# Margo --- > Editorial portfolio theme for designers, studios, and photographers, built with Astro and Tailwind CSS: 3 homepages, case studies, photo series, services, and a journal. This is the portfolio website of an independent designer and photographer. It shows selected projects and photo series, describes the services (brand identity, web design, art direction, packaging, photography), lists prices and FAQs, and publishes a journal about process and craft. Visitors can start a project through the contact page. --- # Margo Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/ > Independent brand designer and art director in Lisbon: identities, packaging, and print for small makers. --- # Small studio Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/home-studio/ > A design studio of six in Rotterdam and Montréal: brand identities, packaging, and websites for independent makers. --- # Anselm Rook, photographer in Marseille Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/home-photo/ > Landscape, architecture, and still life photography from Marseille: six personal series and commissions by the day. --- # About me Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/about/ > Hugo Merrin, independent brand designer and art director in Lisbon: eleven years of identities, packaging, and print for small makers. --- # Projects Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/projects/ > Brand identities, packaging, print, and art direction for small makers, plus six photo series of coastlines, deserts, courtyards, and still lifes. --- # Archive Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/archive/ > Every project in one list: brand identities, packaging, print, and art direction for small makers, and six photo series, with year, client, and services. --- # Services Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/services/ > Five ways to work together: brand identity, web design, art direction, packaging, and photography commissions, each with a clear process and a fixed quote. --- # Pricing Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/pricing/ > Two ways to hire an independent brand designer in Lisbon: a monthly retainer at €6,400 or a fixed quote for one project, with plain answers on payment and terms. ## By the month, or by the project. **Start in any month.** Agree the scope, send briefs as they come, and go through the drafts together every week. ### Monthly retainer: €6,400 / month **A set monthly fee for your regular brand and print requests.** Suits teams that send work every week. - One request in progress at a time - First drafts the same week - Brand, packaging, and print - A weekly review call - Source files with every delivery - Rolling monthly terms ### One-off project **A fixed quote for one identity, range, or campaign.** Scoped on a call and priced before work starts. - Price agreed up front - Print and web files - Handover to your printer - A month of support ## Prices, terms, and invoices. **What you pay, when, and what it covers.** Anything else is on the FAQ page, or ask me directly. ### How do you price a project? Every project gets a fixed price, set from a written scope before work starts. The scope lists each deliverable, so you can see exactly what the price covers. ### When do I pay? A project is paid in two parts: half to book the dates, the rest on delivery. The retainer is billed at the start of each month. Bank transfer and card both work. ### What does the monthly retainer cover? Brand, packaging, and print requests, one at a time, with first drafts the same week and a weekly review call. Websites and large launches are quoted as separate projects. ### Can I stop the retainer? Yes. Terms roll month to month: tell me before the next billing date and the following month is not invoiced. Open requests are finished and handed over first. ### What if the scope changes? We agree on the change in writing before any extra work starts, with its own price and dates. Small adjustments inside the agreed scope cost nothing extra. --- # Journal Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/blog/ > A design journal on process, pricing, typography, and photography, with practical notes on working with clients and developers. --- # Team Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/team/ > Meet the studio: designers, a web developer, a producer, a photographer, and a strategist working from Rotterdam and Montréal. --- # Client testimonials Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/testimonials/ > Six clients of an independent brand designer in Lisbon on working together, from the first brief to the last proof: rated 4.9 from 86 reviews across 140+ projects. ## From the kiln room to the print fair. **4.9** from 86 reviews > Hugo spent a morning in the kiln room before he drew anything. The labels read like our glaze notebook, and our stockists noticed straight away. > > Joel Ashcombe, Founder, Marrow Kiln > He sent a shot list written as sentences, so everyone on set knew what each frame was for. We never reshot a single frame. > > Ruairi Kell, Co-founder, Saltmoor > Clear scope, fixed price, and a weekly call that never ran over. The proofs arrived when he said they would, every time. > > Matthias Oberle, Managing director, Werrin Paper > Most designers send files and disappear. Hugo came to the press, pulled a test print himself, and adjusted the type on the spot. > > Lior Mattes, Co-owner, Corvane Press > He kept every small colour decision on one shared sheet, so nothing was decided twice. Our shop staff now explain the fan without notes. > > Dario Wrenfield, Head of colour, Ravel & Hue > We asked for nicer gift bags and ended up with a tidier stockroom. Everything ships flat now, and the bags still look good on the counter. > > Ezra Pellow, Owner, Pellow & Co. ## Behind the quotes, the record. **Eleven years, counted.** Every project since I started, and the reviews clients left once the work was done. - **11** Years in practice - **140+** Projects shipped - **4.9** Average rating from 86 reviews - **24h** To answer a new enquiry --- # FAQ Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/faq/ > Plain answers from an independent brand designer in Lisbon: how a project runs, what it costs and when you pay, and who owns the files at the end. ## Good to know up front. **Not on the list? Send it over.** I reply within a day, and the answer often ends up on this page. ### Working together #### What happens after I get in touch? I reply within a day with a few questions about your goals, your dates, and your budget. If we are a good fit, a short call follows, then a written scope with a fixed price and a timeline. #### What do you need from me to start? A short brief, any brand files you already have, and one person who can approve the work. If you prefer to answer in writing, I send a short questionnaire instead of a call. #### Can you work with my printer and web studio? Yes. I send print-ready files with written specs, check the first proofs, and stay on the thread with whoever builds your site until it is live. #### How do revisions work? Each deliverable has its review rounds written into the scope, so you know how many there are before we start. On the retainer, a request stays open until you approve it. #### Can we work across time zones? Yes. I work from Lisbon, which shares most of the working day with Europe and the mornings with the American east coast. Reviews happen on calls at set points, and written feedback is welcome in between. ### Pricing and payment #### How do you price a project? Every project gets a fixed price, set from a written scope before work starts. The scope lists each deliverable, so you can see exactly what the price covers. #### When do I pay? A project is paid in two parts: half to book the dates, the rest on delivery. The retainer is billed at the start of each month. Bank transfer and card both work. #### What does the monthly retainer cover? Brand, packaging, and print requests, one at a time, with first drafts the same week and a weekly review call. Websites and large launches are quoted as separate projects. #### Can I stop the retainer? Yes. Terms roll month to month: tell me before the next billing date and the following month is not invoiced. Open requests are finished and handed over first. #### What if the scope changes? We agree on the change in writing before any extra work starts, with its own price and dates. Small adjustments inside the agreed scope cost nothing extra. ### Files and rights #### Who owns the final files? You do. With the last payment, full rights pass to you, along with the editable source files and a short guide to using them. #### Which files do I get at handover? Editable source files, print-ready PDFs, and web exports in the sizes you need, plus a short guide that shows how the pieces fit together. #### Can you show our project in your portfolio? Only after it launches, and only with your yes. If the work has to stay private, say so in the brief and it never appears online. #### Who pays for fonts and stock images? Licensed fonts and images are bought in your name, so the licences stay with you. Each one is listed in the handover guide, with its terms. #### What if I lose a file later? Ask me. I keep a full archive of every project, so a lost file is usually one email away. You also get your own copy on a shared drive at handover. --- # Contact Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/contact/ > Get in touch with an independent brand designer and art director in Lisbon: send a short project brief or book a call. Replies within a day. --- # Marrow Kiln Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/projects/ceramic-forms/ > A label system for a small ceramics studio whose glazes change with every firing. - **Client**: Marrow Kiln - **Year**: 2025 - **Role**: Brand designer - **Services**: Brand identity, Packaging - **Duration**: 9 weeks - **Printing**: One-colour labels, kraft boxes One label layout now carries 40 glazes. - **40** Glazes on one layout - **6** Vessel shapes - **3** Box sizes > Before, every new glaze meant a new label and a week of waiting. Now we name it, print it, and it is on the shelf by Friday. > > Joel Ashcombe, Founder, Marrow Kiln ## Project images - Ring vessels, sorted by shape before glaze. - The ribbed bottle, one of six shape marks. - Candle vessels share the bottle's ribbing. - The full shape family on linen. - Pinched bowls, the newest shape. ## Overview Marrow Kiln is a two-person ceramics studio making vases, bowls, and candle vessels in small firings. Each kiln load comes out a little different, and the studio had started treating that as a problem: forty glazes, forty label files, and a shelf where nothing looked related. The brief was to make the range read as one family without hiding what makes each piece its own. ## Approach I started at the shelf, not the screen. We laid every form out on linen in the studio and sorted them by shape first, glaze second. The shapes held steady, so the identity hangs on them: six vessel outlines, drawn as simple line marks, sit at the top of every label. Below the mark, one fixed grid carries the parts that change: glaze name, firing number, and care note. Glaze names are set in a single weight, so a new one only needs typing, not designing. The labels print in one colour on uncoated stock, which suits the matte glazes and keeps short runs cheap. The boxes follow the same logic. Three kraft sizes cover the whole range, each with a window cut to the vessel's shoulder, so the glaze does the selling. A small stamp closes the lid instead of tape. ## Result One label layout now carries 40 glazes, and adding a new one takes minutes. The studio prints labels in-house on the morning of a firing. At markets, the six shape marks have become the way regulars ask for things: "the round one in the oat glaze". --- # Werrin Paper Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/projects/envelope-system/ > One envelope range in two inks for a stationery maker with six product lines. - **Client**: Werrin Paper - **Year**: 2024 - **Role**: Lead designer - **Services**: Brand identity, Print - **Duration**: 12 weeks - **Stock**: Recycled kraft, dyed vermilion Six product lines share one envelope range in two inks. - **6** Product lines - **2** Inks - **4** Envelope sizes > We had six ranges that looked like six companies. Two colours and one grid made them look like ours again. > > Matthias Oberle, Managing director, Werrin Paper ## Project images - The launch grid, turned on the diagonal. - Vermilion marks anything given as a gift. - One flap cut across all four sizes. - Shop display, first test. ## Overview Werrin Paper makes notebooks, cards, and envelopes for independent shops. Over the years it had added six product lines, each launched with its own colours and type. On a shop shelf they didn't look like one maker, and every reprint meant matching a different ink. Shops had started asking which envelope went with which card. The task was to bring the six lines together through the one thing they all share: the envelope. ## Approach I reduced the palette to two materials rather than two colours: an uncoated recycled kraft and a dyed vermilion stock. Kraft carries the everyday lines; vermilion marks anything bought as a gift. A shop assistant can explain it in one sentence, and so can the price tag. Every envelope uses the same four sizes and the same flap cut, so cards and notebooks from any line fit any envelope. The only print is a small black wordmark on the flap and a line code on the back, which keeps press runs short and lets the paper show. For the launch, I photographed the envelopes as a grid on black: kraft and vermilion in turn, square to the frame, then turned on the diagonal. The same grid became the shop display, the trade catalogue cover, and the pattern inside the gift boxes. ## Result Six product lines now share one envelope range in two inks. Reprints run in a single black ink, and the shop display goes up with no design work at all. Trade buyers order across lines more often, because everything on the shelf now visibly belongs together. --- # Saltmoor Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/projects/stone-still-life/ > Campaign stills for a flower and fragrance studio, built from cut stone and single stems. - **Client**: Saltmoor - **Year**: 2025 - **Role**: Art director - **Services**: Art direction, Set design - **Duration**: 4 weeks - **Set**: Cut limestone, marble offcuts, granite Twelve campaign stills from two studio days. - **12** Campaign stills - **2** Studio days - **3** Scents, one stem each > Hugo cast the stones like people. Every frame has one flower and one stone, and nothing competes with either. > > Ruairi Kell, Co-founder, Saltmoor ## Project images - Stones alone, for the quiet frames. - Calla on warm sand. - Chrysanthemum on cool grey. - The granite block from the marble yard. - Raw marble, lit low from the side. ## Overview Saltmoor blends three fragrances from the flowers it sells: lily, calla, and chrysanthemum. For its first campaign, the studio wanted images as quiet as its shop, and a set it could reuse each season without building a new one. ## Approach I kept the set to one idea: a single stem held by stone. A stonemason cut two limestone triangles from offcuts, and the rest came from a marble yard: broken slabs, a block of red granite, and a few pieces of raw white marble. Each scent got its own ground colour, picked from the flower rather than from a brand palette: blush for the lily, warm sand for the calla, cool grey for the chrysanthemum. The stones stay the same in every frame, so the flower is the only thing that changes. The light comes from one source, low and to the side, to give every cut edge a long shadow. Nothing was retouched beyond dust and colour balance; the shadows and the marks in the stone stay as they fell. We shot tethered over two studio days, with the florist on set to swap stems as they opened. Between flower shots, I photographed the stones alone, so the campaign has quiet frames to place between product images. ## Result Twelve campaign stills from two studio days, covering three scents, the shop window, and the website. The triangles now stand in Saltmoor's window as display plinths, so the campaign and the shop look like the same place. The set packs flat and goes back up in an hour for each new season. --- # Ravel & Hue Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/projects/colour-fan/ > A colour fan, tin labels, and a website for a paint maker, all sorted by how light a colour is. - **Client**: Ravel & Hue - **Year**: 2023 - **Role**: Designer - **Services**: Colour system, Packaging, Website - **Duration**: 16 weeks - **Deliverables**: Colour fan, tin labels, website A 96-colour fan sorted by light, not by name. - **96** Colours on the fan - **12** Hue families - **8** Steps of light > People used to ask for a warm white. Now they ask for step two of the sand family, and they get it right the first time. > > Dario Wrenfield, Head of colour, Ravel & Hue ## Project images - The light end of every family. - Closed, the edge runs from dark to light. - Unvarnished cards, so gloss never shifts a colour. ## Overview Ravel & Hue mixes paint in small batches and had named its 96 colours over twenty years. The names were lovely and no help at all: nobody could tell from "Ferry Smoke" whether it was lighter than "Linen Hour", and the old swatch card was sorted alphabetically. The brief covered the colour fan, the tin labels, and the website, with one aim: help people choose a colour without a trip to the shop. ## Approach I measured the lightness of every colour and grouped the range into 12 hue families. Inside each family, colours sit in eight steps from darkest to lightest. The names stayed, because customers love them, but each one now carries a family and a step, printed beside it. The fan follows the same order. Opened, it reads as a wheel; closed, its edge shows a smooth run from dark to light, so you can see where a colour sits before you look at it. The cards are rounded and unvarnished, so gloss never shifts the paint colour. Tin labels set the family and step as the largest type, with the name underneath. On the website, the same grid becomes a filter: pick a family, slide through the eight steps, and compare two colours side by side on a neutral grey. ## Result A 96-colour fan sorted by light, not by name. Returns for "too dark" or "too light" fell in the first season, and the shop now sells the fan as a product of its own. New colours slot into an existing family and step, so the system grows without a redesign. --- # Pellow & Co. Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/projects/gift-bag/ > A gift bag for a neighbourhood gift shop that ships flat and opens in one push. - **Client**: Pellow & Co. - **Year**: 2024 - **Role**: Packaging designer - **Services**: Packaging, Print - **Duration**: 6 weeks - **Print**: Two spot colours on uncoated paper Gift bags that ship flat in one box size. - **3** Bag sizes - **1** Shipping box - **2** Spot colours > The bags used to arrive crushed and take up half the stockroom. Now three sizes come in one box, and customers keep them. > > Ezra Pellow, Owner, Pellow & Co. ## Project images - The pattern lives on the gussets. - A blank panel for a seasonal stamp. - Opened, the inside matches. - Rope handle, dyed to match. ## Overview Pellow & Co. is a gift shop that wraps almost everything it sells. Its bags came from a catalogue: glossy, bulky, and shipped already glued open, so a season's stock filled half the stockroom and a third of it arrived bent. The shop wanted a bag worth keeping that would also arrive in one piece. ## Approach I worked from the fold first. The bag is a single sheet with scored gussets, so it ships flat and opens with one push. The three sizes nest inside each other and share one shipping box, which also fits the shop's shelves. I tested the fold with the shop staff on a busy Saturday: a bag had to open, fill, and close with one hand while the other held the gift. The face of the bag is plain pink and uncoated, so it takes a handwritten name tag. All the pattern lives on the gussets and the inside: a teal field of four-point stars that only shows when the bag opens or turns. It feels like a gift before anything is inside it. Two spot colours do all the work, pink and teal, and the rope handle is dyed to match the teal. A small panel on one gusset stays blank for a rubber stamp, so a seasonal edition needs a stamp, not a new print run. ## Result Gift bags that ship flat in one box size. The stockroom has its shelf back, damaged stock has all but stopped, and the shop now sells the empty bags at the till. Regulars bring them back to be refilled at Christmas. --- # Corvane Press Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/projects/screen-print/ > Six poster designs, pulled by hand 300 times at a print studio's autumn fair. - **Client**: Corvane Press - **Year**: 2023 - **Role**: Designer - **Services**: Typography, Print - **Duration**: 5 weeks - **Format**: 50 × 70 cm, two inks per poster 300 hand-pulled posters for an autumn print fair. - **300** Posters pulled by hand - **6** Designs - **4** Inks > Every letter was drawn with our screens in mind. Not one design needed a second registration pass. > > Lior Mattes, Co-owner, Corvane Press ## Project images - Green, the second ink of the morning. - One squeegee per ink. - The palette came from this shelf. - Mixed every week, so reprints match. ## Overview Corvane Press runs an open print studio and hosts an autumn fair where visitors watch posters being made. For this year's fair, the studio asked for a set of posters it could pull live, in front of a crowd, without misprints. ## Approach I designed for the press, not the screen. Each of the six posters uses one typeface drawn wide and heavy, so the letters survive a slightly uneven pull. No colour sits closer than a few millimetres to another, which gives the printers room when they register by hand. The palette came from the ink shelf: four colours the studio already mixes every week, yellow, green, red, and a deep blue. Each poster uses two of them, so the inks rotate through the day and no screen sits idle. The words are short, one per poster, each a verb from the printing process, set large enough to read from across the hall. We tested every design on the studio's own press a week before the fair, timed each pull, and changed two layouts where the squeegee dragged. On the day, two printers worked side by side, one pulling and one racking prints, while visitors chose which poster came off the press next. ## Result 300 hand-pulled posters for an autumn print fair: 50 of each design, all printed live over one weekend. Four of the six designs sold out by Sunday afternoon, and the last prints of the other two now hang in the studio as a pair. Corvane now uses the same typeface and the two-ink rule for its course flyers and studio signs. --- # Night Shore Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/projects/after-hours/ > Toronto's skyline from the islands and the lakeshore, photographed between blue hour and midnight. - **Year**: 2024 - **Location**: Toronto waterfront, Canada Eight frames of a city seen across dark water. ## Project images - From the island docks, late evening. - Blue hour from the islands. - Cloud coming in off the lake. - The tower from the street. - Long exposure, the lake gone flat. - Midnight, after the last ferry. - Dusk from the eastern shore. - Fog on the last night. I spent four nights on the Toronto waterfront, mostly on the island ferry docks, waiting for the lake to go still. The city is loud up close and almost silent from across the water. These frames sit between blue hour and midnight, when the towers turn into lines of light and the lake doubles them. I kept to long exposures and a low horizon, so the water takes up as much of each picture as the skyline. One frame breaks the rule: a tower block disappearing into fog, shot from the street on the last night. --- # Cypress Lines Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/projects/cypress-hills/ > Cypress-lined roads, wheat hills, and morning fog in the Val d'Orcia, across one summer and one autumn. - **Year**: 2023 - **Location**: Val d'Orcia, Tuscany, Italy Roads and hills drawn by rows of cypress. ## Project images - A cypress road at sunset. - First light on the ridge farm. - Fog filling the valley before sunrise. - The long avenue to the farm. - Two trees above the mist. - Afternoon on the wheat. - A single tree on the ridge. - The road up, in July. The Val d'Orcia is a landscape drawn with a ruler: farm tracks curve, and cypress trees mark every line. I went back twice in 2023, in early summer for the wheat and in autumn for the fog that fills the valleys before sunrise. Most mornings I was on a hill before dawn, watching the mist sink and the farmhouses appear one by one. The series follows the lines the trees make, from the dark rows along a road to a single tree on a bare ridge. --- # Dune Light Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/projects/dune-light/ > Dune ridges, ripples, and long shadows in the Sharqiya Sands, photographed in the first and last hours of light. - **Year**: 2025 - **Location**: Sharqiya Sands, Oman Sand, shadow, and the hour in between. ## Project images - Ridges at first light. - A balloon's shadow, there for a minute. - Ripples after the night wind. - Grass holding the slope. - A bowl of shadow, late afternoon. - Ripples leading to the high dune. - The high dune before sunset. - Last light on the flat. In the Sharqiya Sands the dunes change shape overnight, and the light changes them again by the hour. I worked only in the first and last two hours of the day, when the sun is low enough to draw every ripple and the shadows run long and blue-black. In between, the desert goes flat and white, and I slept. The series moves from wide ridges to close textures. One morning a hot-air balloon drifted over the camp, and its shadow crossed the dunes for a minute before the wind took it away. --- # North Atlantic Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/projects/north-atlantic/ > Headlands, sea cliffs, and small villages on the Faroe Islands under a low, grey sky. - **Year**: 2022 - **Location**: Faroe Islands Headlands and villages under one grey sky. ## Project images - The headland above the bay. - The village under the cliff. - A house at the head of the valley. - Surf from the cliff edge. - Rain coming down the valley. - The bay from the road. - Roofs on the only flat ground. - Cliffs in the wind. I went to the Faroe Islands for ten days in October and saw the sun for about an hour. It didn't matter. Under a constant grey sky the islands come down to two tones, tawny grass and slate water, and the shapes come forward: headlands like folded paper, cliffs dropping straight into the surf, villages tucked into the only flat ground. I shot from the cliff paths and the roadside, often in wind strong enough to shake the tripod, and waited for gaps in the cloud that never came. --- # Quiet Table Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/projects/quiet-table/ > Candles, pears, cups, and halved oranges on a linen table, lit by one window in the Marseille studio. - **Year**: 2024 - **Location**: Studio, Marseille Still lifes from one table and one window. ## Project images - Candles and the market haul. - The bottle against the dark wall. - The same table, an hour later. - Morning cup. - Plate and cup, side light. - Blueberries, mostly eaten. - Half an orange. - Pear and orange, last light. Between commissions I set up the same table in the Marseille studio: a linen cloth, a dark wall, and one window to the left. Whatever came home from the market went on it. Over the winter that meant candles, pears, black grapes, halved oranges, and the white cups I drink from every day. Nothing is styled for more than ten minutes; the point is the light, not the arrangement. The series is about slowing down enough to see an orange properly. --- # White Courtyards Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/projects/white-courtyards/ > Arcades, corridors, and courtyards in Muscat, where pointed arches turn sunlight into patterns on marble. - **Year**: 2025 - **Location**: Muscat, Oman Arches, shadow, and polished stone. ## Project images - Morning stripes across the marble. - Lantern, stairs, and the dome. - The pergola at nine. - The arcade, looking east. - An arch inside an arch. - The corridor at its brightest. - Fort doorways, plaster and timber. - The fort courtyard, looking up. I photographed these courtyards in Muscat over three mornings, arriving when the gates opened and leaving when the marble got too bright to look at. The architecture does most of the work: pointed arches repeat down every corridor, wooden beams throw stripes of shadow, and polished floors send the light back up to the ceiling. I shot almost everything straight on and level, so the symmetry holds. The last frames come from an old fort, where the marble gives way to plaster and mud brick. --- # Brand identity Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/services/brand-identity/ > A mark, a type system, and a colour palette that hold up from a price tag to a shop sign. - **From**: €9,200 per project - **Timeline**: 6–8 weeks ## What you walk away with. - Logo and wordmark - Colour palette - Type system - Stationery and labels - Brand guidelines (PDF) - Editable source files ## Craft involved - Research - Sketching - Typography - Print production ## How the work runs. 1. **Brief** (Week 1) A half-day conversation about your customers, your product, and what the brand has to carry. I send back a one-page brief to sign off. 2. **Two routes** (Weeks 2–3) Two distinct directions, each shown on real items: a label, a card, a sign. 3. **Refine** (Weeks 4–6) Two rounds of changes on the chosen route, until every piece works together. 4. **Hand-off** (Weeks 7–8) Final files, a short guidelines PDF, and a call to walk your team through them. ## Asked about this service. ### Do you also name businesses? Yes, when the brief needs it. Naming adds about two weeks and is quoted on its own. ### How many logo options will I see? Two complete routes, each shown on real items. Fewer, stronger options make the choice clearer. ### Who owns the final files? You do. Full rights pass to you with the final payment, along with the editable source files. ## What the work covers A brand identity is the set of decisions that makes a small business recognisable before anyone reads its name. I design the mark, the type, the colours, and the rules that tie them together, then test them on the things you actually use: a label, a receipt, a delivery box, a shop window. Most of my identity clients are makers: ceramicists, stationers, paint makers, flower studios. Their product is already beautiful, so the brand has to frame it and then step back. That means few colours, one or two typefaces, and layouts that still work when they come out of an ordinary office printer. ## How a project runs Every project starts with a half-day conversation and ends with files your team can use without me. In between, you see two distinct routes, pick one, and we refine it together over two rounds. No option is shown as a lone logo on a white page. Each one sits on real items, so you judge it the way your customers will. ## What you keep You own everything at the end. The guidelines are short on purpose, twelve pages at most, because long manuals stay closed. When the identity needs to reach packaging or a website, those services build on the same system. --- # Web design Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/services/web-design/ > Calm, fast websites that show the work clearly and make the next step obvious. - **From**: €7,600 per project - **Timeline**: 5–7 weeks ## What you walk away with. - Site map and page outlines - Phone and desktop designs - Component library - Clickable prototype - Build or developer hand-off - Recorded editing walkthrough ## Craft involved - Research - Typography - Prototyping - Motion ## How the work runs. 1. **Content and structure** (Week 1) We agree on the pages, their order, and the words before any layout is drawn. 2. **Design** (Weeks 2–4) Phone and desktop designs for every page type, reviewed in a clickable prototype. 3. **Build** (Weeks 5–6) I build the site, or prepare documented files for your developer. 4. **Launch** (Week 7) Final checks on real devices, then a month of fixes once the site is live. ## Asked about this service. ### Do you build the site too? For sites up to about ten pages, yes. Larger builds go to a developer I trust, and I stay on to review every page. ### Can my team edit the site after launch? Yes. Pages are made from blocks your team can edit, and you get a recorded walkthrough of the editor. ### Do you write the copy? I edit and shape it, and can bring in a copywriter. Design starts from your real words, never from placeholder text. ## Sites that sell the work A small brand's website has three jobs: show the product clearly, answer the questions people keep emailing about, and make the next step obvious. I design every page around those three jobs, starting from your real words and photographs. Each design starts on the phone, because that is where most visitors arrive. Type sizes, image crops, and buttons are set for a thumb first, then opened up for a desk. Motion stays quiet, and pages load quickly on a weak signal. ## Design and build You get a component library and page designs a developer can build without guessing. Smaller sites, up to about ten pages, I build myself on an editor your team can learn in an afternoon. Either way, the site ships with alt text, clear page titles, and images sized for slow connections. ## After launch A recorded walkthrough shows your team how to add pages and swap images, and fixes in the first month after launch are on me. Many clients then move to the monthly retainer for ongoing changes, so the site keeps pace with the business. --- # Art direction Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/services/art-direction/ > A clear look for campaigns and product pictures, planned frame by frame before the shoot. - **From**: €1,400 per day - **Timeline**: 2–4 weeks ## What you walk away with. - Moodboard and written direction - Shot list and schedule - Set and prop sourcing - Direction on set - Final selection and grading notes ## Craft involved - Research - Sketching - 3D - Photo editing ## How the work runs. 1. **Direction** (Week 1) A moodboard and a written direction that set the light, colour, and pace of the pictures. 2. **Plan** (Week 2) A shot list, a prop list, and a schedule for each studio day. 3. **Shoot** (Week 3) I direct the set and the photographer, and check every frame as it comes in. 4. **Select** (Week 4) We choose the finals together. I write grading notes and crop each image for its use. ## Asked about this service. ### Can you work with my photographer? Yes. I can direct the photographer you already use, or bring a small crew I know well. ### Are props and sets included? Props and simple sets are. Larger builds are quoted with the shoot plan, before anything is booked. ### Can you direct a shoot remotely? Yes, with a shared shot list and a live feed from the set. For the first day, I still prefer to be in the room. ## A look, decided before the shoot Art direction is the work that happens before anyone lifts a camera. I decide what the pictures should feel like, then plan every frame so the day runs calmly: the light, the surfaces, the props, the colour behind the product, and the order of the shots. Most of my direction is for still life and product campaigns, where a small change in a shadow or a plinth shifts the whole mood. For one flower studio, two studio days produced twelve campaign stills, all from a single shot list. ## On set On the day, I direct the photographer, adjust the set, and check each frame on a calibrated screen as it comes in. Nobody packs up until the list is complete, so there is no second day to book for the shot that was missed. ## After the shoot We make the final selection together. I write grading notes so the images match wherever they appear, and crop each one for the places it will run. You end up with a small, consistent library rather than a folder of near-duplicates. --- # Packaging Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/services/packaging/ > Labels, boxes, and bags that read from across a shop and still feel considered at home. - **From**: €6,200 per range - **Timeline**: 5–7 weeks ## What you walk away with. - Label and surface system - Dielines and structure notes - Full-size mock-ups - Print-ready artwork - Proof checks and printer hand-off ## Craft involved - Sketching - Typography - 3D - Print production ## How the work runs. 1. **Brief and structure** (Week 1) We look at the range, the shelf, and the shipping, and decide what changes and what stays. 2. **Surface design** (Weeks 2–4) Label and surface layouts for the whole range, mocked up at real size. 3. **Proofing** (Weeks 5–6) Colour proofs on the real stock, checked against an agreed standard. 4. **Production** (Week 7) Print-ready artwork, the printer hand-off, and a check of the first run. ## Asked about this service. ### Do you handle printing? I prepare the files, check every proof, and talk to your printer. You pay the printer directly, with no markup. ### Can you keep my current box or bottle? Yes. Most ranges keep their structure and change what is printed on it. A new structure adds about two weeks. ### How do you make sure the colours are right? Every colour is proofed on the real material before the run. On screen, a colour is only a guess. ## Packaging that survives the shelf and the post Packaging is the one part of a brand people hold in their hands. It has to read from two metres away on a shelf, survive a courier, and still feel considered when it is opened at a kitchen table. I design the surface, the label system, and, when the product needs it, the structure. For a range, the aim is one system that stretches. A ceramics studio now runs forty glazes through a single label layout, and a gift shop ships every bag flat in one box size. ## From flat file to finished box Each design is mocked up at full size on the real stock before you approve it. I prepare print-ready artwork, check the printer's proofs against the agreed colours, and stay on call until the first run ships. You pay the printer directly, so no markup hides in the quote. ## Working with what you have Most projects keep the existing box, jar, or bottle and change what is printed on it. That keeps tooling costs down and gets the new range onto the shelf sooner. When a new structure is worth it, I say so early, with the cost beside it. --- # Photography commissions Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/services/photography/ > Still life, product, and architecture photographs, shot to a written list and a calm, warm grade. - **From**: €1,800 per shoot day - **Timeline**: 1–2 weeks ## What you walk away with. - Shot list and pre-shoot plan - Studio or location shoot days - Edited, colour-graded images - Web and print sizes - Licence for your own brand channels ## Craft involved - Research - Sketching - Photo editing - Print production ## How the work runs. 1. **Plan** (Week 1) A shot list, a look, and a location, agreed in writing before the day. 2. **Shoot** (Shoot days) One or more days in the studio or on location. Join in person or follow a live feed. 3. **Deliver** (Week 2) Edited, graded images in web and print sizes, within a week of the shoot. ## Asked about this service. ### Where do you shoot? In the studio for objects and products, on location for interiors and architecture. Travel is quoted at cost. ### How many images do I get? A typical shoot day gives fifteen to twenty-five finished images, all edited to one look. ### Where can I use the photographs? The standard licence covers your website, social channels, and print for your own brand. Advertising use is quoted on request. ## Pictures made for the brand that uses them I take commissions for still life, products, and spaces: the photographs a brand needs for its website, its packaging, and its seasonal campaigns. Each shoot follows a written shot list, so you know what you will get before the day starts. My own series move between quiet studio tables and wide landscapes, and commissions borrow the same patience. Natural light where it works, a calm and warm grade, and no more retouching than the picture needs. ## How a commission works We agree on the list, the look, and the location. Objects and products are shot in the studio, interiors and architecture on location. On the day, you can join in person or follow a live feed and approve frames as they come in. ## What you receive Within a week, you receive edited, graded images in web and print sizes, with a licence for your own brand channels. A typical shoot day gives fifteen to twenty-five finished images. Extra days, travel, and advertising use are quoted on request, before anything is booked. --- # From first call to final files: how a brand project runs Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/blog/from-first-call-to-final-files/ > The six stages every identity project goes through on my desk, what you see at each one, and why I show two directions, never five. After eleven years and more than 140 projects, my process has become shorter, not longer. Clients rarely ask how good the work will be. They ask what happens next, and when. So here is the whole thing, stage by stage, as I run it from my desk in Lisbon. ## Week one: the brief, written back Every project starts with a call, and every call ends with me writing the brief back in my own words. One page: what the business does, who it is for, what has to change, what must not change, and what done looks like. The client corrects it, and we both sign it off. If we can't agree on one page, we will not agree on forty. The written brief is also what I hold every later decision against, including my own. ## Research that ends on a wall I collect what the brand already has, what its neighbours on the shelf look like, and the places the identity will have to live: a label, an invoice, a delivery van, a phone screen. It all goes on one wall, printed. The useful output is not a mood board. It is a short list of things we will avoid, because everyone else in the category already does them. ## Two directions, not five Five directions are a way to postpone a decision. I present two, and each one is complete enough to judge: a mark, a type pairing, a colour range, and three real applications. Never a logo floating on a white page. A direction only counts if it holds up on the most ordinary thing the client prints. > A direction you can't put on a real envelope is not a direction yet. It is a picture of one. The client picks one, or asks for a piece of the other inside it. That is fine. Merging two whole directions is not, and I say so in the first meeting so it never becomes a surprise. ## Refinement in rounds you can count There are two rounds of refinement, and each one starts from a single consolidated list of feedback. One list, from the one person who decides. When five people send notes separately, the notes contradict each other and the round turns into a negotiation instead of design work. Each round ends with a short written summary: what changed, what didn't, and why. It takes twenty minutes to write and saves a week of "I thought we agreed". ## Proofs before files Nothing ships until I have seen it in its final material. For Werrin Paper, the envelope range had to carry six product lines in two inks. The screen version looked right. The first proof on kraft stock did not: the vermilion went dull and brown where the paper soaked it up. We moved to a slightly cooler red and a heavier ink density, proofed again, and only then released the files. Screens get the same treatment. I check every web asset on an inexpensive phone in daylight, because that is where most people will meet the brand. ## Final files and a short guide The handover is plain on purpose. Everything is named the same way, sorted the same way, and explained in a guide short enough that someone will read it. Mine usually run to twelve pages. The final folder holds: - the mark in every colour version, as vector artwork and as high-resolution images - the colour values for print, screen, and paint, checked against the proofs - the type files or licence details, with the sizes and spacing we agreed on - ready-to-edit files for the three items the client makes most often - the twelve-page guide, as a PDF and as a printed copy Then I stay on call for a month. Most questions arrive in week two, when someone tries to make a sign or a social post for the first time. Answering them quickly is part of the project, not a favour. --- # How I price a project, and why I stopped counting hours Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/blog/how-i-price-a-project/ > Fixed prices with a written scope, a monthly option for steady work, and the three questions I ask before I put a number on anything. For my first three years as an independent designer, I billed by the hour. It felt fair. It was not. The faster I got, the less I earned, and clients spent the project watching a meter instead of the work. Today every project I take on has a fixed price, agreed before the first sketch. ## Price the change, not the hours The value of an identity depends on where it ends up. A mark for a one-off event and a mark that has to hold forty glaze labels on a ceramics shelf can take the same week to draw. They do not carry the same weight for the business. When Marrow Kiln asked for a label system, the drawing was a small part of the job. The real work was a layout that could take any glaze name, from four letters to twenty-two, without a redesign every season. So I price the scope of what changes for the client. I keep my own estimate of hours as a private sanity check, never as the number on the quote. ## Three questions before any number I don't send a price after the first call. I send three questions, and the answers set the scope: 1. **Where will it live?** Count the real places: packaging, signage, a website, a van, a uniform. Each one is a test the identity has to pass. 2. **Who decides?** One named person who can say yes. If a board signs off, I need to know now, because a board adds a round. 3. **What is the real deadline?** Not the hoped-for one. The date when something has to be printed, launched, or shown. ## Fixed price, written scope The quote lists the deliverables, the number of directions, the number of refinement rounds, and what is out of scope. Anything outside it becomes a change, priced in writing before the work starts. Clients like this more than they expect to. Nobody enjoys a bill that grew without warning. The quote also lists what the client provides: copy, photos, product samples, and the date each one is due. In my experience most delays start with a missing photo or a late text, and naming them early is kinder than chasing them later. I ask for half up front and half before the final files are released. The deposit books the time in my calendar. The second half is due when the work is approved, not when it is first used. > A quote is the first piece of design a client receives from you. Make it as clear as the work you want them to buy. ## A monthly option for steady work Some clients don't need a project. They need a designer on hand for a season of launches, packaging updates, and campaign material. For them I offer a subscription at €6,400 per month: requests go on a running list, I work through it from the top, and every message gets a reply within 24 hours. It suits teams with a steady flow of smaller jobs. It does not suit a full identity from scratch, which needs the focus and the stages of a fixed-price project. ## When the budget does not fit Sometimes the budget covers half of what the scope needs. I don't cut the price; I cut the scope. Fewer applications, one direction instead of two, starter files instead of finished pieces. The client chooses what to drop, and the quote says plainly what they will not get. That conversation is easier than delivering a full project with half the care. ## What I would tell my younger self Write the price down before the call ends, even as a range, so you don't negotiate against yourself overnight. Keep a page of every quote you send and what the work actually took. After twenty projects, that page will teach you more about pricing than any article, this one included. --- # Designing with a developer in the room Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/blog/designing-with-developers-in-the-room/ > At Fernlow Studio our developer joins the first sketch review, not the last file drop. What changed, and the hand-off checklist we send with every site. For years our hand-off was a file and a hope. Design finished, a link went to the developer, and three weeks later we found out which of our decisions had survived. Usually most of them, but never the ones we cared about most. Today our developer sits in the first sketch review of every web project. Not to approve the design, but to ask the questions that would otherwise arrive too late. Here is what changed at Fernlow, across our desks in Rotterdam and Montréal, and what we hand over now. ## Ask the awkward questions at the sketch A sketch is the cheapest place to find out that a layout depends on text that will never be that short, or on a photo the client does not have. Developers spot these things fast, because they see a page as content flowing into a structure, not as a picture. > The cheapest layout to fix is a sketch that a developer has already questioned. Our rule is simple: no screen goes into high fidelity until a developer has seen it as a pencil drawing or a grey wireframe and said what worries them. ## Design states, not screens A homepage is not one picture. It is a set of states: empty, loading, full, too full, broken. We design the long product name, the missing photo, the error after a form is sent, and the page in French, which runs about a fifth longer than the English. Our Montréal clients publish in both languages, and a button sized for "Book" breaks on the day it has to say "Réserver". ## Name things once Colours, spacing steps, type sizes, and corner radii get a name in a shared list before any page is designed. The same names appear in the design file and in the code. When a client asks for headings "a bit smaller", we change one value with one name, and every page follows. For the Ravel & Hue website, the 96 colours of the paint fan lived in one data file. Our developer suggested generating every swatch page from that file instead of laying each one out by hand. It took a week off the build and meant the fan, the packaging, and the site could never drift apart. ## Hand off a system, not pictures Our hand-off is a short document and a working prototype, never a folder of flat images. The checklist we send with every site: - the named list of colours, spacing, type sizes, and radii, with their values - every component in all of its states, including empty and error - the longest real text for each heading, button, and menu item, in every language - motion notes in plain words: what moves, how far, for how long, and what happens with reduced motion - the images in their final crops, with alt text written by us, not left for later - a list of open questions, each with a name next to it ## Review the build, not the file Design review happens in the browser, on real devices, at real sizes. We check on a large screen, a small laptop, and a phone held in one hand. Every issue is logged with a screenshot, the device, and a short note on what we expected. "Feels off" is not an issue; "the heading wraps to four lines at 375 pixels" is. ## What it costs, and what it saves Bringing a developer in early adds a few hours to the first two weeks. It removes most of the surprises from the last two, which is where surprises are expensive and patience is short. After nine years and more than 260 projects, it is the change we would make first if we were starting the studio again. --- # Choosing type for a small brand Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/blog/choosing-type-for-a-small-brand/ > Two families at most, tested at the smallest size first, and licensed for every place they will live. Notes from eleven years of type decisions. Type is the part of an identity people notice least and see most. A logo appears a few times on a package; the type carries every ingredient, price, and opening hour. That is why I choose it before I draw anything else, and why I start at the bottom. ## Start at the smallest size The first test is never a headline. It is the line of small print on the back of a label, the footnote on an invoice, the caption under a product photo on a phone. If a typeface falls apart at 7 points on uncoated paper, it does not matter how good it looks at 120. So I set a real paragraph of the client's own text, small, and print it. Open counters, a generous x-height, and clear differences between similar characters (the l, the 1, the I) matter more at that size than any detail you can only admire in a headline. ## Two families are enough Almost every small brand I work with needs one family for reading and, at most, one for voice. A third is nearly always a sign that the first two were not chosen well. Before adding a family, try weight, size, case, and spacing. A single grotesque in three weights can carry a whole identity. When a client asks for a second family, I ask what job it will do that the first one can't. "It looks nice" is not a job. "It sets prices and figures in tidy columns" is. > If you need a third typeface to make the hierarchy work, the hierarchy is the problem. ## Test it in the real material Ink spreads on uncoated stock and fills in thin strokes. A delicate, high-contrast serif that sparkles on screen can turn muddy on kraft paper. Screens have their own traps: a light weight that looks refined on a large monitor can vanish on a phone in sunlight. For Corvane Press, the posters for their autumn print fair were pulled by hand through a screen, 300 of them. Fine hairlines would have clogged the mesh by the fortieth pull. We set everything in one condensed grotesque, used only the regular and the bold, and kept the smallest text at a size the mesh could hold for the whole run. ## Licences are part of the design A typeface is not chosen until it is licensed for every place it will be used: desktop for the team's documents, web for the site, an app if there is one, and sometimes broadcast or large packaging runs. I check the licence before I present a direction, not after the client has fallen for it. Swapping a face late costs more goodwill than money. For every project I keep a simple sheet: the family, the licence type, what it covers, and who paid for it. It travels with the final files, so the next designer doesn't have to guess. ## Set a scale, then stop I give each identity a short type scale and nothing else: usually five sizes, each with its line height and spacing. My working checklist: - body text between 16 and 18 pixels on screen, 9 to 11 points in print - lines of about 60 to 75 characters for reading text - a little extra letter spacing for small capitals and all-caps labels, a little less for very large headlines - one size jump big enough to be felt between headline and body, rather than three small ones - real quotation marks, apostrophes, and dashes, set once in the master files so nobody has to remember them ## The quiet part of the job Good type choices rarely get compliments. People say the brand feels calm, clear, or well made, and they can't say why. That is the right outcome. After eleven years, I still print every scale on the client's real paper before I call it done. --- # Twelve stills in two studio days Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/blog/twelve-stills-in-two-studio-days/ > Notes from art-directing a still-life campaign: a shot list written as sentences, one light, props that earn their place, and room left for type. Saltmoor needed a campaign for a new range of flowers and fragrances: twelve still images for packaging inserts, the website, and a set of posters. We had two studio days, one photographer, a stylist, and a crate of cut marble. These are my notes from the planning and from the days themselves. ## Write the shot list as sentences A shot list that reads "hero 1, hero 2, detail 3" tells nobody anything. I write each shot as a sentence that describes the picture: "A single calla lily rests on the edge of a pale stone triangle, the shadow falls left, plenty of empty wall above." The photographer can light it, the stylist can build it, and the client can picture it before the day. Each sentence also names where the image will run and in which crop. That one line decides more about the shot than any reference image. Twelve shots in two days is six a day, which sounds relaxed until you count the setups. We grouped the list by light and surface, not by product, so the set changed four times a day instead of twelve. ## One light, moved, not added Still life is mostly light. We worked with one large soft source and a white card to fill the shadows, and changed the mood by moving the light, not by adding more. Low across the table, it gives long shadows and texture; higher and softer, it calms everything and the shadow almost disappears. Two setups lit by one lamp feel like a family. Six lamps feel like six different shoots. ## Props earn their place Every object in the frame has to say something about the brand, or hold up something that does. For Saltmoor that meant stone, a single stem, and nothing else: no scattered petals, no glass bottles throwing reflections we would have to retouch. When the stylist and I disagreed about an object, we shot one frame with it and one without, then moved on. The client nearly always picked the frame without. > Take something out of the frame before you add anything to it. The second picture is usually the better one. ## Leave room for type These pictures were never going to run alone. Headlines, prices, and product names would sit on top of them. So we shot wider than felt natural, kept a calm area of wall in each frame, and checked crops on screen during the shoot: tall for the posters, square for the inserts, and wide for the site. I also brought the real headline lengths from the campaign copy, so we knew how much room an actual line needed, not a placeholder. ## Shoot tethered, decide on the day We shot straight to a laptop, and the client's lead sat with us for the afternoon of each day. Picks were made on the spot, marked, and backed up twice before anyone left the studio. Choosing later from a contact sheet always takes longer, and the answer is always "can we reshoot that one?" ## The grade is part of the brief Colour starts before the edit. We agreed on one reference frame on the first morning, photographed a grey card at the start of every setup, and graded every image to that frame: warm whites, soft blacks, nothing saturated except the flower. My shoot-day checklist fits on one page: - the shot list as sentences, each with its crop and where it will run - one reference frame for the grade, printed and taped to the wall - a grey card, and spare batteries for everything - a clear end time for each setup, and one person who calls it - lunch away from the set, so nobody eats near the flowers We finished with twelve stills from two studio days, plus three frames the client had not asked for and used anyway. --- # The first two weeks with a new client Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/blog/the-first-two-weeks-with-a-new-client/ > How Fernlow Studio starts every project: a short questionnaire, one kickoff with the person who decides, a shared folder with a fixed shape, and a box of materials in the post. The first two weeks of a project decide how the next ten will feel. When the start is rushed, the same questions come back in month two, louder and more expensive. So we treat the start of a project as work, with its own plan, and we run it the same way for a tea merchant as for a linen maker. ## Before the kickoff: twelve questions A week before we meet, the client gets a questionnaire with twelve questions. Short answers are fine. A few of them: - What does the business do, in one sentence a customer would say? - What should stay exactly as it is? - Which three places will people meet the brand most often? - Who signs off, and who else needs to be heard? - What happened the last time you worked with a designer? That last one is the most useful. It tells us what the client is worried about, which is usually the thing we have to get right first. ## One kickoff, with the person who decides The kickoff takes ninety minutes, in person in Rotterdam or Montréal when we can, and the person who will sign off the work is in the room. If they cannot come, we move the date. Starting without them saves a week now and costs a month later, when they see the work for the first time and ask why nobody asked them. We go through the answers, walk the client through our stages and dates, and agree how we will talk: one written update every Friday, one shared channel for quick questions, and calls only when a decision needs one. > We would rather move a kickoff than start without the person who signs off. ## One decision-maker, in writing At the end of the kickoff we write down one name. That person collects feedback from everyone else and sends it to us as one list. It sounds bureaucratic. It is the single change that has saved us the most time in nine years of running the studio. It does not mean the others go unheard. Their notes still reach us, but through one person who has already settled the contradictions between them, and that person's list is the one we work from. ## A shared folder with a fixed shape Every client gets the same folder structure on the first day: brief, research, in progress, approved, and final. Files only move forward; if something has to leave "approved", it goes back with a note saying why. Nothing is ever called `final_v3_new`. When a project changes hands inside the studio, the next person knows where everything is without asking. ## Materials, not adjectives "Warm", "premium", and "honest" mean something different to every person in the room. So we ask for things instead of words. When we started with Osgrove Tea, they sent a parcel: their current tins, three paper bags, the stamp they used on invoices, and a handful of loose leaf in a jar. Halvard Linen sent fabric swatches and the paper tags their weavers tie to each bolt. Those parcels told us more in ten minutes than the questionnaires did in ten pages. We return the favour. Before the first presentation, we post the client a small set of the papers and colour swatches we plan to use, so they can hold them in their own light before they see anything on a screen. ## Week two: one page back By the end of week two we send the brief back in our words: one page, with what we heard, what we will make, and what we will not. The client corrects it and signs it off, and only then do we start designing. Two weeks without a sketch can feel slow. It is the fastest way we know to get to the right one. --- # The tools on my desk, and the ones I keep off it Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/blog/the-tools-on-my-desk/ > Pencils, a cutting mat, a proof printer, and one calibrated screen. The tools I use every week, described by the job they do, not the name on the box. People ask which tools I use, and they usually mean software. The honest answer is that the software matters least. Most of my decisions are made with a pencil, a printer, and a ruler, and the screen is where I finish them. Here is what sits on my desk in Lisbon, sorted by the job each thing does. ## Paper first Every project starts in a dot-grid notebook with a soft pencil. Thumbnails are small on purpose, about the size of a stamp, so I can't fuss over details that don't matter yet. A page of thirty bad thumbnails is worth more than one careful drawing, because the good idea is usually somewhere around the twenty-third. I keep a fine black pen for the moment a thumbnail becomes a decision. Pencil is for maybes; ink is for the ones I'll show. ## A cutting mat, a steel rule, and a bone folder Packaging and print are held, not just looked at. I make a rough dummy of every box, bag, and envelope before I draw the artwork, from plain card cut on the mat. A folded dummy shows in a minute what a flat drawing hides for a week: which panel faces the customer on the shelf, where the glue flap lands, which line of text ends up on a fold. ## A proof printer that tells the truth My printer is not a good printer. It is a reliable one that takes heavy uncoated paper up to A3, which is enough to check scale, hierarchy, and line length at real size. Everything I design gets printed at 100% at least once. A headline that feels right on screen is often too big on paper, and body text is nearly always too small. ## Light, a loupe, and one calibrated screen Colour decisions happen under a daylight lamp at a fixed spot on the desk, never under the warm bulb in the evening. A small loupe checks fine lines, registration, and dot gain on proofs. One of my two screens is calibrated every month; the other is not, on purpose, because most of the people who will see the work have a screen like that one. ## Software, one job each I use one application for layout, one for vector drawing, one for images, and one for prototypes. That's it. I learn each one deeply instead of trying every new release. The names change every few years; the jobs don't. If you are starting out, pick one tool per job and stay with it for a year before you look elsewhere. > Learn the job before you learn the tool. The tool will change; the job will still be there. ## What stays off the desk The list of things I keep away is as useful as the list of things I keep close: - notifications of any kind in the morning, when the drawing happens - a second project open at the same time as the one I'm working on - reference images once the direction is chosen, so I stop comparing and start finishing - my phone, which lives in a drawer until lunch - anything I bought because someone else's desk looked good in a photo ## Tools are habits None of this is expensive, and none of it is special. What makes it work is that it never moves. The lamp is always in the same place, the rule is always on the left, and the printer is always loaded with the same paper. The best print room I have worked in runs the same way. Its squeegees live on one shelf, sorted by blade, cleaned before anyone goes home, and nobody ever has to look for one. After eleven years, the best tool I own is a desk where I don't have to look for anything. --- # Elio Brask Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/team/elio-brask/ > Leads design at the studio: type, identity systems, and the first sketch on most briefs. Design lead, Rotterdam **Elio leads design at Fernlow Studio and was one of its three founders.** He sets the type and the grid on most identity projects and reviews every layout before it reaches a client. He started out in a print shop, which is why he still asks for paper samples on every brief. He also writes for the journal, mostly about type and briefs. --- # Joost Varenkamp Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/team/joost-varenkamp/ > Designs identities and the labels, signs, and templates that carry them. Designer, Rotterdam **Joost turns a logo into a system a client can use every day.** He draws the labels, signage, and templates around a mark, and keeps the files tidy enough for anyone to pick up. He sketches every mark by hand first and only moves to the screen once the shape holds up at stamp size. --- # Félix Ardouin Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/team/felix-ardouin/ > Builds the websites the studio designs, from the first wireframe to launch. Web developer, Montréal **Félix builds the websites the studio designs.** He joins at the first wireframe, so every layout is tried in the browser long before launch. He cares about fast pages, clean markup, and handing over a site the client can edit without calling us. --- # Karim Doucet Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/team/karim-doucet/ > Runs the schedule, the budget, and the first call on every project. Producer, Montréal **Karim keeps every project on time and on budget.** He was one of the three founders and opened the Montréal office. Clients hear from him every Friday: what was done, what comes next, and what he needs from them. --- # Bram Oosterveld Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/team/bram-oosterveld/ > Shoots the stills for campaigns, packaging, and the studio's case studies. Photographer, Rotterdam **Bram shoots the stills for campaigns, packaging, and the studio's own case studies.** Most days he works with daylight, a plain backdrop, and as few props as the brief allows. He plans each shoot with the designers, so the photos fit the layouts they are made for. --- # Julien Quach Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/team/julien-quach/ > Starts most projects with questions and writes the brief the designers work from. Strategist, Montréal **Julien starts most projects with questions, not sketches.** He talks to the client's customers, looks at the shelf, and writes the brief the designers work from. He was one of the three founders and still sits in on the final review of every identity. --- # Cookie policy Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/cookie-policy/ > Which cookies and browser storage this site uses, why, and how to change your choice at any time. Cookies are small text files that a site keeps in your browser. Browser storage works in a similar way. This page lists what this site stores, why, and how to change your choice. ## What this site stores ### Necessary These keep the site working and remember the choices you make on it. They are always on, and nothing in them identifies you. | Name | What it does | How long | | --- | --- | --- | | `cookie-consent` | Remembers your cookie choice, so the banner does not ask again | Until you change your choice or clear your browser storage | | `theme` | Remembers whether you chose the light or the dark mode | Until you clear your browser storage | ### Analytics, with your consent If you accept analytics, a privacy-friendly service counts page visits so I can see which pages are useful and which are not. It shows no ads, does not follow you to other sites, and keeps only totals. It stays off until you accept it. ### Marketing, with your consent This category is for measuring sign-ups from a campaign, if I run one. Nothing is stored unless you accept it, and this site shows no advertising. ## Changing your choice Use **Cookie settings** at the foot of any page to open the banner again and change your choice at any time. You can also clear cookies and site data in your browser settings; the site keeps working and simply asks again. ## More about your data The [privacy policy](https://margo-astro.pages.dev/privacy-policy/) explains what happens to the details you send through the contact form and the newsletter, and the rights you have over them. ## Changes to this policy When the site starts or stops using a cookie, I update this page and the date at the top. --- # Privacy policy Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/privacy-policy/ > How this site handles the details you send through the contact form and the newsletter, and what its analytics measure. This page explains what personal data this site collects, why, and what you can ask me to do with it. It covers the contact form, the newsletter, and the site's analytics. Work for clients is covered by each project's own agreement. ## Who is responsible This site is run by an independent designer ("I", "me"), who decides how the data described here is used. You can reach me through the [contact page](https://margo-astro.pages.dev/contact/) or at the email address shown at the foot of every page. ## What I collect ### When you write to me The contact form asks for your name, your email address, and your message. If you pick a budget range or mention a deadline, I receive that too. I use it to reply, to prepare a proposal, and, if we work together, to keep a record of how the project started. ### When you join the newsletter I keep your email address and the date you signed up. Every issue has a link to unsubscribe in one click. ### When you browse With your consent, a privacy-friendly analytics service records which pages are visited, the site you came from, your browser and device type, and an approximate country. It does not build a profile of you, and it never tells me who you are. The [cookie policy](https://margo-astro.pages.dev/cookie-policy/) has the details. ## Why I can use it - **Replying to you and preparing a proposal:** steps you ask for before a contract, or my legitimate interest in answering messages. - **The newsletter:** your consent, which you can withdraw at any time. - **Analytics:** your consent, given in the cookie banner. - **Project and invoice records:** legal obligations, such as accounting rules. ## Who else sees it I do not sell or rent your data. It passes through a few providers that run parts of the site for me: the host, the form service that delivers messages, the email service that sends the newsletter, and the analytics service. Each one processes it only on my instructions. When a provider stores data outside your country, I rely on the safeguards the law requires, such as standard contractual clauses. ## How long I keep it - **Messages that do not lead to a project:** up to a year, then deleted. - **Client correspondence and invoices:** as long as accounting law requires. - **Newsletter address:** until you unsubscribe. - **Analytics:** kept only as totals, with nothing that identifies you. ## Your rights You can ask to see the data I hold about you, to correct it, to delete it, to limit how I use it, or to receive a copy in a common format. You can also object to uses based on my legitimate interest and withdraw your consent at any time. Write to me through the contact page and I will answer within a month. If you think I have not handled your data properly, you can complain to the data protection authority in your country. ## Keeping it safe The site is served over an encrypted connection, and my email and files are protected by strong passwords and two-step sign-in. No method is perfect, so please do not send sensitive personal data, such as health or payment details, through the form. ## Changes to this policy When I change how data is handled, I update this page and the date at the top. --- # Terms and conditions Source: https://margo-astro.pages.dev/terms-conditions/ > The terms for using this site, quoting the work shown on it, and how client projects, files, and rights are usually handled. These terms apply when you use this site. Work for clients is set out in a separate agreement for each project; the general points below explain how that usually works. ## Using this site You are welcome to browse, read, and share links to this site. Please do not copy its content in bulk, scrape it, or use it in a way that harms the site or other visitors. ## Work shown here The projects, images, and text on this site are my own work or are shown with the permission of their owners. Client names, marks, and products belong to those clients. Seeing a project here does not give you any rights in it. To reproduce an image or a case study, ask me first through the [contact page](https://margo-astro.pages.dev/contact/). Short quotes with a link back to the page are fine. ## Enquiries and proposals A message sent through the contact form does not create a contract. A project starts once we both accept a written proposal that sets out the scope, the price, the schedule, and the payment terms. Prices shown on this site are a starting point and are confirmed in the proposal. ## Client files and rights Each project agreement says who owns what. As a general rule: - **Final designs:** once the final invoice is paid, the client may use the approved designs for the purposes agreed in the proposal. - **Working files:** sketches, rejected routes, and source files stay with me unless the agreement includes them. - **Licensed material:** fonts, stock images, and other third-party material keep their own licences, which the client may need to buy. - **Portfolio use:** I may show finished work on this site and in talks once it is public, unless we agree to keep it confidential. - **Client material:** clients keep every right in the text, images, and files they give me, and confirm they are allowed to share them. ## The newsletter The newsletter is free, and you can unsubscribe from any issue. Its content is general information about my work and process, not professional advice for your situation. ## Links to other sites Some pages link to sites I do not run. I am not responsible for their content or for how they handle your data. ## Liability I take care to keep this site accurate and available, but it is provided as it is. As far as the law allows, I am not liable for losses that come from using it or from relying on its general content. Nothing in these terms limits a liability that the law does not allow to be limited. ## Applicable law These terms are governed by the law of the country where I am based, and its courts have jurisdiction, unless consumer law in your own country gives you other rights. ## Changes to these terms I may update these terms from time to time. The date at the top shows when they last changed.