I begin by asking you about your business, your customers and your targets. We will discuss the details of the project and I will outline what my process is. Depending on what we discuss I may or may not ask you to fill out a contact form which will help formulate a creative brief.
After discussing your needs, and agreeing on the proposal and budget, I take the client through a strategy workshop where we accomplish a number of things, but for the sake of this FAQ i'll run through some of them:
● We uncover the things about your business which make you unique which we can turn into attributes.
● We construct user profiles in order to gain an understanding of the user demographics you are targeting and how best to attract their interest.
● I interview your existing customers which add an extra dimension to the previously mentioned user profiles. It also enables us to ascertain what your clients' needs are and how best to satisfy them.
The insights we gain from this process are used to construct your 'brand'.
It’s simple - A ‘brand’ is the perception of a company, product or service. It’s the promises it makes and upholds, the ideals it follows. The personality it conveys and the voice it speaks with.
I do - deliverables like logos, graphics and colours are components of the brand, they can’t be used to define it - that’s like saying my choice of glasses defines me, they are a visual representation of my tastes, but they aren’t indicative of who I am and how I behave.
It’s a pretty broad subject, and no two clients’ needs are the same so it will be different for every company. Typically though, a brand identity project will include Logos/workmarks/icons/graphics, Messaging, Corporate Print (stationary/catalogues etc), Publication advertising, OOH (out of home) advertising, POS (point of sale), Company branding (vehicles, apparel, Internal/external office etc) Packaging….the list is extensive, it’s best to discuss what your specific needs are.
In short? make you money! It will be the reason people choose your services or product over that of a competitor - It is argued that an individual gets 7 seconds to make a good impression, the same can be said for businesses. As consumers we use our most intuitive receptor to gauge that first impression, sight!
Put simply - If something looks good, we want to try it. If the product/service delivers on that initial promise... we come back for more.
Strategy is the objective roadmap which every creative decision follows. It’s impossible to deliver effective strategy by the client filling out a questionnaire, and to be honest, that would feel a little like homework, wouldn’t it?
Brand Strategy is too extensive to cover here in just a few short paragraphs but it starts with a workshop I run with the client, I ask them to set out a day so we can align what’s good about their company with what their ideal customers/users etc are looking for.
Get in touch and i’d be more than happy to discuss it in detail.
Costings can be structured 2 ways to suit the client:
1. After discussing the project with you I will send a proposal showing pricing variations based on the project deliverables we discussed.
2. The client specifies a marketing budget and what they hope to achieve from the project, I can then be clear from the outset what deliverables are achievable within that budget.
I am based in North London but service clients from all over the world. I have been using video calling such as Zoom as a great way of communicating with clients when it's not possible to meet face-to-face. Email also provides helpful and trackable reference points during the design process.
All work is presented to the client over a video meeting and then submitted by email unless the client requests a face-to-face presentation.
This can vary depending on the scope and budget of the brief; projects can range from weeks to several months, these will differ greatly in how much content is being produced and the size of the budget.
I accept BACS (bank transfer) payment only.
I submit more than one design option to provide the client with enough choices to make their decision. I work hard to ensure my clients are completely happy with concepts at all stages of the design process before we move forward.
Again this is slightly dependant on factors such as budget but I aim to provide between 2 and 4 design options for you to decide from.
I have found that presenting more than 4 options often creates a dilemma for the client and it's difficult for them to decide which option has solved the brief in the best way.
Absolutely! Strategy in particular is reliant on client interaction. The brand strategy workshop and resulting discovery serves as an objective roadmap from which every creative decision is gauged. This helps clients measure the effectiveness of proposed choices and avoids possible indecision.
I work with and can recommend a number of printers who can provide you with quotes for your printing needs.
Many clients have found it useful to ask me to liaise with a print house on their behalf for their ‘first run’ of stationary. Clients are then free to deal directly with printers as and when they need more work printed. I don’t offer this service going forward & encourage clients to establish their own relationships with print-houses for future needs.
This is something I have been asked in recent times - I can't stress strongly enough the importance of a client owning their own domain registration. For your own companies' security (and for a number of other reasons) a third party (designer) shouldn't nor do they need to own the registration. I advise all clients to purchase their domain prior to me commencing a website build - all I need is access to the DNS records and this stage comes at the very end of the design and website build process.
