Some of the clients I work with today, I first designed for over 20 years ago.

In an industry that runs on churn — win the project, deliver it, move on, repeat — that still seems to surprise people. It probably shouldn't. It's the part of the job I'm most grateful for.

Starflight Aviation, I've been making work for across two decades. Activate, more than ten years. These aren't one-off projects. They're relationships. And relationships, it turns out, are where the best work actually comes from.

Why it matters more than it sounds

A long relationship isn't just nice. It makes the work better — for everyone.

I understand the business, not just the brief. After years, I know how they think, where they're heading, what'll fly and what won't. That context is worth more than any creative process, and you can't onboard your way to it.

The work evolves instead of restarting. When you build for the long haul, things grow with the business. Activate's system today is a world away from where it started — because it's been quietly advancing alongside them for years, not rebuilt from scratch every time something changes.

Trust replaces friction. We don't waste time proving ourselves to each other. They tell me straight, I tell them straight, and we get on with making something good.

There's skin in the game. When you plan to work with someone for years, you don't cut corners. Their success becomes your success.

The opposite of disposable

A lot of the industry is built to be disposable. Quick win, quick exit, on to the next logo. There's a place for that, sometimes.

But it's not how I've ever wanted to work, and it's not what actually serves people running real businesses. What serves them is someone who's still around in three years to pick up the phone — who remembers why a decision was made, and can build the next thing on top of the last one instead of starting from zero.

That only happens if you're in it for the relationship, not the transaction.

What 20 years actually teaches you

Mostly this: do good work, be straight with people, stick around, and care whether it actually worked.

That's not a clever growth strategy. It's just decent — and it compounds.

Friends over followers. Relationships over transactions. It's the same thing I believe about life, really. It just happens to also be very good business.

So here's my honest question for you: when you think about who you work with — clients, suppliers, the lot — are you building relationships, or just ticking off transactions?

Because one of those lasts. And the work that comes out of it is always, always better.