Hot take: That 10-page brand guide I delivered last week probably took longer than the actual logo

I was listening to a podcast about design pricing and the host said something like "clients pay for the thinking, not the making." Made me realize how much time I sink into those big PDF guides that most small business owners probably never open again. Is it just me or are we overdelivering on stuff nobody reads?

3 comments

3 Comments

perry.jesse6d ago

Stop acting like every small business owner is some dummy who tosses your work in the trash. I've seen plenty of those brand guides get pulled out months later when they need to update a flyer or hire a new designer. The thinking part is real, but the PDF is how you prove you actually did the work. If you're just tossing together a logo and a few fonts, yeah, nobody needs ten pages of rationale. But a solid guide with clear rules on colors, spacing, and tone saves them from messing up their own brand later. Are you sure you're not just annoyed that you have to write down the stuff you already figured out in your head?

wyattramirez6d ago

Yeah that's a good point, I used to roll my eyes at those guides but you changed my mind on that.

joseph_bailey6d ago

Well, I gotta say, that reminds me of a funny thing that happened at my church's volunteer appreciation dinner a few years back. We spent weeks planning this big buffet menu and got fancy placemats printed up with all the event details and a thank you note. Come the night of, I watched more than half the folks just wad up those placemats and use them to soak up spills or wrap up leftover cookies to take home. All that work and nobody really looked at them twice. Sometimes you put in the effort and it just ends up being fancy napkins.