Brendan Kearns is a designer and founder of Studio Rival. For many people his career path is already a mark of success having worked at Twitter, Invision and Google. But like most creative entrepreneurs he has his own definition of success that isn’t driven by money or status.

In this episode we talk about his time working for tech giants, his view on the role of designers and what it means to him to be an entrepreneur.

Brendan is definitely values driven and you’ll hear about how he puts those values into action when choosing clients. He’s also pragmatic and looks at the bigger picture of what he’s trying to achieve rather than being too strict with his values. For instance, even if there isn’t an exact values match with the client, if the money is good enough he’ll see it as an opportunity to create change in the organisation and also fund other projects that he believes in.

Like myself and Laurence, Brendan took an unorthodox route into his profession, studying at a business school before becoming a designer. This has meant he’s been able to look at things differently and not be conditioned by orthodox training. Rather than being T-shaped he aspires to be comb-shaped. This means, instead of being a specialist in one area he’d rather have a good knowledge of a broad set of disciplines.

If you’re a creative professional looking to make the leap or you’re an early stage entrepreneur wanting to be assured you’re on the right path then this episode is for you.