frequently asked questions

Dr. Ralf Speth, CEO of Jaguar Land Rover said, "If you think good design is expensive, you should see the cost of bad design." Designing a logo is one crucial piece of a very complex visual enterprise, the result of years of education, expertise and experience. Are you serious about how your business is perceived by the world? Making sure it speaks to your customers in ways that make them feel like you have exactly what they are looking for? Do your values encourage repeat business, with branding that is timeless? This requires a professional. Branding takes time, and while you are the expert of your business, I am the expert in mine. If you need a $200 logo in a few days, and think of this as an expense rather than an investment, I'm not your guy.

One. I use the One Concept Approach, but don't worry, "one concept" does not mean "final result." With a thorough strategy in place, collaboration with you and two rounds of refinements, I won't dilute my, and your, time between multiple concepts and directions. I provide my clients with solutions, not options. This one concept, backed by the strategy, will be comprehensively presented in conjunction with real-world applications, with typographic hierarchy, brand colors, secondary logos, and submarks and patterns.

Web design and development is a specialty in itself, so I recommend clients hire a dedicated developer for this. The web developer can reference the brand style guide I provide as part of your branding package to build the site. I am willing to consult on the project, checking in at a couple strategic points to make sure the design is consistent with your brand. That may require a separate invoice depending on the size, scope and timing.

Depending on your needs and the package you choose, it can take anywhere from four weeks to three months. I know three months sounds like a long time, but experience has proven that is about the average time to create the proposal and contract, develop and refine the strategy, perform research and move through concepts, design, collateral, icons, patterns, presentation, refinements, style guide and final asset delivery.  

In a word? No. The strategy and discovery phase of my process is non-negotiable. I can't "just" design a logo without knowing about your business, your audience and customers, and more. Strategy is a critical component of creating an exquisite and effective brand.

Simply put, it's Latin for to bring forth, which is what I do when I bring a brand into existence, essentially from scratch. The inceptive Factus Maneuver was born in 1984 in college, when people started paying me to create custom monograms of their names in college to put on their dorm room doors. I invented factus maneuver, thinking it meant something like "true movement": how I thought of my designs, as original, unique movements of shapes, composition and color.