FAQ

What is your design process?

You can read about it here.

Will you sign NDA?

No. I see NDAs as superfluous because,

• I value clients’ ideas and respect their want of confidentiality of information. As a seasoned professional, by default I keep confidential all information I receive during a project and during the discussion of a potential project.
• I value relationships; I always try to build long-lasting relationships with clients through mutual trust and satisfaction. I cannot gain trust by breaching confidentiality.
• as an extremely conscientious person I treat everybody as I’d like to be treated. So, I see NDAs as superfluous.

Also, practically,

• the ideas that you’re trying to protect by NDA may not be unique and in case somebody comes to me with the same idea then I would be at a disadvantageous position.
• I hate legalese. Legalese muddles meanings and can possibly blindfold one and lead into a legal quagmire, which I don’t want to find myself or anybody in. So it’d require me to consult my lawyer, which means additional expense and time, which I don’t want to spend on something that I don’t require to do what I do.

Will you do a paid test job?

I completely understand you’d be comfortable if you could see my design for a small portion of your app/website before engaging with me for the full project. Also, by this way, both of us can get a feel for our way of working and communication. However, I find it difficult to justify the effort I put into a test job. Designing a small section of your product may look like a small task but when we take into account the time required for research, planning, brainstorming, sketching out ideas, analyzing them, establishing a visual style, etc., it becomes a biggish project (in case you think I don’t have to do all these steps and just ‘design’ that section then it becomes beautifying, not designing).

A test project of size, say, 1/25^th of the full project usually requires a lot more than 1/25^th of the effort required to complete the full project. So, my fee would be most certainly higher than what you think it’d be for the 1/25^th part. So, after I size up the work and send you an estimate most likely it’ll be turned down :-) Even if you’re ready to pay what I ask, there is always the possibility of not getting to work on the full project, in which case I’d hate to see my effort go waste. For this reason I never take up test projects.

Alternatively, you can go through the case studies of my previous projects to get an idea of how I work and read my previous clients’ testimonials to get an idea of how it was to work with me; you can also talk to some of my previous clients if you feel so. I’ve never had an unhappy client and most of the work I get is from repeat clients.

What are your deliverables?

It differs from project to project. Usually it is any or all of the below:

Brand identity

• Logo (in EPS, PDF/PNG/SVG formats)
• Brand guidelines (in PDF format)

Mobile app and website

• Wireframes (in PDF format)
• Page/screen mockups (in Affinity Designer's .afdesign format and if you really need, in semi-editable PSD format).
• Image/icon assets (in PNG/SVG format).v
• Style guide that specifies the dimensions, colors and typography (in PDF format).
• HTML and CSS of the website/page/component.

What tools do you use?

• Affinity Designer for wireframing and visual mockups.
• Marvel for prototyping using wireframes.
• HTML and CSS for the final build.

Will you sign a contract?

Of course, I’ll sign a contract but it’ll be the one that I create for the project in plain English. If you see contract as a checkbox to tick to start a project and send me a document loaded with legalese, the terms of which you yourself may not be clear, I won’t sign it. I see contract as a document that brings clarity to both of us on what to do, when to do it and what happens if something goes wrong. I use a contract roughly based on the famous contract killer.