Process
Five phases, five to six weeks, and about eight hours of your time in total.
The five phases
01
You fill in the brief. It comes back with follow-up questions in writing — the ones that only make sense once the first answers exist. Whatever already exists gets audited: old logo, packaging, site, the lot.
Ends with: a written summary of what the project actually is, which you confirm before anything else starts.
02
Positioning in one sentence, three or four brand attributes, and the tone of voice. Then the visual direction — described in words and reference, not designed yet.
Ends with: you approve a direction in writing. This is the decision point of the whole project. After it, nothing gets redesigned from scratch.
03
One concept, developed in full: the mark and its lockups, the color system, the type system, and the rules that hold them together. Presented as a recorded walkthrough you can watch twice and forward to whoever else has to see it.
Ends with: a finished identity and two rounds of revision on it.
04
The system meets the real surfaces: packaging, digital, print, whatever your business actually uses. This is where an identity either holds or falls apart, so it happens before delivery, not after.
Ends with: artwork and files for the agreed applications.
05
The brand book, every source and export file, and a recorded handover that explains how to use the system. Recorded on purpose: the person who joins your team in eight months can watch it too.
Ends with: final payment, and full ownership of everything transferring to you.
How we work remotely
BlackDevil works from Italy with clients worldwide. Time zones are often five to nine hours apart, so the process is built to not need both of us awake at once.
Every decision, brief and approval happens in writing. Six months later there is no argument about what was agreed: it is in the thread.
Work is walked through on video rather than live. You watch it when it suits you, twice if you want, and send it to your co-founder without having to re-explain it.
Every message gets an answer within one business day. Not instantly — instant replies mean somebody is being interrupted all day, and it shows in the work.
No standing meetings. When a conversation is genuinely faster than a thread, one gets booked — and the outcome still gets written down afterwards.
What the project needs from you
Most identity projects that go wrong go wrong for the same reason: nobody on the client side had the authority to approve the direction, so it got approved four times by four people and ended up as an average of everyone's taste.
So the brief asks who decides. Not to be difficult — because a project with one decision-maker finishes on time and looks like something.
Six answers, about two minutes, and a reply within two business days. If you want to take discovery off the critical path straight away, the full brief is open.