An Interview with Ciaran Crudden Creative Director and Founder of The Last Brand
Can you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your business?
Hi, I’m Ciaran Crudden. I run The Last Brand, a small branding and digital design studio in Belfast. It’s mainly me, and my wife recently joined part-time to keep projects and the studio on track. We work across brand identity, web, experiential and motion.
What made you want to start your own business?
The freedom to shape the direction of the business and take more creative ownership of my work.
Has running your own business been everything you expected it to be?
Yes and no. It’s as challenging as I imagined, just in different ways than I expected.
What do you enjoy most about working for yourself?
I loved my years in larger agencies and the chance to work with talented teams and global brands. Understandably, large international clients who have invested millions in their brands, tend to favour a defined in-house style in most cases. With smaller clients and start-ups there’s often more space to take creative risks and keep the work fresh and distinctive.
And what do you find hardest?
The admin pile—book-keeping, tax, invoicing, scheduling – these are all things truly out of my comfort zone. And being my own boss: finding the balance between creative freedom and business efficiency isn’t always easy.
What was the biggest hurdle for you starting out and how did you overcome it?
Financial security. Swapping a steady pay cheque for the unknown is hard with a young family and a mortgage to pay. After a period of furlough during covid, my mindset shifted. I realised the “security” that I had relied on as an employee, perhaps wasn’t as secure as I thought. Once you’ve made that initial leap, you soon realise that there is actually more security in being responsible for your own future, with a business pipeline you can rely on.
What advice would you give to other creatives starting their own business?
Start narrow. Serve a handful of clients brilliantly and let referrals compound. I can trace most of my work back to two or three early clients.
Are there any particularly exciting projects that you are currently working on?
Yes. I’m currently working with a best-selling author and well-known podcaster on a new personal brand and website. Whilst it’s still under-wraps at the minute it’s a bit of a pinch-me moment and something that could open doors next year.
How do you set good boundaries for your team and yourself?
I’ve learned I do my best work when I set firm deadlines and agree delivery dates with clients. We all crave extra time, especially creatives, but when you run your own business – time is money. Having targets to aim for creates a healthy sense of urgency to keep the creative ticking over and minimise ‘professional procrastination’.
Do you ever have days where you doubt yourself and how do you deal with these feelings?
Every day. In a social media world, we’re hyper-exposed to the best work on the planet, with everyone seemingly a vlogger or TikTok star with tens of thousands of followers. That can be inspiring—but when inspiration turns into constant comparison, it’s a quick route to imposter syndrome.
What helps me is remembering everyone’s on their own timeline. Even the best artists would wobble if they only saw greatness without context. When I see brilliant work, I try to look past the piece to the people behind it and the journey it took to get there. If there’s a lesson, I’ll take it—but putting a human beside the work makes it feel relatable, not intimidating. Most of the time.
Finally, what are your hopes and plans for the future?
We’ve had three to four years of steady growth now and built a loyal group of clients and partners so we have a solid base to build upon. The next step will be hiring a full-time member of the creative team and growing from there. In a few years’ time, I’d love us to be a team of 5–6 people, producing standout work and holding our own with the best independent studios in the UK & Ireland.
Ciaran is doing a creative talk for us on October 15th at 7pm in our Hill Street studios, you can find details and sign up here
Below is some of Ciaran’s work and you can also see more on his website The Last Brand
