Working together means understanding your business or project, then developing an identity that reflects what makes it distinctive. The steps below briefly explain how.
Introductions
An opportunity to understand your goals and how I can support them. Tell me about your work, why you’re investing in a visual identity, and what’s prompting the project now.
I’ll then share a typical price range and schedule, and if it suits your budget and timeline, I’ll prepare and send a more formal proposal.
Proposal
The proposal outlines the project scope, including the timeframe, deliverables, fixed-fee pricing options, and standard working terms.
When everything looks in order, I’ll send the first invoice—usually 50 percent of the total fee, with the remainder due on completion and before final files are delivered.
Research
Depending on the size and stage of your venture, I’ll explore your goals, audience, brand history, market position, competitors, and trends. Research involves site visits where possible, interviews, and desk work.
I’ll ask key questions to shape the project’s direction, such as: What challenges are you facing? What makes the business distinctive? How will success be measured?
The more you can share, the more considered and enduring the outcome can be.
Creative strategy
This is about establishing a plan—identifying the ideas and qualities that should guide the design. It sets expectations for what you’re going to see before you see it, how identity elements will work together, and what the finished identity needs to communicate.
Before any visuals are fully developed, three or four potential design directions are generally explained in words, often with a sketch or two for each. This helps ensure alignment on the strongest possibilities before time is spent creating digital design work.
Design
With most projects, it takes a number of weeks to fully prepare a presentation for review. Because we’ve already agreed on the right direction, it’s normal for just one or two refined ideas to be shown.
Presentations include a comprehensive demonstration of how your logo or identity works in real-world applications, such as sample advertising, websites, uniforms, stationery, vehicle graphics, or other items relevant to your brand.
At this point, your feedback on how well the work aligns with the original plan is essential. There’s always room for refinement to get things just right.
Implementation
Everything is designed with ease of implementation in mind. That might mean preparing templates for social media or presentation decks, tailoring guidelines for international teams, or consulting with printers about cost-effective finishes—whatever’s most useful.
Even months after completion, I always encourage clients to get in touch for visual guidance, new identity elements, creative referrals, or a simple second opinion on how things are going.
Questions
The process above is explored in much more detail in my book Identity Designed: The Process. If you have any questions about working together, I look forward to hearing from you.
David Airey
Logo & visual identity design
Studio
64 Beechfield Avenue
Bangor
Northern Ireland
BT19 7ZZ
Contact
studio@davidairey.com
Book a video call
07739 530 457
LinkedIn
Substack
X
Independent since 2005
Website proudly hosted by Fused