Booking now: two project slots open for November and December starts.
Send a briefSolo practice · Brand systems, editorial & packaging
Pearl Swell is one designer, working with one client at a time. You get the person who took the brief drawing the thing, answering your emails, and handing over the files at the end. No account layer, no rotating team.
What I take on
Scope, duration and price ranges are here so you can decide before you write in. Ranges move with page count, product count and how much writing is still unfinished.
01
For a business that has outgrown the logo it made in its first year. Wordmark, supporting marks, a type and colour system, and a short guide that a non-designer can actually follow.
02
Reports, catalogues, programmes and small-run books. I set the grid and the type first, then flow your content into it — which means the writing needs to be close to final before layout starts.
03
Single products or a range that needs to hold together on a shelf. Includes dielines, artwork to your printer's spec, and the unglamorous checking pass that stops a run going wrong.
How a project runs
Every project follows the same shape. You always know which stage we are in, what is owed to me, and what lands next.
01Week one
A long conversation, then a written scope: what is included, what is not, the dates, and the deposit. Nothing gets drawn until you have signed that off.
02Weeks 2–3
Two directions, presented properly rather than emailed as a grid of options. You pick one. The other is retired — I do not blend them into a third.
03Weeks 3–5
The chosen direction is extended across the real applications, with two rounds of consolidated feedback from your side.
04Final week
Files, fonts, licences and a walkthrough call, so whoever uses this after me is not guessing. Balance is due here.
Work notes
Written the way I would describe them on a call — the constraint, the decision, and what actually shipped.
A small publisher with a beautiful backlist and a house style that changed every year. The fix was not a redesign of each issue but one durable grid: a single text measure, two entry sizes, and a rule for where images are allowed to break out. Guest editors now hand over copy and it sets itself.
Two cooks running supper clubs who needed to be legible on a chalkboard, a jar label and a phone screen without owning three different looks. We built the whole system around one condensed wordmark and a single ink colour, so everything can be produced by hand when there is no printer involved.
Fit
A short, honest filter. It saves us both a call that ends politely and goes nowhere.
Before you write in
Fixed price against a written scope, never an open hourly meter. A third is invoiced to hold the dates, a third when the direction is signed off, and the balance at handover. If the scope genuinely changes mid-project, I re-quote the difference in writing before continuing.
Two rounds of consolidated feedback at the build-out stage, plus a final proofing pass. Consolidated means one message with everyone's notes in it. Further rounds are billed at a day rate, which I will always flag before starting rather than after.
Print and digital exports in the formats your suppliers ask for, plus the editable working files. Typefaces are licensed in your name so the licence stays with you, and I list exactly what is licensed for what in the handover note.
You do, in full, once the final invoice is paid. Retired directions stay with me and are never sold on. I ask to show the finished work in my portfolio, and I will hold that back for as long as you need if you are launching.
Usually not — I work with one client at a time and the diary tends to sit four to eight weeks ahead. The availability line at the top of this page is kept current. If your timing is tight, say so in the brief and I will tell you honestly whether it is possible.
Small follow-on work — a new label, an extra page, a size you did not anticipate — is billed by the half day and usually turned around within a week or two. For teams that need frequent updates, I would rather set your in-house person up properly than become a bottleneck.
Enquire
Tell me what you are making and when it needs to exist. Short is fine — I will ask the rest.