Sometimes the most valuable design work happens before any design: deciding what to produce, how to structure it, and how to make complex material land with its audience. I offer that thinking as a standalone service, delivered through conversation, at any point from grant proposal to final draft.
What I call conceptual partnership is senior structural and information-design thinking, applied to communication outputs of various kinds. It’s the layer of work that happens before a publication, website, or explainer gets made – when the substance, the format, and the structure are still being worked out. It’s done primarily through conversation.
Much of my work over the years has been translation of a kind: making complicated topics understandable for people who aren’t experts in the domain. Figuring out what the substance actually is, what the audience needs to grasp, and how to bridge between them.
Through 18+ years of designing publications and websites for institutional clients, I’ve come to see that this kind of thinking is needed far more often than it’s commissioned. Some clients arrive with content they aren’t sure how to shape, with policy concepts or research findings that haven’t found their form, with a sense that a publication isn’t landing but no clear read on why. In design projects I’ve led, this has often been part of the work – clients’ drafts have needed structural analysis, sometimes a different format, sometimes a sharper sense of who the audience really is.
In many cases, this kind of conversation would be even more valuable earlier – at the project planning stage, before any designer is commissioned. And sometimes the right answer is that the project doesn’t need a designer at all. That’s why I now offer it as a service in its own right, alongside my publication design work.
I work with researchers, communications directors, and project leads. My technical knowledge spans publishing, infographics, web, video, and AI tools. I’ve spent years applying structural and editorial thinking in real projects – in policy advocacy, project planning, and publication design.
Consultations on how a publication should unfold: the order of information, chapter structure, and navigation. This works before there’s a draft, too, sometimes the shape comes first. The goal is a report where every reader finds what matters to them, whether they read all of it or only the summary.
You have findings worth communicating, but the form is unclear. Should this be a report, a series of briefs, a slide deck, a website, a video, or several of these working together? We map your material and your audience to the format that serves the message best.
You need to bring a complicated concept to an audience quickly and clearly. Together we develop the idea: what to show, how to structure it, what form it takes. I can execute the design myself, or shape it into a well-formulated brief your in-house team can run with.
You're drafting a project proposal and need to decide what the project will actually produce. We think through the possible outputs – publications, data products, communication formats – so you can write them into the proposal with realistic scope and budget.
One or two working calls focused on a specific question. Suited to: format decisions, structural advice, briefing another designer, reviewing existing materials.
Working in scheduled blocks alongside a longer project – a few hours a week, or defined milestones – for clients who want a senior thinking partner available throughout a project’s life.
When I’m designing the publication myself, the conceptual work happens as part of the project – reflected in the overall quote without being itemized.
Pricing depends on shape and scope. Get in touch and we can talk about what makes sense.
It depends on the shape. A defined consultation – one or two working calls – has a fixed price agreed before we start. Project accompaniment is quoted by its scheduled blocks. And when I’m designing the publication myself, the conceptual work is simply part of the project quote. Either way, you’ll know the cost before we begin.
Most often: researchers, analysts, and project leads who don’t have a communications person in-house — people sitting on substantial material with a sense that it could become more than pages of text. Others know exactly what they want to produce and want experienced help shaping it. But there’s no fixed profile: if the list at the top of this page sounded familiar, this is for you.
No, the thinking stands on its own. You can take the outcome to your in-house team, to another designer, or execute it yourself. That independence is part of the value — my advice isn’t shaped by whether a design commission follows. And if you’d like me to design the result, I’m of course happy to.
Usually, clarity you can act on: decisions about format and structure, a developed concept, a sharper sense of your audience. Where it helps, I document the outcome — a structure outline, a concept sketch, a brief for whoever designs next. The deliverable is the result of the conversation, not a report about the conversation.
That’s exactly where this work starts. Describe your situation in an email, or book a short call. One conversation is usually enough to see whether conceptual partnership would help, and what shape it should take. And the earlier in a project we talk, the more the conversation can change.
Or email me directly at info@hot-ice.eu
Studies, briefs, and white papers where the design needs to support detailed argument and dense content.
Editorial-grade design for annual reports that speak to donors, boards, and the public.
Creative design to visualize serious data. Charts, concepts, and figures made readable for your audience.
Publications and data visualizations across writing systems, including Asian and MENA languages.