Larkmoor Provisions
A regional food producer moving from trade-only supply to a direct range. We rebuilt the position, then the packaging system and the shopfront site.
Brand & digital studio
We give careful organisations a sharper public voice.
Saffron House is a four-person studio. We take on a small number of engagements each quarter so that the people who scope your project are the people who finish it.
No account layer, no handover to a delivery team you have never met.
- Positioning Naming, messaging and the story you can repeat without notes.
- Identity Marks, type systems and usable guidelines, not a moodboard.
- Websites Design and front-end build your own team can extend.
- Launch Art direction and content systems for the first ninety days.
Practice
Four lanes of work, and what sits inside each one
Most engagements use two of these. Tell us which problem is loudest and we will tell you honestly whether the others can wait.
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01
Brand foundations
For organisations that do good work but describe it differently in every room. We settle the position first, then the language, then the marks.
- Positioning and audience definition
- Naming and verbal identity
- Wordmark, palette and type system
- Written guidelines your team can apply
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02
Websites and digital products
Design and front-end build in the same studio, so what you approve is what ships. We structure content around the decisions a visitor is actually making.
- Information architecture and content model
- Interface design and component library
- Front-end build and CMS structure
- Accessibility and performance review
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03
Campaign and content direction
For launches that need more than a logo. We set the art direction and the production rules, then brief the photographers, writers and editors alongside you.
- Campaign concept and art direction
- Photography and film briefs
- Editorial templates and tone guide
- Asset kit for print and screen
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04
Measurement and iteration
Launch is the start of the useful data. We set up the questions worth answering and a reporting cadence your team can keep without us.
- Analytics and event planning
- Experiment backlog and priorities
- Quarterly review with written notes
- Handover training for in-house owners
How a project runs
Four stages, fixed reviews, nothing invisible in between
Typical full engagement runs ten to fourteen weeks. You always know which stage we are in, who is on it, and what lands at the end of it.
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Stage one
Brief and discovery
A working session plus a short round of interviews with the people closest to your customers.
- Length
- 1–2 weeks
- You receive
- Written brief, scope and a fixed fee
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Stage two
Territory
Two directions, presented in context rather than as abstract boards. We pick one together and park the other.
- Length
- 2–3 weeks
- You receive
- Two directions, one recommendation
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Stage three
Build
Weekly reviews on a live link. Feedback is collected in one pass per review so decisions do not reopen.
- Length
- 4–8 weeks
- You receive
- Working pages, files and components
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Stage four
Launch and handover
We go live with you, then walk your team through editing, publishing and the guidelines.
- Length
- 1–2 weeks
- You receive
- Source files, guidelines, training session
Selected work
Three recent engagements
A short index rather than a gallery. Each note says what the problem was and which lanes the work used.
Ostara Health
A group of clinics whose booking pages asked for more than patients could answer. We restructured the content model and rebuilt the appointment journey.
Fieldnote Press
An independent publisher with fifteen years of covers and no system behind them. We built a series grammar their editors can set themselves.
Formats
Three ways to work with the studio
If you are unsure which applies, describe the deadline you are working back from and we will recommend one.
| Design sprint | Full project | Embedded retainer | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Testing a direction before you commit budget to it | A rebrand, a new site, or a launch with a fixed date | In-house teams who need ongoing design capacity |
| Typical length | Two weeks | Ten to fourteen weeks | Rolling, reviewed each quarter |
| Working cadence | Daily contact, one close-out review | Weekly review on a live link | Fortnightly planning, shared board |
| You receive | A tested direction and a written recommendation | Finished work, source files and guidelines | Continuous delivery against an agreed backlog |
| Studio time | Two of us, full attention | Three to four of us across stages | An agreed number of days each month |
| How fees work | Fixed fee, agreed before we start | Fixed fee per stage, invoiced on completion | Monthly, based on the days reserved |
Every format begins with the same paid discovery stage, because we would rather scope from evidence than from a guess. If discovery shows a smaller piece of work will do, we will say so and reduce the scope.
Questions
Asked before most engagements
How does a project actually start?
You send a brief through the form below. We read new briefs every Friday and reply in writing within two working days of that. If it looks like a fit, we book a sixty-minute call, then send a scoped discovery proposal with a fixed fee.
Who will be working on our project?
The four of us. Whoever scopes your work stays on it through launch. We do not subcontract design or front-end build, and we will tell you at the proposal stage if a specialist such as a photographer or copy editor needs to be brought in.
Can you work alongside our in-house team?
Yes, and most of our project work does. We can lead and hand over, or sit inside your process as extra capacity under the embedded format. In either case we agree who owns which decisions before stage two starts, so reviews do not stall.
What do you need from us?
One decision-maker who can approve at each review, access to two or three people who talk to your customers, and whatever you already have: analytics, past research, existing files. Roughly four hours of your time in discovery and about an hour a week after that.
What happens when the scope changes?
Small changes inside a stage are absorbed. Anything that changes the shape of the work gets written up as a short addendum with its own fee and timeline before we touch it, so nothing arrives as a surprise on an invoice.
Do we own the work and the files?
Yes. On final payment you own the delivered work outright, including editable source files, fonts we have licensed on your behalf and the front-end code. Nothing is locked to a proprietary platform of ours.
We like our current brand. Can you keep it?
Often that is the right answer. Plenty of engagements keep the existing marks and only fix the language, the hierarchy or the website. Discovery tells us which parts are working, and we do not recommend replacing something that is already doing its job.
Do you take on smaller pieces of work?
Sometimes, through the two-week sprint. It suits a single decision: testing a name, pressure-testing a homepage, or checking whether a rebuild is really needed. Below that size we will usually point you to someone better suited rather than stretch the format.
Start a brief
Tell us what you are trying to change
A few sentences is plenty. We read every brief ourselves and reply in writing, whether or not we are the right studio for it.
- Briefs are read every Friday
- Written reply within two working days
- No proposal until we have spoken