Name: Jon and Genco Cebecioglu
Company: Studio Vitamin C

Jon and Genco are brothers who own their own design studio, Studio Vitamic C. The name of the studio comes from the initial of their last name, and also for "creativity". They are a small studio of 3 people, though they mentioned they would like to grow their business in 2012. He also talked about how networking is the key to this industry and that since they started their own business, they haven't needed to do any marketing for themselves because of referrals and industry contacts.

During their presentation, they walked us through several of their past and current projects, and how they work through the projects from concept to completion. One such project was Jumping Fish, a software start up company. The showed us their logo design concepts and how they and the client worked together to arrive at the final piece. They also demonstrated the site and showed us how they used a JavaScript plug-in to make a clean and simple elevator site for the client.

As a graduate of our program, Genco stressed the importance of concentrating on our independent projects. He also talked to us about some of our careers options after graduating. Similar to what some other guest speakers have mentioned, he said that working at a small studio, you are more likely to get credit for work and be heard but there aren't many opportunities to move up and the budgets aren't as big. At larger studios, you have the potential for promotion and to work on big brands, but there are long hours and you may be taken advantage of. He also mentioned some of the issues with working freelance include needing to be busy all the time to make it worthwhile, and that there is no security.

Lastly, Genco talked to us about starting our own businesses, as there are many seed investors influencing a huge start up boom in Toronto at the moment. He stressed that this path requires passion and belief in your products, and that seed investors don't necessarily invest in a product, they invest in the person. However, he said that while he loves having his own business, there was no way he could have done it without working in the industry first; learning how it worked and gaining industry contacts were critical to their success.