Laying the groundwork
Many projects require some work to create a foundation on which to build the design. For example, Hazen is a firm believer in mapping out a complete Architecture for a Web site before the first pixel is designed. We also follow that up with Wireframes for the page structure. The Architecture is like a family tree showing the connection and relationship of all the pages. The Wireframes are like a floorplan. A floorplan for a room tells you where the door is and how big the closet is, but you don't actually know what the room looks like. The same is true of a wireframe—it's a skeleton that will eventually underlie the designed “skin”. A similar approach of diagramming out the structure can be used for longer-form publications as well, such as a multi-page booklet. If this is the optimal approach, the estimate will reflect that.
This process is not intended to prolong the process or generate bigger fees—on the contrary, a little extra planning up front will save time in the long run and help establish a rock-solid end product.
Content
We ask that you have your content finalized before we begin. Even for logos. Design is not an exploratory process, so trying out several company names while designing a logo is not productive. For content-heavy pieces like a Web site or a brochure, having all the text ready before we start laying things out avoids time-consuming and costly copy edits along the way. Furthermore, a good design is intimately related to the content, so it needs to be complete from the beginning to yield a strong design. And if content changes considerably, the design may no longer work.