what to expect from your partnership with our company
the basics
We will not surprise you with unexpected invoices. We will provide you with documentation about the charges, duration, and outcomes of a project before we begin.
We have a comfortable, private meeting space that is perfect for small to medium-sized groups.
We take notes for every meeting and those notes are available to you for the duration of the project.
There is no charge for first meetings.
We’ve been around a long time (since 2000) and we aren’t going anywhere because we really like what we do. You can count on us to be here for you for many years to come.
We think positive interactions create good creative work and vice versa.
the specifics
billing
There is no charge for a first meeting. Our goal for a first meeting is to get a sense of your goals and needs but also to ensure that everyone feels that the project is a good fit.
For most projects, we bill on a project basis and our total project costs are based on an estimate of our time.
If a change of scope comes into effect, we will document this separately and will ask you to approve before proceeding.
We invoice monthly based on the work completed each month. Invoices are payable, Net15.
For payment, we accept checks, cash, or direct deposit.
proposals and contracts
For simple projects, we might just provide a simple one-page quote. For more complicated projects, we start with a proposal and then apply that to a contract.
There is typically no charge for a proposal. A proposal answers these questions
What are the goals and outcomes?
What does the project cost?
How long does it take to complete?
What am I responsible for? What is Shew Design responsible for?
What could result in a change of scope?
Scrutinizing our contracts and proposals is not just recommended but is good business, and we will be happy to answer your questions or revise these documents accordingly.
collaboration
We believe design is an essentially collaborative process and believe that good conversations are required for good creative work. What are good conversations?
On our end
We provide meaningfully different choices and frame creative choices in terms of underlying strategy.
We provide a virtual or real collaborative environment that is positive, professional and enjoyable.
We take notes of the conversation and the decisions that you made, and those notes are available to the whole team for the duration of the project.
We provide documentation of every design presentation that is available.
On your end
We ask project stakeholders remain consistent throughout the course of the project, where the same people attend every meeting.
Most of our work relates to a brand, meaning that it uses (or creates) standards of terms of things like color, typography, and similar elements.
vendors
We will respect your existing relationships (such as printers or website hosting companies) whenever possible.
It is your choice if you want to oversee print production. If you elect for us to do it, we will generate quotes and work with the printers, and deliver the finished printed materials to you.
ownership / templates
Unless built into the contract, we typically do not provide native files. If native files are part of the scope, we develop the materials so that
they don’t require additional purchases on your end (such as fonts)
they are compatible with the tools your organization owns and can be updated based on your skillset
