Hiring a designer can feel like a big decision, especially when your brand or website has been on your mind for a while.
You probably know what you want to feel at the end of the project. More confident sharing your website. Clearer about how your business should look. Less tempted to keep tweaking things every few months.
What happens between the inquiry and that final result can feel less obvious.
My process is designed to give each project enough structure to keep things moving while leaving room for the conversations and creative decisions that make the work personal.
Here’s what that looks like.
01 / Inquire
Every project starts with a little context.
When you submit an inquiry, I’ll ask about your business, what you’re working with now, what isn’t working and what you’re hoping will feel different by the time we’re finished.
You don’t need to arrive knowing exactly what service you need.
Part of my job is helping you determine the right scope.
A business with a strong visual identity may only need a new website. Another may be trying to solve a website problem that actually begins with an outdated brand. Sometimes the clearest answer is to address both together.
I review inquiries personally and, when the project seems like a good fit, we’ll move into a conversation about the business and what I recommend.
By the end of this stage, you should understand what I think we should work on, why, the expected timeline and the investment.
02 / Define
Once your project is officially booked, we begin by getting clear before we begin designing.
This part looks different depending on the project, but the goal is consistent: understand the business well enough that the creative decisions have something solid to respond to.
For a brand project, we’ll look at your audience, positioning, personality, visual landscape and where you want the business to go next.
For a website project, we’ll also consider how people need to move through the site, what information they need at each stage and what the website needs to help them do.
This is where we separate preferences from direction.
You might know that you love a certain typeface, color or website. That’s useful information. My job is to understand what you’re responding to and determine whether that same quality makes sense for your business.
Good creative direction gives us a reason for the choices that follow.
03 / Create
Once the direction is clear, I begin developing the visual system.
For a brand identity, that can include your logo suite, typography, color, supporting marks, patterns or textures and the other elements needed to create a cohesive visual language.
You won’t receive a folder full of unrelated concepts and be asked to piece together your favorite parts.
I prefer to present a focused direction built around what we established earlier in the project.
From there, we refine.
Feedback matters here. I want to know when something feels right and when something gives you pause. You don’t need design vocabulary to give useful feedback. You need to tell me what you’re noticing, and I’ll help translate that into the next decision.
The goal isn’t simply approval.
It’s a visual identity that feels appropriate for the business you’re running now and gives you room to keep growing.
04 / Build
For website projects, this is where strategy and identity begin working together on screen.
Before design starts, we establish the site architecture and make sure the content has a clear job.
For custom Showit projects, I also incorporate SEO keyword research and content guidance so the website isn’t being designed around placeholder language. We’ll work together on hierarchy, headlines, page flow and calls to action before everything is translated visually.
Then the site is designed and built.
Every page needs to feel connected to the brand, but cohesion alone isn’t enough. Someone should also be able to understand where they are, what you do and where to go next without working for it.
That balance between atmosphere and clarity is a big part of the work.
05 / Refine
Once the main creative work is in place, we move through feedback and refinement.
You’ll have an opportunity to review the project in context rather than making isolated decisions one element at a time.
For websites, this stage also includes quality assurance.
We’ll review the mobile experience, links, forms, integrations and other details that need to function correctly before launch.
This is usually the point where a project begins to feel very real.
The individual decisions we’ve been making start behaving like one complete system.
06 / Launch
Once everything is approved and tested, it’s time to put it to work.
For brand projects, you’ll receive your final files and guidelines so you know what you have, when to use it and how the pieces work together.
For websites, I’ll make sure you know how to manage the parts of your site you’ll need to update after launch.
I don’t want you leaving a project afraid to touch what we built.
The goal is to give you something you understand, feel confident using and are ready to grow with.
What I want the process to feel like
You’re hiring me for more than execution.
You’re hiring me to pay attention.
To notice where the disconnect is. To make recommendations when there are several possible directions. To tell you when I think something is worth changing and when I think it should stay.
You don’t need to show up with every answer.
You do need to know your business, be willing to think carefully about where it’s going and trust that good work takes collaboration from both sides.
If your business has grown beyond the brand or website it started with, I’d love to hear what’s changed.
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