We work with organizations of all sizes from pretty much all sectors. Most of the time we’re involved with creating a new brand identity (or refining an existing one) but we’re also open to working with an existing brand identity as long as it’s well executed. Ideally we’re working with people that appreciate our attention to detail and share a little bit of our sense of humor.

You don’t need to be the greenest company in your field, but we do aim to work with clients that either already practice environmental responsibility, would like to integrate more sustainable practices into what they do, or at least appreciate and encourage us to explore more earth-friendly ways to produce the work we’re creating for them.

There is a lot that goes into a well-executed design process, but we can provide some basic insight. Once we have an agreement in place, the project will start with a discovery phase. In the discovery phase we invest a lot of time learning about the client, their goals, and their competitive landscape. From our research we’ll work with the client to create a design brief that aligns expectations and creates some measurable goals. Most importantly, we’ve determined and defined key traits that the design needs to communicate (tone words). If we are working on an identity, we’ll put together and discuss image boards to make sure that all parties have the same understanding of what type of imagery fits with the tone words.

After the discovery phase we’ll begin our first design round. We’ll work towards one solution and put our energy into fully exploring it. Sometimes we’ll discuss concepts with the client before we execute the design, but most of the time our discovery phase lays a pretty clear path for us. We’ll create a presentation that breaks down what we’ve created, justifies our decisions, and shows how the design functions in various settings and applications.

Sometimes we’ll hit the nail on the head and move straight to preparing the artwork for usage, but usually we’ll gather feedback from the client after the first round. We’ll discuss with the client how the design fits within our design strategy and which directions it needs to be pushed. If all parties communicate effectively throughout the process, the 2nd round should be the final one, and if anything needs to be tweaked beyond that it’s usually pretty minor.

While we explore many directions during the early stages of the design process, honing in on something early on and focusing our efforts in one direction allows us to create better work. We’re aware that many studios present a few options to choose from, and we’ve tried that route in the past. In the end, we always knew which direction was the strongest, and the client almost always felt the same way. As a result, the time we spent presenting less-effective ideas was wasted when it could have been used to further develop the strongest concept. With proper research and communication upfront, and an opportunity for feedback and refinement, we can hit the mark more efficiently and take the project much further than we could if we were spreading our aim across multiple directions.

Our staff is pretty small (at the time of this writing it’s just the two of us) and we don’t see ourselves ever going into double digits. A small size helps our work stay clear and cohesive, and we hear that we’re a little easier to communicate with than some bigger places. That being said, we’re not the speediest studio around (which is primarily a result of our attention to detail, not because we’re spreading ourselves too thin). Even with our small size we’re able take on some pretty big projects, and on occasion when we do need help we have a pretty good network of talent in the area.

Given the opportunity, we always prefer to coordinate and oversee the production of our print projects. It allows us to make sure that the finished product meets our standards (the level of quality in the world of print production varies greatly) and that they are done in the most sustainable way allowable. This includes our assistance with deciding on production methods, contacting printers, getting quotes, choosing materials, creating press-ready files, and checking proofs. We typically account for this time in our proposals and, as a result, we do not charge a markup on the production cost.

We take care of all frontend development in-house. This covers most websites, but occasionally we’ll seek out help to create backend functionality that needs to be custom built for the client (e.g. web/native apps). Fortunately, we live in one of the best cities in the country for finding dependable and talented programmers.

Our CMS of choice for most sites is called Statamic. There are a lot of reasons why we love it, but the biggest one is that it makes it really easy for us to create a super custom and easy-to-use backend for our clients. When a client uses the backend to manage their site’s content, everything in the backend relates directly to something on the frontend. There are no useless buttons, links, or sections, and everything is labeled in relation to your specific content. We have experience with other CMS platforms such as Wordpress and Shopify, and we’re willing to work with whichever best suits the needs of the project.

This is a complex subject and the details may change based on the client’s needs. We will always transfer ownership of trademark design (logos, wordmarks, etc.). Generally for the rest of our design work we provide a pretty broad license. The client can pretty much do whatever they want with the final artwork, but we don’t deliver unused designs, rough work, or transfer ownership unless the client has a really good reason for doing so and the budget to allow for it. It’s basically to protect us from some rare (but harmful) scenarios while still allowing the client to do everything they need.

Font licensing varies based on the foundry that has the rights to sell the fonts. Most of the time they require that each organization owns their own license. This can be fairly expensive, but type designers play a big part in making our work awesome and designing good typefaces is mind-bogglingly difficult. We have an internal font budget, but our clients need to have their own budget if they wish to use the fonts themselves (we try to give clients an estimate ahead of time). For example, often the client will want access to the fonts in order to correspond on branded letterhead. When possible, we’ll recommend they buy an “office” version (typically at a discounted rate) which contains a limited character set, ideal for day-to-day correspondence. Concerning webfonts, a web license is typically sold separately from a print license, therefore the client must always factor webfont licensing into their website budget.

Often clients will ask us to use a specific design aesthetic or style (vintage/retro comes up fairly often) before a project has begun. We work to to avoid arbitrarily choosing a style simply because we, or the client, like the way it looks. Although true objectivity is theoretically impossible, when approaching client work we always aim to be as objective as possible. Sometimes we use a specific style to strengthen certain connotations, other times we may use it to stand out from the crowd. When we design a brand identity we start by determining a design strategy. We identify the client’s goals, values, and audience; we also survey and research competitors. The style later becomes one piece of the puzzle that ultimately works with all the other brand attributes to effectively achieve the goals outlined in the design strategy.