Jade Agard Design

17/06/2026

These are the pages I didn't know I needed until I'd already done things the hard way.

Early in my career my brand guides were vague in ways I couldn't even see at the time. I thought clear visuals were enough. Turns out clients need more than that. They need to understand the why, know what to do in situations you didn't plan for, and feel confident making decisions without you in the room.

When a brand guide is actually built to do that, the whole handoff changes. Fewer questions. Less back and forth. The brand stays consistent because the system makes it easy to be consistent.
That's what you're looking at here.

Link in bio if you want to see the full template 🔗

10/06/2026

Since you've been asking, here's what's actually inside the Brand Presentation Template.

And I want to be real with you because I know how many templates out there look good in the preview and then become a whole project to actually use. This one is not that.

The structure is already done. Brand strategy, creative direction, brand values, audience insights, visual direction, mockups. Every section a solid client presentation needs is already laid out and waiting for your content. You're not starting from a blank slide and hoping it comes together.

It also works in Illustrator, InDesign, Adobe Express, and Affinity, so whatever your setup is, you're covered.
And every template I make comes with a companion guide that walks you through how to fill out each section, including AI prompts if that's part of your process.

If you've been spending hours formatting slides or second-guessing how to present your strategy work, this is the part where that stops. Link in bio 🔗

03/06/2026

The designers charging more aren't always doing better work.
They're doing better presentations.

I know that's a little uncomfortable to hear but it's true. The deck is what sells the work to the client. And if you're sending over a PDF with no context, no flow, no story, you're leaving that job to chance.

I put together the 6-slide structure I use in every single handoff in this carousel. Swipe through and take what you need.

And if you want it all done for you, the Brand Presentation Template inside DesignerOS has every section already laid out.

Link in bio.

01/06/2026

The reason some brands look consistent everywhere and others feel slightly off depending on where you see them often comes down to this.

One version of a logo was never going to cover every use case. A primary logo designed for a website header is going to look completely different crammed into a social media icon or printed small on packaging. The proportions change. The legibility changes. The whole thing can fall apart.

Logo variations exist so the brand stays strong across all of it. Your primary logo handles the main applications. Your secondary logo and brand mark take over anywhere the primary can't hold up, whether that's a circular crop, a small-scale print, or a background it wasn't built for.

It's one of those things that makes the whole brand system actually work. Save this post if you want to come back to it and let me know if this was helpful.

29/05/2026

Moodboards have my whole heart and I don't think that's ever going to change.

Hours on Pinterest. Perfect image combinations. Fonts that feel right even before you can explain why. It's the most fun part of branding for me, every single time.

But I didn't always know how to actually use them. Uni was all concept thumbnails, no moodboards in sight. When I found the design community and saw how designers were using them with clients, I started experimenting. And I quickly realised that collecting beautiful images is the easy part. Making a moodboard that clearly communicates a creative direction is a different skill entirely.

Swipe to see what I include now when I'm building one out.

And let me know in the comments what you keep in mind during your process too. Love hearing how other designers approach this one.

27/05/2026

Clients aren't ghosting you because the work was bad. They're ghosting you because the presentation confused them.

I used to blame the client when feedback went sideways. Took me a while to realise my presentation wasn't actually setting my work up to land. Once I fixed the structure, the whole dynamic changed.

Swipe through if you've ever sent something you were proud of and gotten feedback that made zero sense.
The Brand Presentation Template is in DesignerOS, link in bio.

27/05/2026

If your client has ever approved a moodboard and then said "this isn't what I pictured" when they saw the logo, the moodboard wasn't the problem.

The presentation was.

A moodboard dumped on a slide with no context doesn't tell your client anything. It makes them guess. And when clients guess, they fill in the gaps with their own ideas and then wonder why the final work doesn't match what was in their head.

A proper creative direction presentation walks them through the thinking. Here's the feeling we're going for. Here's why these references. Here's where this is going. By the time you show them the logo, they already know it's right.

That's what this template does. And it's free.

Link in bio to download it.

25/05/2026

Your logo needs a whole family, not just one file.

I know that sounds like more work but it actually makes everything easier once it's done. Because the reality is a logo that only works in one format is a logo that's going to cause problems. On social it looks cramped. On merch it loses detail. On a dark background it disappears entirely.

Logo variations solve this. Your primary logo does the heavy lifting across most of your brand touchpoints. Your secondary logo and brand mark step in for the situations where the primary just doesn't fit. Together they make sure the brand stays recognizable no matter where it shows up.

Save this if it was useful and let me know in the comments if you have questions.

23/05/2026

Raise your hand if you've ever just... guessed your rate and hoped for the best 🙋

Setting your graphic designer rates doesn't have to feel like picking a number out of thin air. I just published a beginner-friendly breakdown that covers how to structure your pricing, what the industry data actually says, and a simple formula for figuring out the minimum you should ever charge.

Whether you're brand new to freelancing or you've been at it for a while and suspect you've been undercharging, this one is worth a read.

Drop a comment if you're going to give the floor rate calculation a try. I'd love to know what comes up for you!

Not sure what to charge? This guide covers graphic designer rates by experience level, how to calculate your floor rate, and when to raise your prices.

22/05/2026

I will fully admit I spend way too long on moodboards and I have zero regrets about it.

It's my favourite part of the ideation process. Something about pulling the right images together and watching a brand start to have a feeling before a single logo has been sketched.

We didn't do any of this in uni though. It was concept thumbnails only, very structured, very technical. Moodboards came later, through the design community, and my first few were honestly just pretty collages. I didn't fully understand what they were supposed to do yet.

Once I figured out that a moodboard's job is to show the client where the brand is going visually and emotionally, the way I built them completely changed. Swipe through for what I actually include now.

And if you have tips that work for you, drop them below. This is one of those things where everyone's process is a little different.