Joseph Membré on Systems That Keep Small Studios Profitable
In this episode of Looks Good From Here we sit down with Joseph Membré, founder of Square Design, a Bretagne (France) based creative studio that's redefining what it means to build a sustainable design business. Watch the video or continue reading below.
Running a successful design studio while maintaining creative excellence isn't easy. How do you scale your business without sacrificing quality? How do you build consistent revenue streams in an industry known for feast-or-famine cycles? And perhaps most importantly, how do you keep your creative spark alive while managing the business side of things?
These are the challenges that Joseph Membré, founder of Square Design, has been tackling for over a decade. Based in Paris, Joseph leads a growing team of designers creating stunning Squarespace websites that feel both fresh and refined. In our recent podcast episode, Joseph shared the strategies, tools, and mindset shifts that have helped him build a thriving design studio while staying hands-on with the creative process.
From Sales to Studio Owner: The Journey Begins
Joseph's path to design wasn't traditional. He discovered Squarespace in 2012 while working as a salesperson for a startup selling Salesforce apps. When the company needed a website, his boss suggested looking into Squarespace 6.
"I found it so easy to create a website using Squarespace," Joseph recalls. "It was a surprise for me that I didn't know these tools existed."
That early experience with Squarespace's intuitive platform planted the seed for what would become his career. Joseph was already passionate about design and good brands, but seeing how accessible web design could be opened up new possibilities.
After the startup grew rapidly from 3 to 18 employees in just one year, Joseph's role evolved. He worked hand-in-hand with the owner to develop the business, and the experience sparked something in him—a desire to build his own company. He left to start his first creative agency with a friend, learned the ropes as a self-taught designer, and eventually went solo as a freelancer in 2014.
Building a Team That Maintains Creative Excellence
Today, Square Design operates as a small but mighty team of three to four people, with plans to add a business developer in September. Joseph's approach to team building is refreshingly intentional—he doesn't want to be a large agency managing dozens of people.
"I don't want to be a big agency because I don't want to be a person manager," Joseph explains. "I still want to have my hands into the work and I really want to do things myself."
He's clear about his vision for the company's size: "I don't think we'll ever be 50. That's not the goal. The goal is to stay a small team."
Hiring for Design Eye Over Technical Skills
Joseph's hiring philosophy centers on one key principle: hire trained eyes, not tech experts.
"I can teach someone how to use Squarespace in a matter of a few days," he says. "But I cannot train their eye to see what looks good and what is not trendy in terms of web design."
He looks for candidates from art and design schools, focusing on young people with fresh perspectives and strong portfolios. Technical Squarespace skills can be taught quickly, but good design taste is much harder to develop.
"If a photographer has a good eye, he can do a good photo," Joseph notes. "The composition of the design and the taste in design. That's something you can't teach someone."
Staying Creatively Inspired: Building Inspiration Into Your Day
One of Joseph's most innovative practices is building inspiration time directly into the workday. Every morning, team members are encouraged to spend 30 minutes looking for inspiration before diving into client work.
The team uses several resources to stay current:
Behance: For discovering trending design work with high engagement Awwwards: For finding cutting-edge web design that pushes boundaries Designer Daily Reports: A Chrome extension that shows daily curated design inspiration including fonts, portfolios, color palettes, and branding
"We're constantly looking for new stuff," Joseph says. "We're always looking at what the trends are and what the web looks like."
Streamlining Client Process with Smart Tools
Square Design has refined their client process using a combination of modern tools that prioritize simplicity and efficiency:
Folk CRM: A lightweight, Notion-based CRM for tracking prospects through their "wish list" pipeline Notion: For project management and client collaboration WhatsApp: For quick client communication (because everyone has it and responds quickly) Mood Boards: Pinterest-style PDFs that align client expectations before design begins
The mood board process has been particularly effective. "We share this mood board and if the customer likes it then we're almost 99% sure that it's going to be love at first sight for the website that we create for them," Joseph explains.
Solving the Revenue Consistency Challenge
Like many design studios, Square Design struggled with inconsistent revenue. Great months would be followed by slow periods, creating a cycle where successful periods left no time for business development.
Joseph's solution is innovative: Square Plus, a subscription-based service that fundamentally changes how they deliver websites.
Three Subscription Tiers
Flex Formula: Uses Squarespace templates for quick deployment, no contract commitment Signature S/M/L: Custom designs with 24-month commitments based on site complexity Automatic Refresh: After four years, every client gets a free site refresh to keep up with design trends.
"Many of our customers don't have the time to refresh their website or change anything," Joseph observes. "We create a website and three years later nothing has changed. We found this very sad."
The subscription model solves multiple problems: it provides consistent revenue, makes professional design accessible to businesses without large upfront budgets, and ensures websites stay current over time.
Squarespace Templates: Creating Passive Income Streams
When SquareKicker launched the Template Store, Joseph saw an opportunity to create another revenue stream while exercising pure creative freedom.
"We could do whatever we wanted. It was refreshing to not have a customer telling us that this is too modern or too this or too that," he says.
Square Design approached template creation strategically, mapping out different business sectors and creating personas for each template. They developed names, logos, and complete brand identities for fictional businesses, treating each template as a full branding project.
The team dedicated focused summer time to template creation, producing more than 10 templates with their three-person team. The key was setting aside dedicated time rather than trying to fit template work around client projects.
Key Takeaways for Squarespace Designers
Joseph's journey offers several actionable insights for designers looking to build sustainable creative businesses:
Build inspiration into your routine: Don't wait for creative blocks to seek inspiration. Make it part of your daily process.
Hire for design sensibility: Technical skills can be taught quickly, but design taste takes years to develop.
Simplify your tools: Use platforms your clients already know (like WhatsApp) rather than forcing them to learn new systems.
Create predictable revenue: Whether through subscriptions, templates, or retainers, find ways to smooth out the feast-or-famine cycle.
Stay intentionally small: Growth doesn't have to mean becoming a large agency. Define what success looks like for you.
Set boundaries with clients: Use mood boards and clear processes to align expectations upfront.
Embrace templates strategically: They're not a shortcut—they're a strategic tool for efficiency and passive income.
Joseph's approach demonstrates that it's possible to build a thriving design studio while maintaining creative excellence and work-life balance. By being intentional about team size, building inspiration into daily workflows, and creating multiple revenue streams, Square Design has found a sustainable model for long-term success.
Whether you're a solo freelancer looking to scale or an established studio seeking more consistency, Joseph's strategies offer a roadmap for building a design business that works for you—not the other way around.
Connect with Joseph
Website: square-design.fr
SquareKicker Templates: store.squarekicker.com/creators/square-design
Instagram: @squaredesignfr
Facebook: Square Design
Ready to streamline your own design workflow? Explore SquareKicker's no-code tools and discover how you can create truly custom Squarespace websites without the limitations. Start your 14-day free trial today and see what's possible when you have the right tools in your toolkit.
