Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

Call us for a no obligation conversation on our Skype number (from any phone) on 0208 638 8315, or send us your project details via our contact form, or email enquiries@hoverfly-design.co.uk stating which package you are interested. We’ll acknowledge receipt as soon as we have it. We’ll come back to you with any queries. If appropriate we’ll ask you to complete our discovery questionnaire and can walk you through this process. Once completed we’ll need your company/contact information and we will send you a final quotation confirming the brief. The consultation and discovery process is complimentary. If you are happy with everything we’ll then require a 50% deposit up front and will part invoice you for the deposit amount. The remaining fees will be invoiced on completion of your project. N.B. If the project is put on hold indefinitely we will apply a 2nd invoice to bill to date and revisit the remaining work when you are ready. Once we’ve received the deposit we will commence work on your project.

We ask for 50% payment upfront to ensure commitment on both sides and this is a non-refundable deposit. This applies to all new customers and we will wait to commence work until the deposit is received. For long standing clients we can set up an account and bill on completion of work. You can if you prefer pay the whole amount upfront to ease paperwork.

Yes of course. Our packages are a start point if you want to adjust things we can tailor your package to suit and provide an estimate for you.

Yes, not a problem. Tell us your idea and we will quote you to professionally design your concept. This includes things like logo vectorisation. You may already have a logo but perhaps it was designed in software that pixelates and you need a version which doesn’t suffer loss of quality when you scale it up. We can do that too.

Three design revisions is more than minor tweaks. It is three reworkings of the design which may involve using different fonts and asset positioning. One set of revisions will involve a series of choices to assess, a sheet with several variations to look at, which counts as one set of amends. So three design revisions is usually fits the wide majority of cases. This is to ensure fairness on both sides. It is possible that in going through the process you discover you want to change the brief, if this occurs we may need to revisit the design process and this would involve additional cost charged at our standard hourly rate. Alternatively if you want to lock in the cost you can utilise the premium package to have unlimited revisions until we sign off your logo.

In 25+ years of business this hasn’t happened. We follow the right steps to ensure it doesn’t. The important thing is that we have a clear brief. We can assist you in this process. We often create a safe, middle, and a wild card option, some logos cleaner and more typographical, and others more visual to cover the bases and suit different tastes. We often include additional quick-fire ideas at the back of the first draft presentation. We will use the brief to create the right vision for your logo. If you didn’t like the first draft designs we would revisit the brief to discover where we have misunderstood your instructions and fix this.

Vector graphics are created in software which uses mathematical equations rather than pixels to create artwork, which means it is ratio based rather than made by pixel squares. This means that a vector graphic can be scaled up to fit on a side of a bus without any loss of quality. Vector files tend to be adobe illustrator (.ai) files or .eps (encapsulated post script) and sometimes .pdf (portable document format). Pixel graphics are created in photo based software and use small squares of colour to make up an image. The issue with creating logos in photographic software is that the logo quality is not maintained when scaled up, it pixelates. We design our logos in vector format and also supply them in pixel format too for use in software such as Word and on websites. These formats can be .jpeg, .png and .gif. all formed by pixels.

The logo specification sheet is a single one sided sheet which contains the variations of your logo, plus the colour breakdowns for printing and digital use. This is the hex codes for web, Pantone’s and CMYK breakdowns for print. You can pass the spec sheet to suppliers to ensure the correct colours are used.

A brand usage guide is a four page guide which contains the specification sheet and in addition has the brand fonts and secondary colours identified as well as the do’s and don’s of logo use and logo exclusion zones. The brand usage guide is a valuable way to control your brand when dealing with suppliers, partners and stakeholders and instructs them on the rules they must adhere to when using your brand.

The brand identity guidelines are much more extensive, approximately 20-30+ pages of content, containing all the elements in the logo spec sheet and brand usage guide plus it outlines layout rules for your common documents and brand collateral. The 3 items chosen in the GOLD package will be identified in the document with relative positioning measured for future set up of similar items taking which reduces workload. If you have a regular in house item such as a newsletter or reports we can create this as a template in software which you use to help maintain the brand. This saves the worry of layout and design and enables your team to create using the same branded look. We will discover through our consultation which element are crucial for your comprehensive brand identity guidelines.

Yes you can. We’ll need to invoice you the difference for the deposit and receive payment to upgrade your package and continue with the upgraded work.

Yes you can. Bear in mind that these are a flavour of the logo use rather than artwork itself, they are mock ups to give a hint of how the brand can develop and designed to give a clearer vision of the logo in use. If you want practical artwork please consider our GOLD or PLATINUM options. We can discuss this with you in more detail during your complimentary consultation.

Your logo may work the best in a particular shape and this would form the primary use of your logo whenever possible. But, there may be instances when your logo becomes less ideal for a particular space and therefore a secondary logo format becomes valuable. For example if you have to fit a portrait logo into a landscape space, the logo can become illegible and diminish your brand.

A sub-mark is a simplified version of your logo which acts as a brand identifier. When a sub-mark becomes well know it can eventually replace the wording and becomes a logo in it’s own right – think of the Apple Mac logo which has been distilled down to just the apple over the years. A sub-mark can be an abbreviation of your company name, a single letter, or an icon or badge which represents your brand. It is often used as a profile icon in social media, or as a favicon (a symbol associated with a particular website, typically displayed in the address bar of a browser). It can also be used on things such as uniforms, furniture, merchandise and can create a strong symbol to anchor your brand.

An extended colour palette adds diversity to your brand whilst keeping things consistent. The colours are complimentary. The additional colours allow you to create stand out services or products which can be identified through colour in their own right. It’s particularly useful for businesses wishing to look less corporate or those who have many products or services and need to separate their offerings out in a visual sense. Primary brand colour consistency is extremely important and a secondary palette adds layers to support this.

Using the same font system across all media helps cement your brand recognition. We usually choose fonts that are free and work on both mac and windows platforms, as well as being web fonts, often sourced from google fonts. In some rare instances we may recommend that it is worth investing in a purchased font because it is a particularly good fit for you brand and is more unique for your identity. In this instance we will show you the options for free and purchased choices. It pays to get all your stakeholders to use the same fonts. In terms of logos we outline the fonts (vectorise), so you do not need the fonts for logo use, it is just for your text in marketing items and documentation.

We include artwork release as part of the deal but you may need to purchase software to use this. The artwork for the items listed are created in Affinity Publisher currently available for about £50 one off cost with free updates. We can also create templates in software of your choosing, contact us with your specific requirement to discuss a quote for this. We may be able to offer this as one of your choices depending on the software you use.

We believe in complete transparency. Our costs quoted include 2 corrections to the design or supplied content within the price as author corrections. Further amendments after this, if required, would be charged at our standard hourly rate of £25 p/h for artworking amendments. We would quote prior to doing the additional work for a go-ahead. As part of our design process we will produce a minimum of 3 logo concepts for the standard and premium packages and two alternative designs for the gold promotional items. We will then apply your initial feedback to the design. You then have the 2 corrections after this before incurring any further charges.

Yes you can. For instance you can have two different promotional brochures which would count as 2 choices. Or you can also add more pages to a brochure, so request an 8 page brochure as 2 choices. This process applies to all the options.

Yes you can. Our packages are designed to be customisable. Need more than 3 items? You can add more choices from the optoins as an add-on at an extra £150 per additional choice if bought together at the same time.

Your brand identity guidebook is an electronic pdf brochure. With full content, pagination and clearly laid out in easy to use sections identifying key touchpoints and designed to create cross channel consistency, whether you are communicating on social media or through print your audience should receive the same branded experience. Typically it will be 20-30+ pages of content, but this can vary depending on the amount of services or products you have. We will identify your core offerings and cover these within the guide book.

Yes you can. We can source this for you for an additional cost or provide you with print ready pdf for you to obtain printed copies yourself.