The Design Intensive: For Founders Who Don't Have Six Months to Waste
It's 12:41 AM. You're lying in bed, phone glowing in the dark, toggling between your homepage for the eighteenth time this week and your competitor's website (again). Your brain is doing that thing where it won't shut up: Maybe if I just move this section up here... or change the button color... or rewrite the headline one more time…
Your partner rolls over. "Are you seriously looking at your website again?"
"I'm just checking one thing," you lie.
Sound familiar?
Here's what I know about you: Your business is doing well. Like, objectively well. You're booking clients, making money, getting testimonials that make you tear up a little. But your brand and website are stuck somewhere back in 2021, held together with digital duct tape and vibes.
You've been meaning to fix it. You've added it to 11 different to-do lists. You've even created a Pinterest board called "Rebrand Inspo" that now has 56 pins and zero action.
But here's the thing that keeps stopping you: You don't have six months to devote to a rebrand. You don't want to hand everything over and disappear into some black hole of "discovery calls" while someone else makes decisions about your business in a vacuum. And honestly, the thought of another drawn-out project that drags on forever while you're still trying to run your business makes you want to crawl under your desk and take a very long nap.
(Too dark? Sorry. It's the exhaustion talking.)
Enter: The Design Intensive.
Think of it as the difference between a Thanksgiving turkey that needs constant basting and temperature checking (sure, it's worth it, but who has the bandwidth?) and a perfectly executed sheet pan dinner that still makes you feel like Ina Garten. Both get you fed. One fits your life.
So Who Thrives in a Brand & Web Design Intensive?
The "I Know What I Want, I Just Need Someone to Build It" Founder
You've been in business long enough to know your brand inside and out. You could probably write your own brand strategy in your sleep (you kind of have, in all those late-night notes app sessions that your therapist would probably find concerning). Or maybe you just finished a brand strategy intensive with us and you're ready to move into execution mode.
You don't need someone to hold your hand through discovering your values or figuring out your ideal client. Been there, done that, have the Instagram carousel to prove it.
What you need is someone who can take your vision, ask the smart clarifying questions, and execute it beautifully. Someone who understands that you have a wedding in two weeks, a product launch next month, and your kid's spring concert where you promised you'd show up this time. You cannot be in a brand discovery call every Tuesday for the foreseeable future like you're starring in some kind of corporate version of The Bachelor.
A Design Intensive gets you. We do one focused strategy session, I disappear into my design cave (think: lots of coffee and focus mode on repeat), you review and give feedback, and boom—you've got your finished brand or website ready to rock. Focused work, clear timeline, done deal.
The "I'm Pivoting and I Need This Done Yesterday" Founder
Maybe you've outgrown your previous niche. Maybe you're adding a new service line that your current brand absolutely cannot accommodate. Maybe you looked at your website last Tuesday and had a full-body cringe because it's representing a version of your business that literally doesn't exist anymore.
(True story: I once had a client whose website still advertised a service she stopped offering in 2019. She'd been redirecting inquiries manually for THREE YEARS. Bless her heart.)
Whatever the catalyst, you need to move fast. Your old brand is costing you opportunities because it's confusing potential clients or—even worse—underselling what you do now.
You're watching other people in your industry evolve and launch beautiful new websites while you're still stuck with that logo you made in Canva during a pandemic panic when sourdough starters and DIY branding both seemed like good ideas.
A traditional rebrand timeline? Three to six months, minimum. Most agencies want you to go through discovery, strategy, concept development, design rounds, revisions, development, testing, more revisions, a blood sacrifice, possibly a vision quest...
Meanwhile, you're losing dream clients who land on your outdated site and bounce because they genuinely cannot figure out what you do. (And can we blame them? Your homepage is still talking about COVID protocols from 2020.)
The Design Intensive collapses that timeline into focused, intensive work. We're talking about going from "ugh, I really need to update my website" on Monday to "HOLY WOW THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED" by the end of the week.
The "Decision Fatigue Is Real and I'm Drowning" Founder
You know what's exhausting? Making 117 decisions about your brand while also trying to run your business.
Should the button be this shade of blue or that shade of blue? Does this headline sound too salesy? Is this font too formal or not formal enough? Why does choosing between two nearly identical beige tones feel like a life-or-death situation? Why are there so many shades of white?
If you've ever found yourself spiraling over whether your Instagram bio should end with a period or an exclamation point (it was 11 PM, you were tired, it felt important at the time), this section is for you.
The beauty of a Design Intensive is that it forces decisive action. We don't have the luxury of overthinking every tiny detail for weeks on end. We make smart, strategic decisions together, and then we execute.
There's something incredibly freeing about having a compressed timeline. It eliminates the "let me think about it and get back to you in 4-6 business days" spiral. It creates momentum. It gets things done.
You walk in with decision fatigue and a stress headache. You walk out with a finished brand and your mental energy back where it belongs—on running your business, not debating serif versus sans-serif at midnight.
What Makes a Design Intensive Different (And Why You Might Love It)
A Timeline That Works With Your Life
Here's what happens in a Design Intensive:
Kickoff: We meet for our strategy session. I ask all my nosy questions about your business, your goals, what's working, what's not, what keeps you up at 2 AM. By the time we hang up, I have everything I need to make this thing sing.
The Work: I disappear into my design cave. This is when the magic happens. I'm building, designing, writing, structuring—turning your vision into reality while you get to go live your life. (Revolutionary concept, I know.)
Review Time: I send over what I've created. You review it when you have time—over your morning coffee, during nap time, after the kids are in bed, whenever works for you. We need your feedback in the next 17 minutes or the project implodes? Nope. You review when it makes sense for your schedule.
Refinement: You send me your feedback. I make adjustments and polish everything to perfection.
Delivery: Final files are delivered. You've got your new brand or website, ready to use immediately. Like, today. Right now. Not "Q3 pending stakeholder approval."
That's it. That's the whole timeline.
From "I really need to fix this" to "holy wow, this is exactly what I needed" without sacrificing your firstborn to the project management gods.
You're Involved, But You're Not Drowning
Here's what I love about the Design Intensive structure: You're part of the process without it consuming your entire life.
You're not expected to be available for calls multiple times a week. You're not waiting around wondering when you'll hear back about that one thing you asked about fourteen days ago. You're not managing a project that's stretched across your calendar for months like some kind of design-related hostage situation.
You show up for the strategy session. You review work. You provide feedback. Done.
I handle the heavy lifting, the design decisions, the technical implementation, the "hmm, should this section be here or there" internal debates that only other designers find interesting. You get to focus on running your business while I focus on building your brand.
It's collaborative without being codependent. (Unlike my relationship with my Nespresso machine, which is definitely codependent.)
The Momentum Is Real (And It's Magical)
There's something incredibly powerful about momentum.
When a project drags on for months, it's easy to lose steam. Your excitement fizzles out somewhere around week seven. Your vision gets muddied because you've had too much time to overthink it. You start second-guessing decisions you made six weeks ago because your cousin's neighbor's dog walker said her brand designer did it differently.
But when everything happens in a focused intensive, the energy stays high. The vision stays clear. The excitement is still fresh when you're looking at the final product.
Plus, there's something deeply satisfying about checking "rebrand my entire business" off your to-do list in a week instead of watching it linger there for months like that load of laundry you keep meaning to fold.
(Just me? Okay.)
What Happens During a Design Intensive (The Behind-the-Scenes You're Probably Curious About)
The Strategy Session
We hop on a call where I basically become the nosiest person you've ever met. I want to know everything.
What's working in your business right now? What's making you want to tear your hair out? Who are you serving, and who do you want to be serving? (Not always the same thing, and that's okay.) What does success look like six months from now? A year from now?
I'm looking at your current brand (if you have one) with fresh eyes. Where's the disconnect? What's missing? What could we leverage that you've been sleeping on?
I'm also paying attention to how you talk about your work, what lights you up, what makes you physically cringe. All of that goes into the brand we're building.
By the time we hang up, I've got pages of notes, a clear direction, and usually at least three ideas already percolating that I'm excited to execute.
Then I disappear.
The Design Cave
This is when I go full hermit mode. Picture me: oversized cardigan, hair in a messy bun that started out intentional but is now just chaos, enough coffee to fuel a small army, probably forgetting to eat lunch because I'm too focused.
I'm building out your brand system—colors, fonts, logo concepts, visual direction. Or I'm designing your website—mapping out the structure, writing headlines that say something instead of just existing, creating a user experience that doesn't make people want to throw their laptop out a window.
I'm thinking through every detail. How should this section flow? What does your ideal client need to see first to feel confident you're the one? How do we make this feel like you without it looking like every other [insert your industry here] website that clearly came from the same Canva template?
I'm also stress-testing everything. Does this color palette work across different platforms? Is this font readable on mobile or will people need reading glasses and a prayer? Will this design system be easy for you to use going forward, or will you need a PhD in graphic design just to update your own website?
You, meanwhile, get to live your life. Go to your meetings. Serve your clients. Make dinner. Take a nap. Watch three episodes of whatever show you're currently binging. Whatever you want. Your brand is being handled.
The Review
I send over what I've created. You open the files, and (hopefully) your first thought is some version of "oh thank goodness, this is exactly what I needed and I can finally stop stress-eating chips at midnight."
Now you get to review everything with fresh eyes. Does the messaging feel right? Is there anything you'd tweak? Any feedback you want to share?
This isn't about picking it apart or requesting seventeen rounds of revisions because you're not sure if the blue is blue enough. This is about making sure we're aligned and catching anything that needs adjustment.
You send me your thoughts—usually via email or Loom, whatever's easier for you—and I take it from there.
The Final Push
I incorporate your feedback, polish everything to perfection (and by perfection I mean it's beautiful, functional, and ready to use—not that I'm a perfectionist who spent 20 minutes adjusting kerning that no one else will ever notice).
Depending on what we worked on, you're possibly getting:
Your complete brand system with all the files you need (logo variations, color codes, font info, the works)
Your finished website, ready to launch into the world like the beautiful digital butterfly it is
A style guide so you never have to wonder "wait, what was that hex code again?" at 11 PM on a Thursday
Access to me for support because I'm not about to just drop your files and disappear into the void like I never existed
You've got a brand that reflects where your business is now (and where it's going). You've got a website that works. You've got clarity instead of chaos.
You did it all without sacrificing your sanity, your schedule, or your firstborn child to the project management gods.
Who This Probably Isn't For (Because I Believe in Radical Honesty)
If You're Still Figuring Out Your Business
If you're brand new—like, still in the "I think I want to start a business but I'm not totally sure what I'm selling or who I'm selling it to or if this is even a real thing or just a Pinterest board that got out of hand" phase—a Design Intensive probably isn't your best first step.
We need some clarity to work with. You don't need to have it all figured out (does anyone, ever? Is that even a thing?), but you should at least know what you do and who you do it for.
If you're still in the exploration phase, that's completely fine. It's smart to figure that out first. But you might be better served by starting with brand strategy work to nail down your foundation first, and then coming back for the intensive when you're ready to execute.
Think of it like building a house. You wouldn't hire someone to start construction before you've figured out where the walls go, right? (Please say right.)
If You Need a Complete Business Overhaul
A Design Intensive is focused. We're either tackling your brand, your website, your SEO, or your tech setup. We're not rebuilding your entire business model from the ground up, creating a new offer suite from scratch, or developing a comprehensive marketing strategy that spans seventeen different platforms and requires a flowchart to understand.
If you need help with all of those things, you might need a more comprehensive package or a longer-term engagement. The intensive is for founders who know what they're building—they just need someone to help them build it beautifully and efficiently.
It's the difference between "I need to renovate my kitchen" and "I need to build an entire house from scratch including plumbing and possibly a moat."
If You Want to DIY Most of It
Some people love being hands-on with every single decision. They want to be in the design files, tweaking pixels, adjusting letter spacing by increments of 0.5, choosing between seventeen nearly identical shades of gray while their partner slowly loses their mind in the background.
If that's you? That's awesome. Genuinely. Go forth and design. Live your truth. Adjust those pixels.
But the Design Intensive structure isn't really built for that level of hands-on involvement.
I'm asking you to trust me to make smart design decisions on your behalf. I'll absolutely incorporate your feedback and make sure the final product feels like you, but I'm not sending you thirty different logo options to choose from or inviting you to hop in Figma to move things around yourself while I watch nervously like a parent whose toddler just grabbed their phone.
If you need that level of control (no judgment—I get it), a longer-term project where you're more involved in every step might be a better fit.
The Real Question: Is The Design Intensive For You?
Here's how you know:
You're tired of your brand feeling like it's from a past life. Every time someone lands on your website, you internally cringe a little because you know it's not representing what you're doing now. It's like showing up to a job interview wearing your high school prom dress. Technically it's clothing, but...
You have the budget. Let's be real—Design Intensives aren't cheap. Mine are $2500, and that's intentional. This is a premium service for established businesses, not a starter package. If that number makes you break out in stress hives and reach for your inhaler, I have other options we can talk about. But if you can swing it, the ROI is usually pretty immediate. (One client raised her rates the day after we launched her new brand and booked two clients at the higher rate within a week. Just saying.)
You're ready to make decisions and move forward. You're not looking to mull things over for months or request 11 revision rounds because you showed it to twelve different people who all had conflicting opinions. You trust that I know what I'm doing (because I do) and you're ready to collaborate efficiently.
You value your time as much as your brand. The condensed timeline isn't just convenient—it's a selling point for you. You'd rather invest focused time than stretch this out over three months while it lingers on your mental to-do list like that dentist appointment you keep rescheduling.
You want to work with someone who gets it. You're tired of agencies that talk at you in jargon or designers who make beautiful things that don't work for your business or your life. You want someone who can bridge strategy and design, who understands your world, and who isn't going to make you feel like you need a design degree just to have an opinion about your own brand.
What Happens After the Intensive
Let's say you book the intensive. We do our thing together. Your new brand or website is live and it's gorgeous and you're already getting DMs from people saying "omg your rebrand is EVERYTHING" and you're feeling like the boss you are.
What happens next?
You Get Support
I'm not the kind of designer who delivers your files and then ghosts you forever like a bad Tinder date.
For the next 30 days, I'm available for questions, tech support, minor tweaks, "hey how do I update this section without breaking everything," and general hand-holding as you get comfortable with your new brand.
Found a typo I missed? Let's fix it.
Want to adjust the spacing on your mobile menu? I'm on it.
Need help figuring out how to add a new page? I'll walk you through it.
Having a mild panic attack about launching your new site? I've got virtual coffee and reassurance.
Think of it like training wheels. I'm here while you get your bearings with your new brand, making sure you feel confident moving forward.
You Can Book Additional Support
Maybe after a month, you realize you want ongoing SEO help. Or you want me to design your next lead magnet. Or you need some custom graphics for a launch. Or you just miss talking to me. (It happens. I'm delightful.)
I offer retainer packages and one-off projects for past intensive clients because sometimes, once you find a designer who gets you, you want to keep working with them.
Or maybe you're totally good to go on your own and we just stay Instagram friends who occasionally slide into each other's DMs with funny memes about the realities of running a business. Also completely fine.
You Use Your Brand
Here's the goal: I want you to walk away from this intensive with a brand you're genuinely excited to use.
Not something that sits in a folder on your desktop called "New Brand Files Final FINAL v3" while you continue using your old logo because "it's just easier" or "I haven't had time to switch everything over" or "I'm emotionally attached to the old one even though it's objectively terrible."
I want you updating your website without anxiety. Posting on Instagram with confidence instead of that low-grade dread. Sending out emails that look like they're from a professional business and not someone who discovered Mailchimp yesterday. Raising your prices because your brand finally reflects your value and you're not apologizing for existing anymore.
The intensive is designed to give you everything you need to hit the ground running. You've got a brand that works, and you get to start using it immediately.
Like, today. Right now. This minute.
The Bottom Line (Because I Know You're Busy and This Got Long)
A Design Intensive is for the founder who's done playing small, who's ready to have a brand that reflects the business they've built, and who doesn't have six months to devote to making it happen.
It's for the person who values efficiency without sacrificing quality, respects their own time as much as their clients' time, and is ready to work with someone who can execute their vision.
It's fast, it's focused, and it's designed to give you professional results without the traditional agency timeline (or the accompanying ulcer).
If you're reading this thinking "okay but seriously, is this for me or am I just procrastinating by reading blog posts instead of making a decision?"—here's my advice:
Book a call. Let's talk about where your business is, what you're trying to build, and whether a Design Intensive is the right fit. Maybe it is. Maybe you'd be better served by one of my other offerings. Maybe we're not a fit at all, and I can point you toward someone who is. (I know people. I have a whole network of designer friends I trust.)
But if you're tired of midnight website edits that accomplish nothing except wasting your time and possibly damaging your relationship with your laptop? If you're ready to stop apologizing for your outdated brand like it's a personal failing? If you want something that works and you want it sooner rather than "someday when I finally have time" (which we both know is never)?
Let's do this thing.
Your move. ☕
P.S. If you're still on the fence, I get it. Dropping $2500+ on anything requires some thought (and possibly a conversation with your accountant or your partner or your journal or all three).
But consider this: How much is it costing you to have a brand that doesn't reflect your value? How many ideal clients are you losing because your website makes them second-guess whether you're the right fit? How much mental energy are you wasting on "I really need to fix this" thoughts instead of just... fixing it? How many times are you going to add "update website" to your to-do list before you do something about it?
Sometimes the fastest way forward is also the smartest one. Sometimes you just need permission to invest in your business without guilt. Consider this your permission slip.
