Question 1

What does hardly.minimal actually do?

Accepted Answer

We design brand identity, wordmarks, motion design, campaigns, and visual systems that don't apologize for existing. Anything that has a voice and needs it turned up.

Question 2

Brand in the Machine. What is that?

Accepted Answer

It's our answer to a real problem: what happens when you make content without us? Every brand we build ships with Brand in the Machine, a prompt system designed for the tools you actually use. Midjourney, ChatGPT, Claude, whatever. Not the generic kit an app spits out. The one with your point of view baked in, so the 11pm version still sounds like you.

Question 3

“Minimal” feels misleading. What's the deal?

Accepted Answer

It is. We named ourselves hardly.minimal and then made the loudest work we could. Consider it a thesis statement. The name is the joke, the work is the punchline.

Question 4

How do projects start?

Accepted Answer

Contact us. Tell us what you're building, who it's for, and why “polite” isn't the right answer. We'll come back with how we'd attack it.

Question 5

Who do you work with?

Accepted Answer

Founders, brand leads, and creative directors who'd rather be the brand that gets talked about than the one that gets filed. If “tasteful and forgettable” is the brief, we're the wrong studio.

Question 6

Are you a team or a one-person studio?

Accepted Answer

Independent studio. Small by design. You get principal-level work because there's no junior to hand it off to.

Question 7

How long does a project take?

Accepted Answer

Depends what you're after. A Brand Sprint is two weeks flat, fixed price. Ongoing work runs on a retainer. Everything else is scoped to the actual work. We dig into it, then come back with a real timeline. No guessing, no scope creep dressed up as a timeline.

Brand Sprint.

Here's how it goes.

You fill out a brief.

We align on direction.

We design.

We refine.

We deliver.

$10,000.