Frequently asked questions

Flick through the tabs below to find your answers.

How do we start a project?

We love welcoming new people into our little Snapper family. Kick-off your shoes, thongs or flip flops, grab a coffee or an inspiration juice (beer/wine) and say hi via email, phone or through our contact form on our site. Once we have an idea of what you need, we'll shoot through a contract and invoice. We require a 50% deposit on all projects or a purchase order for the full amount, so we can book you into one of our calendars.

Where are you based?

I work remotely from my office in Newcastle, NSW, Australia. If you're in Newcastle or the Hunter Valley, let's meet for coffees. If you're out of the area, we'll bend the laws of time to set up video calls to chat through your project.

What are your payment terms?

All branding, design and photography projects are split into two payments. A 50% deposit to get you into my schedule. The final invoice is due on completion.

On occasions, I am happy to negotiate (where possible) payment terms that suit both parties.

Do you require a deposit before we start my project?

Yes, to enable all my clients to benefit, I have timeslots for projects. This is a fair system that keeps existing clients happy and makes sure I can keep you happy too. A 50% deposit and signed contract books you into my calendar and ensures you receive my full attention.

What's your hourly rate?

I don't feel that hourly rates are a good indication of the overall value of design/branding projects, designers work at a different paces, so it's difficult to judge. I'll outline exactly what I'll do upfront and provide a price according to the scope.

With any project, if you decide to extend the scope during the project, no sweat, I'll send an estimate for additional work and on approval, add it to your final bill.

What is the difference between a logo and brand?

A logo is an image, motif or typographic element to identify your business/brand.

Whereas a brand is the hearty mixture of brand strategy (your who, why, what and how) and your visual identity (logos, photography/illustration style, colour palettes, fonts, and supporting design elements)

A brand dives deep into your key messaging, what you are selling, your tone of voice, who your product/services are for and the strategies behind your communications.

Will you supply final designs or assets for me to use?

YES!! If you are working with me on your visual identity, you will get all the final assets so you can start to use them across your social media, website and marketing. My role is to create you guidelines and templates to help you thrive in business. If you're a Canva Pro user, I can supply templates that always keep your brand consistent. If you want to take things to the next level, and are comfortable using Adobe Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop files, I can supply final templates to allow you to create anything you want without it looking DIY.

How long will it take to complete my new brand?

Oooh, well a new brand from scratch can take up to 12 weeks. Together we'll work on a brand strategy, then start implementing it on a visual identity. Then roll it out to all your touchpoints. So it can take a while.

It's important not to rush, it gives us both time to make the right decisions. The moodboard and logo development takes the longest, as it's where all the thinking and creativity takes place. You also need time to sit with it, and consider any modifications you want to make.

How important is a brand strategy?

All too often, branding is seen as something that big businesses have, that startups and small businesses don't need. It's not important. The priorities are the products and services themselves, and finding a way to make money. In reality, having a brand strategy is important for a company of any size!

By branding, I don't just mean a name, logo, font, and colour palette. These are a part of branding that most people understand, but they are the bare minimum of what your brand should represent.

A brand strategy outlines 8 key areas from foundations through to target market, customer experience and brand aesthetics. It's one thing you need to have in order to create a long lasting memorable brand.

If you haven't got a brand strategy, I'd recommend either working through my course – the Irresistible brand strategy workshop, or working with me one-to-one so I can help you create your strategy.

What is the goal of a brand strategy workshop?

The end goal of a brand strategy workshop is to narrow down a huge amount of the variables in business, who you are, what you say and how you say it. This really is just the tip of the iceberg, so we'll dive way, way deeper than that.

A brand strategy workshop is a 4-hour workshop where we work through all the areas of your strategy that are unclear. Starting with your brands foundations and positioning, so we understand what makes you unique.

Once you understand all this, crafting content for your audience and designing logos that highlight your uniqueness is so easy!

What you'll walk away with is a strategy that feels authentic to you, that you feel confident selling.

Why do I need a graphic designer?

The role of a graphic designer is to solve complex problems with simple solutions. It's about communication, and communicating effectively!

Designers use a bunch of software that they've spent years training to use, and combine it with functional and strategic thinking to communicate simply.

As a graphic designer, I'll create visual concepts that nail a brief – using a combination of brand guidelines and past work to create new and improved ways to communicate with a brand's target audience.

This might create illustrations, choosing typefaces and selecting colour palettes to convey different meanings.

We might work on posters, t-shirts, corporate stationery, brochures, brand identities, brand refreshes, books and website graphics.

What does a graphic designer do?

As a graphic designer, there's 4 things I can do for you.

Visual Identity Graphic Design

Branding is the relationship between your products and services and your audience. It's the how and why you communicate a feeling, your tone of voice and your brands promise, as well as the reputation and customers experience.

Visual identity graphic design is all those intangible qualities wrapped up in visual elements - logos, typeface, colour palettes and image libraries. I'll collaborate with your key stakeholders to create something that represents the brands unique qualities.

In the process, I'll also work on other branded deliverables like business cards, posters, packaging and deliver brand guidelines.

Marketing and Advertising Graphic Design

Marketing and advertising engages target markets based on their wants, needs and desires, but visual content is always more engaging.

I can work directly with your marketing team to improve your communications with customers.

Types of projects, I have worked on in the past:

  • Postcards/flyers
  • Magazine, publication and newspaper ads
  • Posters, banners, billboards
  • Digital graphics
  • Infographics
  • Brochures (printed and digital)
  • Signage and trade show displays
  • Presentation graphics
  • Menus
  • Social media graphics

Publication Graphic Design

Publications? Yeah! But not just visual books. I'm talking annual reports, books by authors, magazines, catalogues, look books for fashion houses.

I've worked with copywriters, publishers, editors and key stakeholders to create layouts for publications. The focus is on selecting typefaces to compliment photographs, illustrations and graphics.

Packaging Graphic Design

Packaging does 2 jobs. It protect products and gets them ready for sale. That's job 1. It also gives you valuable space to communicate your brand. It's an incredible tool, and when done right each box, bag, bottle and can tells your brands story.

What are brand guidelines?

Brand guidelines are a visual roadmap for how to use your brands visual elements. They are used by designers, marketers, illustrators, copywriters and anyone who needs to use your brand to create marketing materials.

Typically, these guidelines were bound into a book, but nowadays, you'll more likely to find them in a PDF format.

They'll show you how all your different logos, icons, typefaces, fonts, colour palettes, additional graphics work together.

But the most comprehensive ones also include your brands strategy. Including mission and vision statements, USP's, target market personas, brand story, personality and tone of voice.

In my opinion, a set of brand guidelines include your brand strategy and visual design elements – this way, when you want to introduce a new service or product, you can see how it fits alongside other parts of your business without having to run back to both the brand strategist and the graphic designer.

Where are you located?

I'm in the City of Newcastle, NSW. Smack bang on the edge of the city in a quiet location in Wallsend. Locally I travel to the Hunter Valley, Port Stephens and Central Coast, but have travelled as far as Coffs Harbour for photoshoots.

Do you retouch your images?

To get the best results I retouch all the images. Shoots may take a little longer, but getting your photographs right is important to me. Images are retouched and styled to fit your brand. I retouch images for colour consistency, lighting and style.

How long does it take to process my photos?

I aim to process images and get them to you within a week via a customised online gallery. If you need them back earlier than that, for a small fee, I can turn them around in 24 hour, or same day delivery option available. Just ask me.

How can we book a photoshoot?

Three ways. Email us at hello@snapper.studio. Call us on 02 4039 8101. Fill out our contact page form.

Can I receive every photo that you captured?

I would love to supply everything, but you won't receive all the images. I filter out the very best to send to you.

Can I print the digital photographs?

Definitely. I shoot on Canon cameras that comfortably allow me to print up to A2 in size. I have even scaled them up to billboards in the past.

Where can I get photos printed?

I can do it for you. I can print anything up to A2, on a calibrated A2 printer. You can pick from a range of papers, and the inks are all archival quality. Check out our price list.