Suzy Tuxen reflects on 10 years of running her Melbourne-based studio A Friend of Mine

Suzy Tuxen founded A Friend of Mine in 2009 having worked at studios in London and Melbourne. As creative director of her Melbourne-based studio, Suzy oversees a team of five that includes an account director, two designers and two web developers. Together they work on a wide range of projects across multiple disciplines. We caught up with Suzy to find out more about their work and what she’s learnt after running a studio for 10 years. EM: Hi Suzy. Can you give us an introduction to A Friend of Mine? ST: For sure! A Friend of Mine is a multi-disciplinary design studio based in Melbourne, Australia. We have just turned 10 this year which is exciting. We’ve been very fortunate to work on some incredible projects in our time, from branding Lune Croissanterie, to art directed imagery and website for law firm Hazelbrook Legal, and more recently working on the packaging design and brand update for Kester Black (Australia’s leading ethical beauty brand). We’ve worked with a real mix of clientele and have always enjoyed the challenge of not having a house style – instead, ensuring that we approach each project with fresh eyes. We are constantly pushing our capabilities too – and have grown to now offer branding, website design and development, art direction, print, packaging, signage and film direction. I think it’s a love of wanting each branding project we undertake to really sing in all formats that has led to this mix of disciplines. We are also immensely proud of our global fundraising initiative last year called ‘Pattern for Yemen‘ which raised $40,000 for the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.