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Working with an organization such as ours for the first time can be scary. Will our end goal be successfully met? Will the process be efficient and effective? How involved do I have to be? How much will it cost?
Our Charges
Like all service organizations our invoices are based on the time we invest in a project. Once time is spent, it cannot be returned to us. We bill at an hourly rate and in some instances negotiate a flat project fee. Project costs range from a low of a few hundred dollars up to several thousands, depending on our clients’ needs and budgets. We always provide a detailed proposal and estimate for approval before starting. We adhere to our estimates unless project specifications change. Strong Foundation
The first thing we do after being assigned a project is schedule our initial consultation between our creative team and your key staff to gather information. We are interested not only in scheduling, budget and job specifications, but also in your preferences, target audience, and objectives. And, of course, we will want to know all the user features and benefits of the project. This process will help you sharpen your focus and objectives, and it will help us ensure that what we produce is not only creatively excellent, but also strategically targeted.  Sample Logo Comp Presentation
Despite popular misconceptions, good creative work doesn’t often come in a flash of inspiration; usually it comes from lots of trial and error. This is why we also need to take the time to consider several approaches (concepts), work them through, and try them out. Then revise them. In addition, there are usually some practical and functional ends we need to tie up before submitting our ideas—sub-contractor availability, printing estimates, scheduling requirements, etc.
All this, plus the need to schedule our workflow in a businesslike fashion, means that we normally ask for up to two weeks, depending on the job’s complexity, before we submit our rough approaches (concepts) for your review. Of course, if you have a rush project or deadline pressure we adjust our workflow and timing accordingly.
It is our experience that it is best if we first present our rough concepts to your project manager and just one or two others. This ensures that we all stay focused on the problem without getting distracted by too many personal opinions. Our rough concepts consist of at least 2-3 options presented in a PDF file that not only displays the concept, but the thought behind each concept. They are adequate to convey what we believe is the best approach to take, taking into consideration your budget, schedule, objectives, and preferences. On the other hand, they are not set in stone and can easily be modified to your likings.
After presenting, we’ll ask for comments. The more objective and specific you can be, the better we will be able to respond. Comments are our input for revising the rough concepts into a finished one. Revision normally takes us about a week, and we schedule a second presentation shortly thereafter.
From the input at this second presentation meeting further minor refinements are made as necessary and we will work on creating a complete proof. We also finalize the production timetable.
Satisfaction is Essential Invoices are based on a detail, electronic timesheet.
We will provide you with a PDF proof of printed materials and live testing of website/multi-media projects either on our server or yours. We recommend the finished design be routed to the appropriate decision makers for fact and detail checking only, reserving stylistic and subjective decisions to your project manager. To avoid costly confusion, it is also important that all communication with us come from the project manager.
During the course of the project we keep your project manager informed of our progress. Activities that will affect the schedule or budget are identified in writing. Our goal is to keep your project moving ahead quickly, smoothly, and cost-effectively to make sure that we’ll produce even better results than you hired us for.
Delivery
Our clients are always excited to know that we will take the project from start to finish, managing all necessary vendors. We recommend vendors and will research to find the right vendor for your project, as well as coordinate the work with the vendor to ensure that the final delivery of the product meets our high standards.
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