Three people®
Eleven years, the same three at the centre, and freelancers we have worked with for most of that time. We are not scaling, and that is a decision rather than a stage.
We show the ugly middle
Weekly renders on a shared link, in progress order — grey clay, wrong lighting, missing textures and all. Studios hide this and then get a shock in week six when the client finally sees where it went.
Two directions, never five
Five look-dev directions means nobody has decided anything, and every extra direction doubles the cost of the stage after it. We bring two and a recommendation.
The estimate is a band, not a number
Because we do not know what your CAD looks like until we open it. The band narrows to a fixed figure after two days of technical checking, and we say so in writing.
We turn down work in July
Festival season, and we have been burned by schedule risk we could not price. Saying so publicly is cheaper than saying yes and delivering at 03:00.