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Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you’ve always wanted to know, and more (About working with Misenheimer Creative, Inc.)… Well, almost.

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Please click on the question of interest below.

Please click on the question of interest below.

Q1: So…tell me again, what exactly does MisenheimerCreative.com do?

Based on past in-house work experience for larger corporations, ad agencies, design studios, in Charlotte and Atlanta, we now offer those same skills as Misenheimer Creative, Inc. Our sweet spot is marketing + creative for Ministries, Technology firms and in-house Corporate Communications departments. We help them sell their products/services, advertise their events or compellingly present their viewpoint. All since 2002.

Q2: What are the main types marketing/creative services that you provide for your Clients?

Web Development/Design, Logo/Branding Development, and Print Collateral are the 3 primary offerings, but we have lots of experience in other types of pieces as well, such as Marketing Strategy, Trade Shows, Signage (wayfinding), Outdoor (billboards), Vehicle Wraps, Product Packaging, Motion Graphics, Photography, Book Covers, Social Media Post Graphics, Copy/Content Development, UX/UI Design/Development, Videography and some Marketing Automation. Whew! What don’t we do? (After all, It is hard to be an expert at everything, huh?!) We typically do not do any tv or radio broadcast work, nor do we handle a firm’s social media posts and presence. (Social Media Management). Or Plumbing. Definitely not good at plumbing. We can, however, price, mange and press check commercial print jobs for you.

Q3: Once the price is agreed upon, what is the overall workflow process itself like?

This is where the fun starts for both of us! We begin work, by conceptualizing, sketching, looking at your competition’s branding, and other methods. We develop several roughs for your review, then you share your comments with us. We take your comments and revise the roughs to be a little tighter, and send you a new round of revised designs or concepts. This continues for 3-4 rounds. This way, we are both using the same ‘visual baseline’; you are seeing and getting what you want, mixed with our best practices and trends of the design world.

Specifically, the steps are:

• we send you roughs (such as logo sketches, web site wireframes, brochure layouts, etc.) to establish agreed upon direction
• you provide us wth your input and edits, for the presented roughs
• we refine the design work based on your input, and send back to you
• this flow typically continues 3-4 rounds (until you are happy with the piece)
• once final, you approve it one last time, and the design/site/files are released to you
• invoice for the work is sent to you
 

Please reach out to us at hello@misenheimer.com or 678.777.3165, with any questions at all.

Q4: All about Payments: when are they due? Can I pay by credit card? Client retainer arrangements?and more…

For first-time clients, we require 50% of the total up front. After that first job, we simply invoice you at the completion of the project/campaign, net 15, going forward. A mailed check is certainly fine. We can also accept credit cards, however, we get charged a 3% fee for the credit card processor so we add that 3% on to your final invoice that you want to pay by credit card (hey, maybe a few more airline miles at least). If you would like to discuss retainers or an ongoing schedule of work, which are great, then please reach out to us at hello@misenheimer.com or 678.777.3165.

Q5: How much will my (website/logo/printed piece) cost?

Ah! I wish I knew as well…(yes, this is where I say “it depends on the functions and features you want”, which is quite true.) If you were considering having a house custom built, and asked the contractor, ‘hey, how much would you charge to build me a house?”, he or she would likely not blurt out a price but ask some questions to determine its size, if you already owned the land, what type of construction material and so forth. But if you are still reading, and I know some of you are, you really want a range… just give me the minimum and the maximum! Well, very broadly speaking, a simple web site can cost just shy of $1000, and high-ed sites might go $35,000, or more.

Q6: What factors influence the estimated price for a web site?
Usually, the main items that drive a site’s cost are:
1) the site’s complexity (functionality desired, animation, SEO needs, number of site pages, videos, if connected to 3rd party applications, etc);

2) the front end, which is the time spent on design and initial edits from Client after seeing the design; (usu 3 rounds of edits included)

3) the time spent on additional edits that were previously approved but the Client brought in additional stakeholders late in the game or they themselves changed their mind;

4) the back end, which is the development/coding/databases/forms/and final installation of the site on your server and the availability of the Client to approve things or answer questions, so we can keep rolling; and lastly, especially, the number of edits to the design/code *after* the site is underway. (sorta like building a house then halfway through you want to add a room or similar).

5) “Scope Creep” – when you ask for pricing to specifically do A, B, C and D, which we do; but then you later also also ask, either unwittingly or not, if we can also ‘throw-in’ E, F, G … Z.

you will always know the baseline cost before beginning for the needs/specs we agree on. For time over and above time approved by you, we will let you know beforehand that this will increase the scope (and the price) and you can approve that first.Stock photography only adds about $20 per image used, so not a huge cost. Custom photography can vary, $500-$2000, depending on shots/time.

Q7: What is a Creative Brief, and why would you request that I fill one out?

A Creative Brief is basically a series of questions about your project/campaign, which not only helps me understand the goals for your project, but helps you further delineate them in your own mind, as well. You can see it here.

Q8: What will you need from me to start my (website/logo/printed piece)?

I thought you would never ask! (Sorry, bad joke.) Unless we are helping with these items that follow, to save time later, please start gathering/finding your existing/creating:

A) your best Company vector logo file (.eps or adobe illustrator)

B) for websites specifically: the hosting and site login credentials (passwords, usernames, etc.); we will need to move your hosting plan to a Linux server if it is on a Windows server, something that the hosting company does for us, but there is usually no charge to do this. If you do not yet have hosting (basically server space on the Internet where your web site files will “live”) and/or the domain name (the name of your site, like “www.NameOfYourSite.com”), then you can choose and set up both, easily, at a host of your choice. GoDaddy.com, BlueHost.com or HostMetro.com will both work for hosting quite well, from $7 to $20 month (less if ‘on sale’ – just do a search for “GoDaddy Coupon” or etc for a code-usu. there is one avail.), and just choose the basic plan if you are not selling product or have high bandwidth; or if you want the very highest end hosting, dedicated exclusively to wordpress, then WPEngine, about $20/Month and up)-but not needed for most sites. Try to get a domain name that is your business name. “Oak Barrel Western Steakhouse” should be something like (“OakBarrel.com” or “OakBarrelWesternSteakhouse.com”) and not (FreshCutSteaks.com or “BestSteaksAmerica.com”) Once you register with a host, they will send you an email with a lot of login credentials (your hosting account password and user name, probably your c-panel password and user name, maybe FTP passwords and etc.) so keep a copy of that info for yourself and then forward it to me so that we can set up the site. (you can change the passwords to new ones, once we hand the site back over to you, when we are done, if you wish)

C) for websites specifically: basic button names (i.e.,which is the main navigation sections you want, like About, Products, Contact, etc.),

 

D) the individual, approved text and image content for each page (one for About, Products, Contact, etc.),

D) your other existing (high res) photos, images, and illustrations that you want to use on all forthcoming pages;

go to this site, if you wish, to easily send me large files, up to 2 GBs:
https://jumpshare.com/i/misenheimer

E) for other imagery/photos that you want, but may not have, we can find it via stock photography or etc. (that is, if you (or we) want a photo of a, say, “person balancing on a tightrope” to demonstrate something metaphorically about one of your business services, then you may not have that image but we can show you various stock photo options or create that imagery for you, as needed)

F) for websites specifically: your firm’s pdfs/white papers/infographics/other content that you want t allow users to download from the site, if any

G) for websites specifically: URLs of sites you like or notes that you want a large series of sliding photos or want to have a newsletter sign up area or want a big block of copy, basically an idea of what kind of look you want so we can cater the solution to what you want

H) your ongoing ideas, mixed with our ideas!

One additional note regarding sending us the website text and image content, it is often good delineate the text/images for each page/section/ chapter very clearly, so that there is no question what goes where:

For example, you could send content via several individual emails:
email 1 would have the text and image(s) for the “Home” page;
email 2 would have the text and image(s) for the “About Us” page;

Q9: Do you provide references to past Clients?

Of course, once we are seriously considering working together. Simply email me to request those at hello@misenheimer.com and I will try to supply references from your or a similar industry.

Q10: Have you ever worked as a full-time employee, at Agencies or in Corporations, as a Designer, Art Director and/or Creative Director?

Yes. I have been a Graphic Designer (10 years), Art Director (2 years) and Creative Director (4 years) for other design firms and corporate communications departments, in Atlanta and Charlotte. I incorporated Misenheimer Creative, Inc. in 2002 and have been its ‘Creative Director/Founder and Chinchilla Farmer’ since then. If you would like to see my full background via my resumé, please see: http://clients.misenheimer.com/v/qpSmy1e6vNM3Oc8X1QrX

Q11: I have the basic idea for a (website/logo/printed piece) sketched out or I know what I want already in my head; can you ‘finalize it’ for me for a reduced fee?

Unfortunately, no. Generally, building on another’s inexperienced and non-professional foundation results in a less-than-desirable outcome for all involved.

Q12: Do you do ‘Pro Bono’ (reduced pricing or free) marketing work for non-profit or faith-based firms?

Yes, at times, for a cause we believe in. Please reach out to us at hello@misenheimer.com or 678.777.3165 to discuss this more.

Q13: I see all these design samples on the site... Is all of this really your actual work?

All the design work seen on misenheimer.com is the work of the Founder, Mark Misenheimer. After all, we have been providing marketing and creative services since 2002, and before that if you count our time at agencies and corporate communications departments. Each Client is unique and has specialized needs for their marketing. Sometimes, the Client has a budget that allows for full custom, creative expression and exploration; and that gives us great latitude to take the time to do most everything. However, at other times, when a Client’s budget is more limited, we may use some stock imagery or parts thereof, or stock photography rather than do an on-location, custom photo shoot, which may fit the Client’s budget better. Further, we do have alliance members that we know and trust that we employ for services outside such as commercial printing, SEO work, some web site coding (development), heavy production, or thick copywriting needs, all done under our watchful eye. But yes, by and large, the concepts, the “feel”, and the design work that you see here was created by Mark Misenheimer.

Q14: I am kinda freaked out over the "Eternity" and “Jesus” reference on this site…why shouldn’t I be?

I am glad you asked. (I would likely ask too.) And you are in good company, as the 10,345th Asker (or thereabouts).Actually, “faith stuff” rarely comes up (unless you are a Ministry.) We strive to be the kind of people that other people would want to work with: honest, fair, patient, conscientious, reliable, provide a fair value, and etc., which is the same that we all want from our government, or our physicians, dentists, brokers, and etc., to deal with us. So…nope, you won’t get pressured or anything even remotely like that.This ‘stance’ is actually a bumper, of sorts, that prevents some industries (adult industries, illegal activities or designing for people that put pineapple on pizza, etc.) from even contacting me in the fist place. Simply put, we are Jesus-Followers; we believe that everyone will live forever somewhere. We have not arrived to any spiritual high ground. We sin daily; but by faith we are enjoying God’s provision of grace for all Eternity. We know that valuing character traits, such as kindness, honesty, patience, and providing value, is good thing in both business and personal dealings.

Q15: My question is not listed here. How can I find an answer?

No problem. We would be glad to talk ‘live’ or email with you at no cost or obligation. Please reach out to us at hello@misenheimer.com or 678.777.3165, with any questions, and we will try to help.

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