What’s Your About Page About?
The About page doesn’t get enough credit. In this creative industry of ours, most agencies, no matter the size, have a portion of their website devoted to communicating just who the hell they are and what they care about. But there’s a difference between what your About page says and what your About page does. It might be doing much more than you think.
This often overlooked section of a brand communicates a studio’s personality, interests, and experience to potential clients. For creative studios, an About page is the best opportunity to showcase you vs. your work. It can tell an origin story, plot how the agency has grown throughout the years, and often offers pictures and descriptions of employees from freshly minted Studio Managers to seasoned Creative Directors. And it’s all in the service of landing future clients.
The three types of About pages I come across most often are the serious, the silly and the shadowy.
The Serious 👔: These About pages can be found at larger agencies with extensive and renowned client rosters. These pages use more aspirational yet serious language to pump up the gravitas of the brand and often highlight reputable and industry-known creative directors and principles. Often these agencies can’t list every single copy writer or designer on their About page so they enumerate to make life easier: 250+ employees with 12 offices across the globe. Everything on this type of About page is directed towards implying reputation, reputation, reputation.
The Silly 🤡: These are the smaller but mighty studios who often do just as good of work as the Goliaths. Here the About page primarily functions to show personality rather than status. You will often find cheeky copy about the studio in addition to offbeat photos of employees with random facts about themselves. I’m holding a surfboard in my photo on the A Hundred Monkeys About page. Professional, huh? I think the desire for this style of About page is to say: Hi, we’re friendly humans who do good work and we’d like to work with you. Would you like to work with us?
The shadowy 👤: Who doesn’t like mystery? This type of About page is about obfuscating just exactly who is behind the curtain of the creative studio. We often partner with design agencies who like to operate with a bit of secrecy and enigma. Sometimes these creative studios don’t even have an About page, like our friends at Day Job. And if these agencies do have one it is only a single sentence or two that slightly elaborates on the face behind the mask.
To be clear, I’m neither casting judgment nor suggesting that one type of About page is better than the other. My goal is to convince other creatives to give the About page its due because what you say about yourself (or omit) makes a difference.
It all boils down to the work you want. In addition to case studies, your About page is the best way for future clients to get a feel for who you are and what you can deliver creatively—to get your vibe. Think about it like a dating app. What you write in your bio and the photos you select and upload of yourself can influence whether someone shows up in your DMs. Some people are attracted to professionalism. Others to humor or intrigue. The lesson is you only get a few chances to put yourself on display and make an impression. Take time to think about how you want to show up because it just might influence what work shows up for you.
