When is the right time to set up a studio?

The decision to go from working from home to setting up a studio can be one of the hardest to take. In the first of a regular column on life as an independent designer, Paul Pensom reveals why he took the plunge

Studio. Ssssstudio. Stew-Dee-Oh. A sibilant piggybacked by a plosive and capped with a surprise. If ever a word has played around my palette too long it’s that one. Why? Because in my art school coterie it was often the culmination of our interminable, late night ruminations on our future: ”Yeah … get down to London … start designing records … set up a studio”, we’d pronounce, with an air of authority we didn’t feel.