Taking Flight with Blackbird

A Guide for Working With Us

The Taking Flight with Blackbird Guide outlines our processes and names our boundaries as a creative studio. Our goal is to be open, flexible, and transparent. Our work centers liberation, community, and rest. These guidelines help us in leading with those values. 

TRUST

We Trust Your Experience

Throughout our process we ask questions, research your work, and stay connected with you. We trust that you know your field and how to move through your work. Your knowledge and experiences are valuable to co-creating.

We’re Good at This

We are a seasoned design team and we’re good at what we do. We work to help you achieve a set of goals or pursue a vision. We take your input and your feedback then make design decisions based on our experience. The strongest work that we produce happens when clients trust us.

PROCESS

Design By Committee

When something is designed by committee it can lose character. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t gather input, it simply means that a handful of people should move us through the design process. Some questions that might help guide your team to effective feedback is:

• What is your decision-making process?
• Knowing that the design team can’t incorporate everyone’s input, what is the priority when considering input?

Vision Over Details

In our experience, the strongest designs focus on vision and not details. Throughout our process centering the vision and what we’re trying to accomplish will produce a strong outcome.

COMMUNICATION

Got A Question? Just Ask

If we are ever unclear or there is any confusion, name it. We want to make sure we understand your vision and your goals. If you ever need clarity, or for us to explain or define something, just ask.

If Something is Wack, We’ll Say So.

If we agreed to work with you, it means we believe in your mission and support your work. If we disagree with something we’ll let you know. If we think something’s problematic we’ll alert you. What we co-create doesn’t just reflect your work, it reflects ours. We will speak up whenever necessary.

CAPACITY

We Work With You, Not For You

As an organization we value the health and well-being of our team members. We will work to protect them from exploitation, cultural taxation, and actions that devalue us or our work.

Time is Energy

We set aside the appropriate amount of time to complete the project. Some partners or clients are interested in more frequent contact or a hands on approach. We are happy to connect with you as often as needed and for as much time as your budget will allow.