Who I work best with & who I (probably) don’t

For anyone landing here cold, this is an honest account of who I work with, how those engagements tend to look, and just as importantly, where I’m probably not the right person for the job.

Established businesses

You’ve established yourself, but...

You’ve built something real. You’re established, you’ve raised funding, and what you have to offer is gaining real traction.

But while you were heads-down doing that, your brand and website fell behind. Your competitors are catching up, and some of them are starting to look the part better than you.

The gap isn’t fatal yet. But you know, if you don’t do something about it, it will be.

Your website is working against you

Your website has become a liability; it’s outdated, difficult to update, and as a result, it doesn’t get updated. Under the hood, it’s not pulling its weight either: technical SEO is patchy, your tools aren’t talking to each other the way they should, and the whole thing is working against your marketing efforts rather than for them.

What you need is an experienced person who can come in, understand the business, and partner with you across brand, design, and build – and then stick around.

The best engagements don’t end at launch

Once the foundation is in place, there’s always more to do:

• New campaigns
• New product pages

• New directions the business takes

Having someone already embedded who knows your brand, your stack, and how you work is worth more than briefing someone new every time something comes up. That’s the relationship most of my clients end up in, and it’s the one that tends to deliver the most over time.

Design-led agencies

Quality is non-negotiable

You’re a design-led agency or studio and the quality of what you put out matters. To you, to your team, and to the clients whose trust you’ve earned. You don’t cut corners, and you don’t work with people who do.

You need someone who can slot in

When you come to me, it’s usually because you’re at capacity and have a deadline to hit. You need someone who can slot in cleanly (whether that’s on the design side, the build side, or both) without slowing you down or needing their hand held through every decision.

What you can’t afford is a freelancer who goes quiet, misses a handoff, or delivers work that has to be redone before it goes near a client. You’re putting your reputation on the line, and in some cases, your client relationship, too. Reliability isn’t a nice-to-have; it’s the whole thing.

I’ve worked alongside branding agencies, digital studios, and headless build shops at this level, including some of the most recognised in the industry

Who I’m probably not the right fit for

The projects that don’t work out rarely fail because of the work itself. They fail because of misaligned expectations going in.

I deliberately work with two clients at a time

I’ve found this to work best. But it also means I’m not the right fit if you need someone on-call and exclusively available at any given moment.

What I can offer is clear communication about availability, honest lead times, and work that doesn’t need to be completely redone before going near decision makers.

Fast doesn’t mean unrealistic

On timelines: I move quickly, faster than most, in my experience. But there’s a difference between moving fast and cutting corners, and some expectations are still unrealistic regardless of pace, and I’d rather tell you that upfront than take the project and have us both frustrated by the end of it. Good brand and web work takes the time it takes. Shortcuts show.

It’s a collaboration

The working relationships that go wrong tend to share a few things in common: a belief that the timeline should be half what it is, a budget that doesn’t reflect the scope, and a dynamic where every bump in the road becomes a blame conversation (something I’ve thankfully not experienced) rather than a problem to solve together.

Things come up on every project; what matters is how we handle them. I work best with clients who see it the same way.

The clients I do my best work with

What all my best clients have in common (whether they’re an established business or a design agency) is that they care about the outcome as much as I do, they’re invested enough to show up properly for the process, and they treat it as a collaboration rather than just a transaction.