§ 01 · Berth · Outbound · Brand sprint · 5 days · Two documents
Five days.
Not nine months.
A brand brief and a visual identity style guide, produced as a tight five-day engagement. Voice, positioning, audience hierarchy, palette, typography, image direction. Ready to hand to anyone — us, your existing designer, or a future agency — for build. The clarity without the brand-agency theatre.
Request the manifest · $1,500 fixed
5-day delivery · ~2 hours of your time, total · Two documents you keep forever
Discipline · Clarity without ceremony · 5-day cap
What we cap on principle.
- 01Brand brief · 12–18 pages · day 2 draft✓ STD.
- 02Visual identity guide · day 3 draft✓ STD.
- 03Voice samples · banned-phrase list✓ STD.
- 04Anti-generic-AI checklist✓ STD.
- 0512-direction visual explorationsrefused
- 06Multi-stakeholder workshops · 9-month cyclerefused
NOT
THEATRE Ships day 5
§ 02 · Berth · The Problem · You’re not alone if…
The brand was never written down. Now everyone’s guessing.
You’re tired of
- Answering “what’s your voice?” slightly differently to every new vendor.
- Internal “is this on-brand?” debates that take three meetings to resolve.
- Being quoted $30K and 9 months for a 60-page brand bible you don’t need.
- Output that looks like generic-AI design because nobody told the tools otherwise.
Symptom · 01
Every new vendor asks “what’s your voice?”
Designer, copywriter, developer — each one asks. You give a slightly different answer each time. The output reflects that. Six months later your homepage, your service pages, and your social posts read like three different companies.
Pattern · undefined voice · drift compounds
Symptom · 02
Internal “is this on-brand?” loops.
Decisions die in “is this on-brand?” debates because there’s nothing written down to point at. Three meetings instead of three minutes.
Pattern · nothing to point at
Symptom · 03
Quoted $30K and 9 months — for what?
A brand agency wants $30K and 9 months for a 60-page brand bible you don’t need. The scope is wrong, the timeline is wrong, the price is wrong. The actual work is much smaller — and the marginal week of refinement rarely changes the final answer.
Pattern · industry mis-scoping
Symptom · 04
Your output looks like generic-AI design now.
Gradient hero backgrounds. Smiling stock teams. Default Lucide icons. “Most Popular” pricing badges. Not because you chose any of it — because nobody told the tools what to do instead. If two of those four land, a sprint fixes it. Five days, two documents, ~2 hours of your time.
Pattern · AI defaults filling the brand vacuum
§ 03 · Berth · The Position · Why 5 days is enough
Brand strategy is mostly the surface area of what to decide.
Not how long the deciding takes.
The nine-month brand workshop exists because billable hours exist. There’s a real version of it — for a board-level rebrand at a multi-vertical company — but it’s not the work most $1M–$20M businesses need. What you actually need is clear positioning, a clear voice, and a clear visual direction, written down well enough that the next vendor doesn’t guess.
We’ve done the discovery and the synthesis often enough to know which questions matter. The trade-off is honest: we don’t do user research, multi-direction visual explorations, or stakeholder workshops. We synthesise from your inputs plus our experience, then we make decisions. We pick two visual directions, not twelve. We write voice samples, not adjective lists.
Five days is enough — not because we’re cutting corners, but because the marginal week of refinement rarely changes the final answer. The faster you have the documents, the faster every downstream decision gets cheaper.
§ 04 · Berth · The Haul · Two documents · One discipline
Two documents. Day 5.
A brand brief and a visual identity style guide. Polished PDFs, ready to hand off. Yours forever — use them with us, your existing designer, or a future agency.
Brand brief · 12–18 pages
Positioning · voice · audience · boundaries
- Positioning — one-sentence positioning + competitive landscape · the decision, made
- Audience hierarchy — 3–5 tiers ranked · who you serve and who you don’t
- Voice + tone — traits, banned phrases, sample copy · we write hero, service desc, error msg in your voice
- Brand values + boundaries — what you believe and what you refuse to do
Show, don’t describe · voice on the page
Visual identity style guide · 10–14 pages
Palette · type · image · layout
- Colour palette — hex codes · use ratios · contrast pairings · WCAG-compliant
- Typography — specific fonts · weights · type scale · OpenType features
- Image style — reference examples + prompts · stays on direction
- Layout system — grid · spacing scale · component shape · iconography
Two directions picked · not twelve
Anti-generic-AI checklist
What your brand explicitly isn’t
- Catalogue of generic-AI defaults your brand refuses to drift into
- Gradient hero backgrounds, stock teams, default Lucide icons, “Most Popular” badges — banned by name
- Banned-phrases list — specific words you don’t sound like
Saves the next copywriter three rounds
$1,500, fixed. 5 business days. Two PDFs you keep forever — whether you build with us or hand them to anyone else.
§ 05 · Berth · The Log · Five days · ~2 hours of your time
Five days. Three sign-offs. ~2 hours of your time.
Brand work has a tendency to expand to fill all available time. We cap it because the marginal week of refinement rarely changes the final answer. You answer discovery, react to drafts, sign off on final.
Inputs in
30-min async questionnaire · 8-axis voice spectrum
- Discovery questionnaire — async, you fill at your pace
- Competitor inventory pulled
- Voice spectrum scored on 8 axes — you anchor
→ Ships: discovery doc · competitor inventory · voice spectrum
Strategy on the page
Brand brief v1 · voice samples · one revision pass
- First draft of brand brief shared
- You react via async comments · one revision pass
- Voice writing samples included — see, not just read about, the voice
→ Ships: brand brief v1 · voice samples
Two directions, picked
Visual identity drafted · sign-off #1
- Palette · type · image style · layout drafted
- Two directions, not twelve
- First sign-off · before any polish
→ Ships: style guide v1 · sign-off #1
Polish + handover
One revision round · final PDFs · 30-min call
- One round of revisions based on your feedback
- Final drafts of both documents prepared · polished PDFs delivered
- 30-minute walkthrough call · files are yours
→ Ships: final brief + style guide PDFs · walkthrough
§ 06 · Berth · The Price · One number, two paths
$1,500 fixed. One tier. No upsell.
Standalone or paired with a build. Pairing doesn’t change the price — the work is the work.
Standalone sprint
$1,500 · 5-day · for clarity, not ceremony
- Brand brief (12–18 pages)
- Visual identity style guide (10–14 pages)
- Voice samples + banned-phrases list
- Anti-generic-AI checklist
- Colour palette with contrast pairings
- Type specification & image style direction
- 30-min final walkthrough
Sprint + authority site
$4,500 · 19 days · sequenced · brand → build
- Sprint runs first ($1,500, 5 days)
- Authority site follows ($3,000, 14 days)
- Build inherits brand decisions · no re-deciding mid-build
- Same total · less friction · faster ROI
In both: $1,500 sprint is the same work and the same documents. Pairing just sequences the build to follow with no re-decision. The PDFs are yours either way.
§ 08 · Berth · Marginalia · Before you start
Things buyers ask before they start.
FAQ · 01
Five days, really? What’s the catch?
No catch. We’ve done discovery + synthesis enough times to know which questions matter, and we don’t do user research, multi-direction visual explorations, or stakeholder workshops. We synthesise from your inputs plus our experience, then we make decisions. Two visual directions, not twelve. Voice samples, not adjective lists. The marginal week of refinement rarely changes the final answer.
Why 5 is enough · the honest trade-off
FAQ · 02
Will I get to weigh in or do you just decide?
Three sign-off points: brand brief draft (day 2), visual direction (day 3), final PDFs (day 5). Async comments between. ~2 hours of your time, total. We do the synthesis; you do the decisions.
Cadence · 3 sign-offs · ~2 hours total
FAQ · 03
Can I take the PDFs elsewhere?
Yes — that’s the point. Two polished PDFs delivered day 5, yours forever. Hand to your existing designer, a future agency, an internal team. The PDFs work standalone.
Ownership · no vendor lock
FAQ · 04
Do you do user research or competitor interviews?
No. Both belong in longer engagements at higher prices. The sprint synthesises from your inputs (a 30-min questionnaire) plus our experience with category competitors and patterns. If you need primary research, this isn’t the right product — we’ll tell you on first email.
Honest limits · scope locked deliberately
FAQ · 05
What if I want a logo designed too?
The sprint covers logo direction (the typographic system + iconography style), not a final logo file. Logo design is a separate engagement scoped after the sprint — $1,500–$3,000 depending on complexity. Often clients use the sprint output to brief a specialist logo designer they already know.
Logo · separate · scoped after
FAQ · 06
When should I do the sprint vs. just start building?
Do the sprint before any build where you don’t already have a written brand brief and visual system. The sprint exists because building without one means re-deciding mid-build, which is more expensive than deciding once. If you have a strong written brand already, skip the sprint and go straight to the build. We’ll tell you on the first email if it’s not worth doing — we’d rather lose the sprint than sell you redundant work.
When to skip · when to insist
Berth · 09
Five days. Two PDFs. ~2 hours of your time.
$1,500 fixed. A brand brief and a visual identity style guide, delivered as polished PDFs, ready to hand to anyone. Use them with us, with your existing designer, or with a future agency. The clarity, not the theatre.
- $1,500 fixed · 5-day delivery
- Brand brief (12–18 pages) + visual identity guide (10–14 pages)
- Voice samples · banned phrases · anti-generic-AI checklist
- WCAG-compliant colour palette · type spec · image style direction
- Pair with a build for $4,500 total · no re-deciding mid-build
Tampa, FL · Also working in: Orlando · Jacksonville · Miami · St. Petersburg
§ 10 · Berth · Send it over · Start the sprint
Send the brief. We’ll book the sprint by return email.
URL, what’s bugging you about the brand state, and whether you want the sprint standalone or paired with a build. A senior person reads it and replies within a business day with kick-off scheduling. Prefer plain email? support@misspepper.ai reaches the same inbox; or call 844-202-6410.
We confirm receipt within one business day · often same day