Todd Torabi
Q What do you do?
“I live in New York City and run the digital design studio, Wolf&Whale”
We started as a small duo of freelancers in 2014 and now have a brilliant team of Designers, Strategists, and Engineers that collaborate with startups, enterprise companies, and nonprofits around the globe. Clients usually come to us with big problems -- they have to rethink their brand strategy, their identity, rework their digital experience, or find new ways of reaching their audience.
Q What steps did you take to get to where you are now?
Entering college, I never really considered becoming a designer. In fact, I thought I was destined to be a stock trader in New York City. But, after experiencing the lifestyle and responsibilities firsthand through a few summer banking internships in NYC, my vision for all of that started to fizzle. The daily drudgery of researching bonds and working with excel was not my idea of the ‘good life’, despite what the movies and tv shows represented. And I for sure didn’t understand bitcoin (I’m still learning).
My passion for business didn’t falter though. Towards the end of my college experience at the University of Arizona, I enrolled in their year-long entrepreneurship program to discover the process of building a startup. The program called on us to create a business idea with a small team of 3-4 classmates. Our idea, after months of research and drunken conversations, was an online tutoring platform where students could book appointments with more senior students and download their curated study guides. It was a solid concept with great initial traction, and beyond the foundational teachings of financial modelling and building a business plan, I quickly learned the value of user experience design. The process of conducting user interviews, prototyping, and iterating was a magical experience for me as it combined elements of creativity, humanity, and economics. I loved it. So, I decided this was it -- I found my ‘thing’.
After rejecting initial funding from the UofA to scale the tutoring business (it was only $25k), I moved to NYC that summer to enroll at the entry-level UX program at General Assembly. It was the first of its kind, but I really immersed myself in the world of wireframes, usability, visual design, and prototyping for 10 weeks. Luckily after graduating the program, I caught a few freelancing opportunities with very early-stage startups. I got my feet wet with launching real products, and understood the business realities of design. Those portfolio projects slowly evolved into full-time jobs at agencies like BBDO, Huge, and Elephant. I even had the opportunity to live in Dubai for several months consulting Emirates Airlines. The biggest achievement, however, was that I was no longer broke and eating $5 Subway foot-longs for dinner.
Fast forward several years, I decided to quit the agency world and start my own. Wolf&Whale, a studio I initially co-founded with my best friend, was a place where I could balance my design skills, business acumen, and entrepreneurial spirit. I love being my own boss, but more importantly, helping brands and people I admire. It’s what I continue working on today!
Q How do you stand out in your field?
Our studio stands out in the field because of our deep passion and methodical process for making digital experiences more human. Our job is to design products that enable more meaningful, accessible relationships to brands, not addicting/toxic ones. I still see so many products that ignore the long-term and short-term implications and consequences on people’s well-being and productivity. It’s the biggest problem I think we as designers face in the next 5-10 years. I wrote an article recently offering a framework for people on how to assess whether what we design and create is ethically sound, and how to get better.
Q What are you working on right now?
We are working on some really exciting projects right now. We’re helping a renowned architecture firm in NYC overhaul their website and digital identity, helping a law firm build a completely new D2C platform, and working with healthcare companies to create better design systems. Our work is multi-faceted and we feel like true partners with our clients, no matter their size or industry.
Q What’s your style?
I really admire globally inspired designs from places like South America, Africa, Mexico, and Eastern Europe. There is a level of detail, cultural equity, and soulful storytelling present in the work I see from those parts of the world. We try collaborating with designers and artists from these areas as much as possible in our projects.
Q Out of all your slashies, which one do you wish you could do more often?
I’m jealous and in awe of animators and motion designers. I think if I had more time to learn their trade, I would. It continuously elevates design and product work and is truly one of the moments where you can ‘wow’ the client. For now, I lean on our in-house animators for our projects, but it’s something I'd like to immerse myself in a bit more in 2022.
Q What is frustrating you right now?
As a studio owner, there’s constant competition between focusing time on existing clients and keeping up with business development and marketing to new clients. It’s a challenging balance since as a studio we need more projects to survive, but at the same time clients won’t care about us unless our existing work is truly spectacular. I’ve found that focusing on our relationships with existing clients has paid dividends. Positive working relationships tend to lead to more referrals down the line and/or more work with them down the line, too.
Q If you could hire someone for $20/hour, what would you have them do to make your day easier?
I think $20/hour is far too low for this responsibility, but someone to help manage our social media, edit our editorial content, and look for opportunities for our studio to stand out online.
Q What do you wish you could have told yourself, when, and why?
When I first started several years ago, I thought all that mattered to clients was the beautiful mockups and shiny work on our website. While sharing innovative work is an important part of standing out as a studio, I think it has surprised me how much investing in existing relationships matters more in the long-run. In such a competitive landscape, ‘nice work’ fails to stand out. Instead, what works better are valuable conversations, building trust with people over time, being genuine, and sharing thoughts and ideas publicly. Many studios and agencies have nice work, but not all of them know how to connect in a genuine way. They may treat every project as a transactional endeavour, rather than a long-term investment, or they may not recognize the value of process over production.
Q If you could talk to an expert to gain more insight on something, what would it be about?
It would be great to chat more with agency owners who have 10-15 years experience or more. Learning from their successes, mistakes, and general experience dealing with growth, crazy clients, great work, bad work, etc.
Q What kind of opportunities/projects are you looking for?
We’re looking for projects that have the potential for a deep impact on people’s well-being and security-- across technology, healthcare, education, and finances. We think design has tremendous power of providing meaningful access and relationships to services that make our lives better, and we’d love to help make that happen.
Q Describe your ideal job/client/collaboration.
We’re interested in how technology can facilitate mental health services, so brands like BetterHelp, TalkSpace, Healthtap, Headspace, etc are great examples of digital products for good.
I'm also a huge sports fan (NBA, NFL, MLB primarily), so any way we can help facilitate more connection, knowledge, or entertainment in sports would be a dream.
Q: What is your rate?
Our fees range widely depending on the clients’ needs and value we’re providing. We’ve worked on helping brands overhaul their UX/UI for $30,000 and have also done a much larger scale of work for 20x that.
Q How should someone approach you about working together?
People are welcome to email me directly or fill out our quick project form on our website. We will come prepared with our recent work (not published on our website yet), our philosophy, and background as a team.
Q Who is a creative you admire?
I would recommend a good friend of mine, Shayan Bokaie. He’s an excellent strategist and digital marketer. He’s helped brands like Porsche, Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, and Chopard. You can probably tell he has an extreme passion for cars : )
I would also recommend Ritesh Gupta, who is a super talented product leader and friend who recently started Useful School as a business to help people of color gain access to practical skills and opportunities.
Q Oh! and… how do you stay creative?
People watching in the city. I live near Central Park and often find myself there just looking at people. It’s cathartic, amusing, and inspiring. By running our newsletter, I’m also held accountable to discover new work, interview creative leaders in the city, and explore ideas. You can subscribe here.
This member profile was originally published in December 2021.