Hemos venido a ser felices

Half joking, half serious, from the very first job interviews we conducted at Soluble, we'd say that one of the main reasons we founded the studio in 2016 was that we hate working.

Obviously, we meant working the way we were supposed to. Forced, with rigid schedules, for 40 years straight, chasing stability, within a preset framework with no room to live the way we'd like to live: being happy and making others happy. Enjoying and bringing joy.

In the context we live in, work takes up an enormous portion of our time, so it's a wonderful opportunity to pursue that vital purpose we have.

Thinking that work alone can make us happy is stupid, but we are convinced it can contribute to it. If only because of how relevant it is in our daily lives.

In our perhaps not so humble opinion, this contribution comes down to reconciling personal and professional life ever more effectively. It comes down to conquering freedoms that allow us to move closer to what each of us understands as happiness.

Being happy as we are

For Soluble, happiness is something complex that has to do, among other things, with understanding, accepting, and being congruent with our principles and values. With becoming increasingly aware and skilled at accepting both what comes and what is, without ceasing to be ourselves.

Put another way, we're talking about happiness as something closely tied to authenticity. To knowing who we are and being able to be as we are, because we accept ourselves and are accepted.

Happiness as something that has to do with the path and contact between equals, with knowing and showing yourself to belong.

Being happy online

We were getting there. What clients and team have always valued most is the atmosphere created when we work together. That chemistry born from alignment and culture, from caring for the intangible and making it desirable.

The celebrations, the laughter, the support, the company, the shared effort… Both in the day-to-day studio work and in how we treat clients, we've always been clear that this is about people and relationships, about enjoying as much as possible, each step, each moment. About being happy and making others happy through work.

And then suddenly 2020.

Overnight we lose physical contact, that touch, one of the main drivers of what we do. From a physical world, in-person, office and hugs to a virtual environment, remote, screens and emojis. From the context of being to the context of appearing. Hostile terrain for those pursuing authenticity.

A new forced stage that, nonetheless, we read as opportunity. Because… what if we go one step further?

Being happy while growing

We're convinced that what we do matters. As one of our most recent team members put it, "the industry deserves Soluble to exist". A company driven by the purpose of "being happy and making others happy" in—and with—our work.

So, being true to what we want to achieve, it makes sense that we aspire to more, that we don't settle. More projects, more companies, more impact, more reach, reaching more people and building a bigger team. In short, growth.

The challenge is doing it coherently, without sacrificing what got us here, repairing what Covid broke, and enabling authenticity in a digital context where appearing matters more than being.

Growth means evolving, changing. We need to tell what we're doing and why. How we do it and what impact it has. We need to keep being and doing, but also appear.

We need to update our brand.