Questions people actually ask

Days, not months. The smallest build is a 2-day mini intensive, and the bigger ones are a 5-Day Brand Build (the visual language and the brand story, Stages I and II) or a 15-Day Complete Marketing Package. Intensives are short on purpose: incredible output in a short window, one set of revisions included, and then you’re live.

Every build is quoted custom, because no two businesses need the same five stages. The Blueprint is where that number comes from: a personalised mood board, a strategy deck naming your weaknesses and the proposed fixes and a custom overarching quote for the whole build. Runaway budgets happen when there is no planning on a holistic level. Book the free strategy session and we will scope it honestly.

Yes. Maison is based in the Greater Toronto Area and works remotely with clients across Canada, the US and Costa Rica. Intensives are built to run remotely (everything lives in a shared cloud folder from day one), so distance has never been the problem.

It’s the five-stage sequence I use to build every brand, in order: Visual Language, Multimedia Narrative, Print Identity, Digital Presence, Brand Experiences. The first two are branding and non-negotiable; the last three are marketing and vary with what you actually need. It’s the most efficient, linear, sequential path to a marketing system that organically nurtures real client relationships. 60% of the time, it works every time.

It’s the strategy step before any design work starts. The Visual Brand Blueprint is a personalised mood board (your visual strategy), and the Executive Strategic Brand Blueprint is a customised strategy deck naming your weaknesses and the proposed fixes. Each is $420 + HST, or $840 + HST for both together, and you get a custom overarching quote for the build. Runaway budgets happen when there’s no planning on a holistic level; the Blueprint is how we avoid that.

No. Stages I and II (visual language and brand story) are the non-negotiables, because everything else is built on top of them. Stages III to V (print, digital, experiences) depend on your business: a contractor needs signage and a truck wrap before a podcast, a therapist needs a website before a trade show booth. The Blueprint tells you which ones you actually need.

Everything you have, in high resolution. Vector logos, brand guidelines, fonts, photos, videos, patterns, flat designs like business cards and intake forms, pitch decks, website access, CRM access, social media channel access, marketing plans and past strategy documents. I call it packing your Brand Toolkit, and a heads up: sending me your website so I can “just pull the logos from there” will not do the trick. In return, everything gets hosted in beautifully organised cloud folders you keep forever.

A deposit starts the project; the Toolkit onboarding needs admin support, so nothing begins until it lands. For smaller builds the default shape is 50% up front and the balance at sign-off; larger projects are billed against milestones (print delivery, digital design, digital development) rather than a straight split. Canadian clients pay by e-transfer; clients outside Canada are invoiced in USD.

All deposits are non-refundable. Your deposit reserves your intensive dates and covers onboarding and administrative work, which begins as soon as it is received. Work on your build begins once your Brand Toolkit has been provided (see “What do I need to provide?”). If the required materials are not supplied, Maison is unable to proceed and the deposit will be retained.

We don’t take logo-only projects. A logo on its own won’t help you show up cohesively, and that’s what actually builds trust with your clients. If you’re just starting out, we recommend a Visual Brand Blueprint, which you can use to build out your own brand in Canva, or a Visual Brand Blueprint paired with a micro brand build. Either way, you walk away with all the foundational elements you need to show up cohesively, which is worth far more than a logo alone.

Nothing gets designed until you approve the direction in your Blueprint. If it does not capture who you are and how you want your clients to see you, we rework it at no extra cost. That is our job, and we do it properly before a single design is drawn. On the designs themselves I do not show six concepts and ask you to vote. We develop and refine one until it is right.

Sixty to ninety minutes with me, the founder, not a form and not a junior. We go through your business, your brand, your goals, your concerns and the questions you’ve been sitting on. You leave with a custom, high-level evaluation through the guidebook, and then you can hire your own contractors or keep going with me. It’s a $300 value, and it’s complimentary.

Brand Move-In Day: I hand you the keys to the new brand, with everything organised and backed up. Just because we’re done with the project doesn’t mean we’re out of each other’s lives; reach out anytime. After that there’s Brand Open House (launching it to the world) and Brand House Keeping (yearly expansions, website updates, content shoots, social media management, client campaigns), priced per project.

Small businesses and service providers with big personalities, in three lanes I call Home, Body and Soul. Home is real estate, automotive, general contracting and decor. Body is fitness, wellness and beauty. Soul is anything that keeps a person young: connection, hobbies, interests. If you’re proud of what you do and tired of your brand not showing it, you’re probably one of mine.

For my clients, the photographer is Liat Aharoni. Professional photography belongs in Stage II (the photo library that every later piece pulls from), and I’ll tell you honestly when your phone is enough and when it isn’t. Are we advertising accurately? That’s the only question that matters.