Studio capacityTwo identity blocks open from early February — briefs reviewed in the order they arrive.
Start a brief
Independent brand & product studio
Lark Ward works with founders and marketing leads on positioning, identity systems and the pages that carry them — in short scoped blocks, with the same two people from first call to handover.
What we take on
Most studios sell an open-ended retainer. We sell a block: a fixed scope, a known length, and a handover you can hold us to. Lanes can run back to back or on their own.
01
For teams who can describe what they build but not yet why a buyer should care first.
Typical block 3 weeks
02
For a brand that needs to hold together across a site, a deck and a shelf — not just a logo file.
Typical block 4–6 weeks
03
For sites where the content decisions matter more than the component library.
Typical block 5–8 weeks
04
For the week the work goes out and everything needs to look like it came from one place.
Typical block 2–4 weeks
How a project runs
The stages below are the whole method. There is no separate discovery phase to buy, and nothing is held back for a later proposal.
01Week 0
One call, around forty minutes. We ask what is already decided, what is genuinely open, and who signs off. If a lane is wrong for you we say so on that call.
02Week 1
We read your market the way your buyer does: your own sales calls and support threads, your three nearest alternatives, and the language the category already uses. Findings come back as decisions, not a slide library.
03Weeks 2–7
Work moves in weekly blocks with a review at the end of each. Two rounds of changes sit inside every block, and anything larger becomes its own scoped block rather than quiet overtime.
04Final week
We hand over working files, licensed fonts in your name, and a usage document written for whoever picks it up next. Then a walkthrough with your team, recorded so new joiners can catch up.
Ways to work with us
Three shapes cover almost everything we are asked for. Tell us which one sounds right in your brief and the scoping call gets much shorter.
| Sprint | Build | Standing block | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | One stuck decision: a position, a name, a page that is not landing. | A full lane from brief to handover — identity or website. | In-house teams who need design capacity each month without rehiring. |
| Cadence | Two weeks, one review at the midpoint and one at the end. | Weekly reviews across three to eight weeks. | A fixed number of days per month, booked a month ahead. |
| How it is scoped | Fixed scope, fixed fee, agreed on the scoping call. | Fixed scope by lane, with change blocks priced separately. | A monthly day count with a shared queue you reorder. |
| Who you work with | Both of us, in the same room as you. | Both of us, plus a specialist we name upfront if the lane needs one. | One named lead, with the second of us reviewing each month. |
| Not a fit when | The real problem is three decisions wide, not one. | Sign-off is spread across more than three people. | You need same-day turnaround on unplanned requests. |
How we work
We bring one recommended route with the reasoning attached, plus what we rejected. Three equal directions move the choice onto you and usually produce the safest one.
Every block ends somewhere specific. When the work grows, we price the growth instead of absorbing it quietly and arriving late.
A system you need us to operate is a system that failed. We write the usage notes while the work is being made, not after the invoice.
Work notes
Notes rather than case studies — what came in, what we decided, what we handed over.
Positioning · Sprint
A workforce planning tool selling to operations leads but writing for engineers. Two weeks to move the message onto the buyer who signs.
Identity · Build
A regional parts supplier with four sub-brands and no shared rules. Five weeks to one system that survived both the catalogue and the van livery.
Website · Build
An independent publisher whose catalogue had outgrown its site. Seven weeks, with the editorial team editing pages themselves by week six.
Before you brief us
Because the scoping call is narrow on purpose. We are not trying to learn your whole business — only which decisions are open, who approves them, and what has to be true by your deadline. If the answers are too unclear to scope honestly, we say that and suggest a two-week sprint to settle the biggest unknown first.
Alongside. Most of our build blocks run with an in-house designer or marketer as the counterpart, and the handover is written for them. If you have no internal owner yet, tell us in the brief — we will scope more documentation and a longer walkthrough rather than pretend the gap is not there.
One named decision-maker, three days of feedback turnaround, and access to whatever you already record — sales calls, support threads, past research. You do not need a written brief. If you have one we will read it, but we will still run our own field read.
You own everything we make for you, outright, from handover. Working files go with the final exports rather than staying in our accounts. Typeface licences are bought in your name and sized to your actual use, so you are never renting your own brand from us.
Yes, and it is a common starting point. We treat the inherited system as a constraint and spend the block on what is still open — structure, hierarchy, photography, page design. Where a rule actively works against you, we will show the conflict and leave the decision with the people who own it.
Two rounds of changes are included at every weekly review and they are expected, not a penalty. A round means consolidated feedback from your side, once. Requests that change the agreed direction become a separate scoped block, priced before anything is redrawn.
If it moves earlier, we tell you which parts of the scope can realistically land and which should be dropped rather than rushed. If it moves later, we pause at the end of the current weekly block and restart from the next available slot, with the work handed over in a usable state in the meantime.
Occasionally, when the work sits close to one of them — packaging, exhibition graphics, a document system. Motion, photography and film we refer out to people we have worked with, and we say so on the first call rather than learning on your budget.
Start a brief
A few lines is enough. We read every brief ourselves and reply either with a scoping call or an honest no.