An exhibition catalogue for Virgil Abloh. Nine 30-foot tall inflatable flowers dotted across New York City. A pie shop in Southern Alabama. They’re all creative projects designed and brought to life by Los Angeles-based creative studio PLAYLAB INC. 

Since starting out in 2009, PLAYLAB INC has steadily grown into a powerhouse global multidisciplinary creative studio, and it’s all thanks to its co-founders Archie Lee Coates IV and Jeff Franklin. 

Today, Archie and Jeff live a life many creatives would die for. But it wasn’t easy to grow PLAYLAB to where it is now. It was a road paved with challenges, lessons, and no small degree of risk-taking.

But over a decade of hard work and perseverance, Archie and Jeff have turned a small idea into a fully-fledged profitable business. So there’s no better person than co-founder Archie Lee Coates IV to give you some insight into what it takes to start a creative studio.

Behind every great business is an idea. It was the same for PLAYLAB, INC. In 2009, Archie and business partner/co-founder/lifelong friend Jeff Franklin came up with the idea for PLAYLAB INC while at Virginia Tech University. 

“We came across this new book at the Architecture School Library at Virginia Tech, which was written by a design duo called Karlsson Wilker,” says Archie. “The book was about their story of how they made their design company, and reading it, it made the idea of starting our own creative agency feel so approachable and open. There was a clear sense of how it can be done, and it was like a revelation for us.”

With the idea in mind, the duo began researching past studios for inspiration, from the Eames Office to the OMA. The more they progressed with their research, the more excited they became about starting their own creative agency. Young and naive, at only 19 years old, Archie bought the domain name PLAYLAB.org and taught himself some basic HTML. Since then, Archie and Jeff have gradually shaped the agency into the creative powerhouse it is today. 

Throughout the years, that initial idea has always remained a strong part of their company ethos. As Archie says, “[PLAYLAB] still is an idea. We set out to explore how to get into creative territories that we’ve perhaps wanted to try, but haven’t yet done. We're always in a position in which we're switching lanes and trying out new things and surprising ourselves. That makes for a very exciting work environment for ourselves and our team.” 

Focus? What focus? As Archie describes it, PLAYLAB INC is an extremely multi-disciplinary creative studio. You can tell that just from the incredible diversity of their body of work. To date, they’ve covered everything from an iPhone app to a record label, and a public swimming pool in the East River to a quarterly architecture publication. But that multidisciplinarity comes with its own challenges. 

Usually, when you start out with a creative business you have some focus in mind about what the business will do. It could be a photography collective or a hair and makeup studio. But with something as multi-disciplinary and unfocused as PLAYLAB INC, it’s hard to define the business. So what’s it like to run a creative studio with, as Archie says, “no focus”? 

“We’ve been running this agency for a long time now, but in so many ways it feels like this year is the first year. We constantly ask ourselves, “Can we do that? Should we do that? What else do we want to do? Who do we hit for that?” It’s very exciting to be able to work that way.” 

Of course, this multidisciplinary experimental philosophy that sits at the core of PLAYLAB isn’t easy to reproduce. For many creatives today, Archie recognises that there's a pressure to find a niche and stick to it. To box yourself into the category of photographer, painter, model, etc. and put that label on yourself. 

Breaking out of those expectations can be incredibly difficult. But you should try to give yourself the space to grow and expand your creativity – you never know where the future will take you.

For Archie and Jeff, the route out of the expectations and restrictions came from a combination of youthful arrogance and a persistent attitude.  As Archie says, “When we were young, we thought we could do it all.” Whether you call it ambition or arrogance, that belief gave the creative duo the confidence to experiment, fall, learn, and grow. 

“It took a long time for the studio to get off the ground,” says Archie. “But we were committed to experimenting and trying new things out. From very early on, we identified that our business development strategy would center on showing up and proving that we could do something. From there, we would get new projects or meet new people. This is how we did things for the first decade, just experimenting with a range of different projects – and I think that’s where PLAYLAB excels.”

But it’s not just the starting out that’s difficult. Even once your agency has moved past its early teething stages, there are still a lot of challenges that go with the daily operation of a creative studio. For the first few years of its life, Archie and Jeff had to weather these problems on their own, but even now with nine people on the team, Archie maintains that it’s still difficult. 

“For us, it’s not about how many people you have working with you, it’s about how much you have on your plate. As our numbers grew, so did the number and size of the projects we took on. And there are always new problems.”

For Archie, the best way to understand these problems is to compare the business to having a child: “I have a five year old son, and anyone who has children will understand. Your child will get to a difficult age, and it’ll be a challenge, but eventually you’ll get past that age and those particular challenges will go away, and you feel this immense relief. But then they get older, and new challenges appear, and you have to get used to it.”

But of course, as with parenting, when you’re running a studio and facing challenges on a regular basis, you need to have the stamina and ability to keep going. Sometimes you’ll encounter failures or make the wrong decision, but it’s about your attitude in dealing with that. Balance is key, as is being reasonable and realistic about the workloads you can take on. 

“You need to know when to stop or say no to something. That’s the difference between Jeff and I. Sometimes I’ll see a project and I’ll want to pursue it because it resonates emotionally with me. And then I look at the logistics of completing that project and realise, actually, we can’t do that right now. So the art of the studio is in figuring out that balance so that you can appropriately and sustainably go after the things that you want to be doing in the time that you have.” 

Some people start out just hoping to create, while others start out with a business model in mind. For Archie and Jeff, it was a mixture of both. Are you creating a holistic business strategy with a step-by-step plan of how to build and run the company? Or are you prioritising creativity, and putting business development second? There’s no right or wrong answer. 

PLAYLAB INC doesn’t conform to one singular creative direction. It’s fluid and ever-changing. It’s an idea in motion. Archie and Jeff didn't decide on a specific creative medium to define the business when they started. They had an impulse to be creative, whatever form that creativity would take. That impulse was the seed around which they developed the business.

So, if you’re looking to start your own creative agency, don’t feel pressured to know what the end goal will look like. Instead, allow yourself and your company the space to develop and grow. Experimenting with different creative mediums, formats and techniques was PLAYLAB's defining ethos. What will it be for your creative business?

You may start out with photography in mind as the central business idea. And that might turn into videography a few years down the road. As your creative interests and talents grow and change, your business can evolve with you.

In the end, it's the ethos or purpose behind your idea that counts. What are you really trying to achieve? What are your values? Why do you want to do this? That's how you'll shape the direction of your business, and make sure it holds meaning for you. Your ‘why’ will help you stay committed in the long run.

Where would Luke be without Obi-Wan Kenobi? Or Harry without Dumbledore? Within every great story lies the important relationship between a hero and mentor. Whether you’re starting out with your business or a decade into running it, being surrounded by trustworthy, wise mentors is essential. It can give you the guidance, advice, and spirit needed to succeed.

Archie and Jeff have been fortunate to receive endless mentorship and guidance over the years, which has been integral to both PLAYLAB’s success and their own lives. “We’ve picked up a lot of knowledge and advice and we continue to learn from all of our collaborators and clients,” says Archie. “Everybody has their own way of doing things, but you learn to take in the information that's useful or productive to you – and you can apply parts of that to your own creative practice to push your own boundaries.”

Having worked with Off-White and Louis Vuitton on many projects, Archie reminisces how one of his greatest mentors was the late Virgil Abloh. As Archie recalls, “Virgil was a powerful mentor to us. One of the primary reasons people felt so inspired around Virgil was the sense of belief and possibility that he gifted to everyone around him. We talk about this all the time. How do you take that privilege and gift and continue to use it in a way that not only allows you to keep exploring the world and your creativity, but also give it to the next generation?”

Not everyone will be fortunate enough to have a mentor like Virgil Abloh. But that doesn't mean that your mentor won’t be as inspiring or helpful to your journey. Look around you and think: Who are my mentors? Who do I go to for advice or guidance? Who inspires me? 

Finding the right mentors and having the right creative circle around you is an invaluable learning opportunity, and is as essential to the success of a company as a good business model. 

Archie shares one final piece of advice: “Remember to have fun and to just let things out. Don’t be afraid of bad ideas. Like Virgil would always say, ‘here's a bad idea to get to a good idea.’” 

Hear more from Archie Lee Coates by listening to the full Creative Paths episode. You can also follow Archie on Instagram.