FAQ: Collaborating with Design For Tomorrow
Updated April 18, 2023
Founded in Manila, Philippines (where it continues to operate its creative studio) and registered in Singapore, Design for Tomorrow works with international clients for branding, strategy, design, editorial consultancy, and experiences.
Since projects vary in scale, complexity, and geographical context, we constantly tailor-fit our approach and proposal to best respond to each inquiry we get.
Perhaps the following Q&A can provide additional clarity and guide you in initiating a conversation with us.
How do I start a collaboration with you?
For potential new collaborations, we should begin by understanding each other. This will clarify the challenges we face and determine whether we are the right fit for each other. Three steps need to be taken:
01. We will schedule a credentials presentation covering our process, portfolio, experiences, and insights. Then you can gauge whether our expertise, skills, and methods suit your vision.
There will be a healthy exchange of questions. We will be as curious about you as you are about us. This will also allow you to discuss your requirements, dissect your brief, or just let us have a window into your vision.
When you find everything satisfactory, please send us a Letter of Intent to engage us formally. Please attach your project brief or simply an outline of your requirements.
02. We will craft a custom proposal based on our initial meeting (or the details in your Letter of Intent). Should there be more questions or clarifications, we are more than happy to address them. We should begin everything from the ideal point of clarity.
03. After reviewing and approving our proposal, as well as making the initial payment, we can kick start the engagement process and start realizing your vision together.
How long does it take for you to create a brand, a logo, or a piece of design?
Each project differs timeline-wise.
- A few significant factors go into end-to-end delivery:
- How complex is it going to be?
- How many layers of approvals will it require?
- Who will be the approving authorities? How are decisions made, and how decisive are the stakeholders?
- Do the approving stakeholders have good taste? (This is a half-joke, but you know what we mean 😉)
- Is everything needed in place?
In over a decade of practice, we have worked with big and small brands, and these projects can be fully realized in two months to over three years (and counting).
At the start of every engagement, we assess the project’s scope and scale and mutually agree on a reasonable delivery timeline.
We have a very tight deadline. Are you OK with that?
Someone much wiser than us said that everything worth doing takes commensurate time to do it. It’s true.
But we are also pragmatic: not everything can be afforded a leisurely pace, and we can adapt accordingly.
The smartest brands we have worked with prefer that a due amount of time be given to their development. When given proper time to gestate, excellent results happen, and they come out polished, considered, and achieve optimal outcomes.
We value the time and effort it takes to craft the right strategy and design. We will be mindful of your timelines and always discuss deadlines to assess our load and your urgent requirements.
Tighter deadlines, however, mean you have to pay more.
The simple reason? You will be taking away the allocated time for an ongoing, paying project and all the attendant inconveniences it will incur. Or we will be required to solicit extra help, and that, of course, costs us both undesirable expenses. This is avoidable. The key is careful planning.
But we are committed to complementing your pace and ability to remunerate for compressed delivery dates.
Do you also do advertising work?
Design For Tomorrow is primarily a branding, strategy, design, and editorial consultancy. However, we take on advertising, production, and digital communications assignments when we find a project creatively exciting to take on.
How much do you charge for a logo design or branding work? Can you send us your rates?
Every project is unique and will have a commensurate, tailored cost. Charging a tiny startup at the same rate as a top corporation will not be equitable.
A lot of factors determine the cost of each project. Central to these factors are vision, scale, complexities, timelines, and clarity. We also have to factor in the following: target audiences, stakeholders’ directions, the industry’s landscape, and desired outcomes.
In over a decade of practice, repeat clients recognize our fair-minded pricing policy.
We may not be cheap, but we respect your investment and endeavor for our work to be worth it.
It is, therefore, important that our first meeting establishes clear parameters, goals, objectives, and directions so that the corresponding proposal will be of true value to you and support the needs of your project in a cost-efficient way.
We can only send our proposal / rate AFTER we have met to discuss your requirements and adequately assess the project’s scope together.
Can we ask you to do a pitch?
DFT believes good, meaningful, and resonating design and strategy are not rooted in guesswork.
For creative work to be truly effective and serve your goals, investing in due process and proper time is required and essential to giving you an edge over your competition.
The above mindset differentiates our approach, and forward-leaning clients come to us for considered work.
In this regard, we do not encourage pitch work and prefer to collaborate with you closely in defining the job strategically, thoughtfully, and creatively. We believe it will serve you well this way than generating hurried, speculative work.
You deserve insightful, intelligent, and strategically-crafted creative work.
And will pay for value, not for empty volume.
Do you strictly operate in the Philippines?
Our creative studio operates in Manila, The Philippines, and we also registered our business in Singapore.
However, our work leads us everywhere! From Tokyo to Tel Aviv, Munich to Melbourne, and Bangkok to Berlin, we collaborate closely with varied clients doing business in diverse sectors across the globe.
Through the years, we have conducted these international projects in person or virtually, or as often happens, a combination of both.
Regardless of geographical location, we always welcome the opportunity to collaborate with inspiring brands and people.
Talk to us about your project!