FAQ

Murmur Creative is a Portland-based branding and design agency. We help brands define who they are, what they stand for, and how they show up in the world through brand strategy, visual identity, packaging, web design, and more. We work with companies across a wide range of industries, from food and beverage to nonprofits to pet brands.

A few things. First, we are an all-senior team, which means the people you meet at the start of a project are the people doing the work. Second, we are a certified B Corporation, which means we hold ourselves to a higher standard regarding how we treat our team, our clients, and our community. Third, we are genuinely collaborative. Our process is built around cooperative activities like workshops and shared discovery, not presentations of work done behind closed doors.

Our studio is at 2822 SE Division Street in Portland, Oregon. We work with clients across the Pacific Northwest, nationally, and even internationally.

A wide range, from national brands to solo founders. Our sweet spot is medium-sized brands with room to grow: established enough to have real momentum, nimble enough to make bold moves. If you’re not sure where you fall, tell us about your business, and we’ll be straight about whether we’re the right partner.

B Corp certification is awarded by B Lab to companies that meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. For Murmur, it means we are measured on how we treat our employees, our clients, and the planet, not just on profit. We were certified because we believe business can and should be a force for good, and we wanted third-party verification that we are actually living our values.

Murmur has been working with brands since 2007. Food and beverage is where we got our start, and we have grown steadily into nonprofits, health and wellness, pets, outdoor, hospitality, and education over the years.

The first step is reaching out through our contact page. We will schedule an introductory call to learn about your brand, where you are, and what you are hoping to accomplish. From there, we will put together a proposal tailored to your goals.

Most projects begin with a discovery and strategy phase, which involves workshops with your team to uncover what makes your brand distinct and where it needs to go. From there, we move into creative development, refinement, and delivery. The exact shape of a project depends on the scope, but we always start with alignment before we start designing.

It depends on the scope. A brand strategy engagement typically runs six to ten weeks. A full brand identity project including strategy and design is often three to five months. Web projects vary more depending on complexity. We will give you a clear timeline in the proposal stage.

Meaningfully involved. Our process is collaborative by design, which means we need access to the people in your organization who understand your brand, your customers, and your goals. The workshops we run early in a project are where the most important thinking happens, and your team is a core part of that. Projects where clients are engaged throughout consistently produce stronger work.

Murmur works with clients both remotely and in person. Some of our clients are local to the Portland area, and we host them in our office for a presentation or they invite us to theirs. Other clients are on the other side of the country or another continent, and we collaborate 100% remotely. We have run highly effective engagements both ways and have developed strong processes for doing so.

That depends on what challenges you’re facing. If you have a logo you love and a clear sense of who you are and who you are talking to, you may just need design or web work. But if you are seeing inconsistency in how your brand communicates, losing deals to competitors with stronger positioning, or about to launch something significant, strategy first will improve everything downstream. We are happy to talk through where you actually are and give you an honest read.

Yes, and many of our clients do. We offer ongoing brand support and web maintenance, and a lot of our best relationships started with one project and grew from there. We also offer a nonprofit discount for mission-driven organizations.

We price the whole project as a fixed number, set before we start. What shapes that number is how much creative lifting the work calls for. Some projects produce assets from a direction you already have. Others develop concepts and messaging, set strategy and creative direction, or build the reusable systems your team runs with for years. We scope it all up front and call out any optional or recommended pieces separately, so they stay your choice. No hourly meter running in the background and no surprise line items. What that buys you is a predictable budget and a clear process from day one.

A focused engagement, like a standalone logo or a single strategy piece, begins around $15,000. A comprehensive brand build with strategy, identity, packaging, marketing assets, and guidelines together starts around $70,000. Where a project lands between those comes down to scope. A first comprehensive engagement carries more of the strategic and creative lift up front, which is why it sits at the higher end. That foundation is built once. The work that follows is usually tighter in scope and cost because the thinking, the system, and the guidelines are already in place. We’ll tell you early where your project is likely to land, so the proposal is a confirmation, not a surprise.

Yes. We built the Start-Up Brand Sprint for this type of client. It’s a streamlined path from intake to launch-ready brand in about six to eight weeks, giving an early-stage company the essentials to go to market with confidence. You walk away with strategy, a logo, standout packaging, and concise guidelines to grow into. The process is nimble by design, which keeps it efficient and keeps you moving. We offer it selectively to design-forward brands we believe in and want to see succeed, and it works best for small, aligned teams with a clear vision and a focused product line. Tell us what you’re building, and we’ll find out together whether it’s the right fit.

Yes. Mission-driven work is part of why Murmur exists, and as a certified B Corp, we’re built to support it. We offer dedicated nonprofit pricing to the organizations and causes we work with, and we’ll walk you through what that looks like for your project. Tell us about the work, and we’ll take it from there.

Yes, we require a deposit to begin work. The structure is outlined in every project proposal and contract. We will walk you through it clearly before anything is signed.

Upon completion of your project, you own the work. What that work is depends on the scope. Brand strategy projects, for example, typically deliver a brand guide as a PDF covering key defining guidance for your brand. With brand identity projects, you’ll receive organized logo files, color palettes, typography systems, and usage guidelines. Our packaging projects deliver production-ready files set up for successful printing.

Yes. Our web team handles user journey mapping, website design, website messaging, ecommerce, accessibility, SEO, and ongoing web support. Many clients work with us across both brand and web.

We can scope a logo-only project in the right circumstances. This works best for brands that have developed a strategic foundation or have an already-existing logo that isn’t functioning with the current iteration of your organization. 

Yes. Beyond core brand and packaging, we make the assets that help a brand show up consistently as it grows across channels, from Amazon content and digital storefronts to social toolkits, sell sheets, and PR and influencer materials. We also have experience crafting tradeshow booths, van wraps, billboards, and other physical manifestations of your brand. This work lands best on a strong brand foundation, so everything stays consistent wherever your customer meets you. Tell us where you need to show up,and we’ll scope what fits.

Yes. Campaigns are part of growing a brand once its foundation is in place. With your strategy, identity, and system established, we develop the concepts, messaging, and creative that bring a brand to life in the world, whether that’s a launch, a seasonal push, or a product rollout, along with the collateral and content that carries it. We build the creative that makes a campaign feel unmistakably yours, and we partner well with the teams who handle media and placement. The stronger the foundation, the harder every campaign works.

You can generate a logo with AI in a minute. What it can’t generate is the reason that logo is right for you, or the strategy and positioning that set you apart from everything already on the shelf. AI makes something that looks like a brand. We build one that’s uniquely yours.

Short answer: no. The creative work is done by people, our illustrators, designers, writers, and photographers who love making things by hand and are exceptional at it. We do value efficiency, so we lean on AI for the mechanical parts of the job that never touch your creative, things like organizing assets and reviewing SKU lists. The craft that carries your brand is human, start to finish.

We do all of it in house. Illustration is one of the things our team loves most, and it’s a core part of how we make brands feel distinct rather than templated. When your brand calls for custom illustration, it’s coming from our people, not a stock library or a generator.