We can’t wait to work with you

Welcome to the Author family!

As our newest client, all of us at Author want to offer our gratitude for choosing us to be your creative partner in telling your story and growing your brand.

We’ll be in touch with you every step of the way to keep your project moving forward and answering any questions you have in the moment, but before your project begins, we thought you’d find this introduction of what it’s like to work with us helpful.

Please read through this entire Welcome Guide carefully before beginning your project with us.

Time Zone: US Eastern (UTC/GMT-5)

Office Hours: Monday–Thursday, 9:30am–5:00pm

In order to streamline our process, we will hold all project communication through our project management system, Asana (covered in detail below).

Your timely responses to feedback, questions, or other requests ensures your project moves forward according to the timeline. This ensures we will still have the time and resources we’ve planned to dedicate to your project and also prevents any risk of missing your desired project completion date.

Your project timeline includes a minimum of one (1) business day for your feedback on concepts, deliverables, etc., but we are happy to customize your project schedule in advance based around how quickly you anticipate being able to respond with feedback.

If we’re expecting something from you (feedback, copy, materials, etc.) and we don’t hear anything from you within 7 days of your due date, your project may be put on hold and a $500 Late Fee will be added to your next invoice to account for project rescheduling. If there is an emergency that prevents you from honoring a due date, please try to let us know as soon as possible so we can accommodate.

“Work to live” is a guiding philosophy of our work culture, so when we’re not working, we’re busy spending time with family, friends, and other hobbies or side hustles! As such, we are unavailable on Fridays, after office hours, or on weekends except in case of emergency requests (such as broken website links, website outages, etc.). 

If you do have an urgent need:

Email us: amy@authorbrand.studio or michael@authorbrand.studio

Call us: ‪(407) 374-9829

While your project’s unique process may differ depending on the scope of work agreed upon, most of our project follow an overall process:

01 / Brand strategy workshop

After you sign your contract and pay your deposit, we’ll schedule your brand strategy workshop. This live session (held via Zoom or in person) will help us craft the foundation of your brand based on your mission, values, positioning, and so much more.

02 / Creative direction

The design process begins after we create your brand strategy based on the workshop. Now that we have a clear direction on what your brand needs to communicate and to whom, we can start designing intentionally. You’ll receive a stylescape or a series of stylescape options, which are more thorough versions of a mood board, that show inspiration and general creative direction for your brand. Together we’ll agree upon this overall direction for the design, making sure we’re on the same page before we begin your brand design concept.

03 / Brand design concept

We follow a one-concept method where, instead of presenting multiple logo options, we propose one holistic brand concept. This allows us to focus on the big picture of how well this concept is expressing your internal brand (message, mission, etc.) versus getting lost in an endless back-and-forth of “frankensteining” a logo that might not actually end up representing your brand as intended. We will present your brand design concept over Zoom, allowing you to give initial feedback and ask questions in the moment. You’ll receive a copy of the presentation afterwards and will have several days to compile your feedback.

04 / Refine brand design concept

At this stage we’ll refine the concept following your feedback from the initial brand concept to make sure we arrive at an overall visual identity you’re absolutely thrilled with. Most projects are given up to two (2) rounds of revisions on the brand concept, which, given the amount of strategy and creative work done up-front, we have found is plenty of time to perfect your brand design!

05 / Brand master guide

Now that the brand design is complete, we’ll deliver the final files and combine your brand strategy and brand style guide together into a detailed master guide on how to use your brand consistently, intentionally, and strategically.

06 / Brand marketing

Finally, we’ll handle the remaining physical touchpoints of your brand: your brand marketing. We’ll create any other additional deliverables that you may have chosen to include in your project, such as your website, marketing collateral, marketing strategy, custom packaging designs, brand photography or videography, etc.

Complete this step before moving on:

→ If you haven’t done so already, schedule your brand strategy workshop.

Now that your project is commencing, we’ll switch all project-related communication over to our project management tool, Asana.

This tool is a secure space online where we have conversations, share files, set reminders, and create to-do lists. Whereas files, feedback, and important notes often get lost through email, nothing gets lost or forgotten in Asana. It’s the simplest way to keep your project organized and make sure it goes as smoothly as possible.

All of our projects follow a custom-built timeline based on our agreed-upon start date and honoring any special requests for a specific completion date. This allows you to be better involved in the process, as you will always know where your project is, when you can expect to receive your next deliverable from us, and know when your feedback or other materials are due to be sent back to us. Your project timeline will live in Asana, where you can view it at any time during our project.

You will soon receive an email invitation to join Asana.

Please review your schedule as soon as possible and let us know if you have any questions or concerns, such as needing more time to provide feedback, have anticipated out of office dates, etc. so we can adapt your schedule to your specific needs.

Don’t worry—you don’t need to pay to sign up for Asana, and it’s simple to use. We’ve created a brief video tutorial showing you everything you need to know.

Complete these steps before moving on:

→ Join Asana using the invitation sent to your email.

→ Watch the brief video walkthrough of Asana.

→ Review your project timeline and contact us with any concerns, out of office dates, etc.

All payments will be made through Bonsai, our backend invoicing and contracting system. Bonsai is a secure online platform that accepts Stripe, PayPal, or ACH and will send reminders when your invoice is nearing its due date.

Your payments keep your project moving forward, so any late payments will result in your project being put on hold. We can restart your project at a later date with a Rescheduling Fee of $500. If your project is not rescheduled within 6 months of your original contract date, your contract may be terminated so we can re-contract your project under new terms. Please refer to your contract for your specific payment timeline.

All invoices are due 30 days upon receipt with 5% interest accruing monthly for late payments.