!
Our First Co-Design Science Workshop
Picture this: 50 designers we’ve never met before and a bunch of scientists with unique biotech businesses, from cancer detection to pet genetics. For this year’s Melbourne Design Week we hosted a night of creative experimentation at Colabs. A 3-hour workshop (with pizza) that took designers and scientists through a fast-tracked co-design process to help the scientists improve their communication design.
