Article slot 01
16/9
Featured 0116/9
Brand Strategy
Positioning is a decision, not a description
Why the sentence you refuse to write matters more than the one you publish.
Reading destination not built yet01 Articles & Insights
Notes from the studio floor
Short pieces on brand direction, design craft, and running the work. Written between projects, kept to what actually changed an outcome.
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02 Featured
Start with these four
The pieces I hand to clients most often. They cycle on their own, and you can take the wheel at any point.
Featured 1 of 4. Positioning is a decision, not a description.
Get them by email
One letter when something is worth sending. Brand direction, launch decisions, and what actually moved the needle. No schedule, no filler.
03 Everything
Read the rest
Filter by what you are working on, or sort by how much time you have.
- Article slot 01Brand Strategy
4/301Positioning is a decision, not a description
Why the sentence you refuse to write matters more than the one you publish.
- Article slot 07Design Craft
4/302Type at the edge of legibility
A display face earns its scale, and loses it the moment it has to be read twice.
- Article slot 13Website
4/303A homepage is a sequence, not a page
Order carries the argument. Sections are paragraphs with a scroll bar.
- Article slot 19Social Media
4/304A feed is a system, not thirty posts
Design the rules once and the month stops being thirty separate decisions.
- Article slot 25Presentation
4/305Slides are arguments, not documents
If it reads fine without you in the room, it was a memo.
- Article slot 31Studio Notes
4/306How Fazen scopes a launch
What gets decided before anything is designed, and why that order holds.
- Article slot 02Brand Strategy
4/307The brief that saves three rounds of revision
Six questions answered up front remove most of the arguing later.
- Article slot 08Design Craft
4/308Grids you can defend in a meeting
If a column choice has no reason, it will be the first thing someone moves.
- Article slot 14Website
4/309Speed is a design decision
Every weight, script, and hero video is a choice someone waits for.
- Article slot 20Social Media
4/310Templates that do not look like templates
Fix the frame, vary the content. The repetition is the point, the sameness is not.
- Article slot 26Presentation
4/311One idea per slide, seriously
The second idea is not free. It is paid for by the first one being forgotten.
- Article slot 32Studio Notes
4/312Saying no is a service
A fit review that declines early protects the work that is accepted.
- Article slot 03Brand Strategy
4/313Naming without the thesaurus spiral
A shortlist survives when it is tested against use, not against taste.
- Article slot 09Design Craft
4/314Contrast is a hierarchy tool, not a mood
Where the eye lands first should be a decision, never an accident.
- Article slot 15Website
4/315Copy first, layout second
Lorem ipsum hides the moment where the argument actually breaks.
- Article slot 21Social Media
4/316Carousel structure that earns the swipe
Slide one makes a promise. Slide two has to start paying it.
- Article slot 27Presentation
4/317Charts that make the point
Pick the shape that answers the question, then remove everything that does not.
- Article slot 33Studio Notes
4/318What a fit review actually checks
Readiness, decision-maker, and appetite. In that order, every time.
- Article slot 04Brand Strategy
4/319When a rebrand is the wrong fix
Most identity problems are distribution problems wearing a costume.
- Article slot 10Design Craft
4/320Kill the drop shadow, keep the depth
Layering with border, surface, and space instead of a blur nobody asked for.
- Article slot 16Website
4/321The navigation that stops people leaving
Fewer destinations, named the way visitors already name them.
- Article slot 22Social Media
4/322Consistency without repetition
Recognition comes from grammar, not from posting the same layout again.
- Article slot 28Presentation
4/323The deck you can present without notes
Structure you can recall under pressure is structure the audience can follow.
- Article slot 34Studio Notes
4/324Pricing a system, not an hour
Why the invoice describes an outcome instead of a calendar.
- Article slot 05Brand Strategy
4/325Audience of one, message for many
Writing to a single reader is what makes the message scale.
- Article slot 11Design Craft
4/326Designing in grayscale first
Colour hides a weak structure until the day it has to work in one ink.
- Article slot 17Website
4/327Landing pages that survive real traffic
What changes when the visitor arrives sceptical instead of curious.
- Article slot 23Social Media
4/328Designing for the mute button
If the message needs the audio, most of the audience never receives it.
- Article slot 29Presentation
4/329Investor decks and attention budgets
Assume nine minutes, not ninety. Spend them in the right order.
- Article slot 35Studio Notes
4/330The handoff that does not rot
Files age badly. Rules, names, and reasons age well.
- Article slot 06Brand Strategy
4/331Proof beats adjectives every time
Replace three claims with one artefact and the page gets shorter and stronger.
- Article slot 12Design Craft
4/332The logo is the smallest part of the identity
The system around it does the recognising, long before the mark does.
- Article slot 18Website
4/333Accessible by default, not by audit
Contrast, focus, and order cost nothing at the start and plenty at the end.
- Article slot 24Social Media
4/334The first frame does all the work
One still decides whether anything after it is ever seen.
- Article slot 30Presentation
4/335Ending on the ask
A closing slide that thanks people asks for nothing and usually gets it.
- Article slot 36Studio Notes
4/336Working solo without working alone
A one-person studio still needs a second opinion, on purpose and on schedule.
04 Catch up
In case you missed it
Older pieces that still hold up. Nothing here has aged out of being useful.
Still worth it 01
Article slot 30
16/9
16/9
Presentation
Reading destination not built yetEnding on the ask
A closing slide that thanks people asks for nothing and usually gets it.
Still worth it 02
Article slot 24
16/9
16/9
Social Media
Reading destination not built yetThe first frame does all the work
One still decides whether anything after it is ever seen.
Still worth it 03
Article slot 18
16/9
16/9
Website
Reading destination not built yetAccessible by default, not by audit
Contrast, focus, and order cost nothing at the start and plenty at the end.