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How we work

We build a process around collaboration and ownership. This allows clients to have autonomy over the outcomes, clear exit gateways, and full ownership of assets once delivered.
NOISIN
How we engage

Three ways in

PROJECT

Lift and shift

A defined scope, a staged project, and a clear price for the full programme. Most of our work runs this way, from identity projects through to full rebrands with digital delivery. We get in, lift, shift, train, and support onwards.
RETAINER

Long game

An ongoing partnership for businesses that need senior creative and digital capability on tap without building it in-house. Shaped by your rhythm, needs, team capability and workload.
ADVISORY

Experts in the room

Strategic counsel without production: ecosystem audits, platform decisions, investor communications, brand governance. Sometimes the most valuable thing we deliver is expert advice.
How a project runs

Five gates. No surprises.

Whether it's a mix of brand and digital, strategy, or just creative, nearly every project we take on moves through the same five stages. Each stage ends at a gate: a fixed checkpoint where you formally approve the work before we move to the next one. Nothing proceeds without that sign-off.
1
Stage one, discovery and strategy

Do the homework

We start with the commercial picture, not the creative outputs. Through research, audit, information collection, profiling and data analytics we understand the ideology and frame of the task. This forms the base understanding of the project and determines everything downstream. Where a project carries a big decision, a name, a platform, a brand architecture, a creative decision, this is where we build the framework to inform work structure accurately.
2
Stage two, direction

Pick a lane

Strategy becomes a central point you can react to. Positioning, concepts, content and UX architecture, presented with our reasoning and the trade-offs stated plainly. This stage ends at a decision gateway: you approve the direction before work begins, and we adjust outcomes and expectations as they arise.
3
Stage three, design and creative

Make it real

The approved direction becomes the work. We design identity systems, visual language, page designs, prototypes. You see it applied in the real world within assets you can review. Refinement is where the real value is, and we work with you through the ideas, designs and strategy to approval.
4
Stage four, build and delivery

Build it properly

Development backed by design approval, where the real work happens. Production, development, creation, integration and migration run through staged builds, refinement and approvals along the way, with no new surprises.
5
Stage five, launch and beyond

Finishing it up

Testing, launch, optimisation, and a monitored period after going live. We hand over documentation and training so your team owns the result, and we're structured to stay involved where it's useful, not because you're locked in.
Stages cascade from one to the next, with direct approval gateways and clear delivery for each stage. You always know what the next commitment is before you make it.
Working with your team

No middlemen

You work directly with the people doing the thinking, including our strategic director on every project. This flattens communication layers and lands information directly where it's needed. One point of contact, and a communication rhythm agreed at kickoff. We plug into your in-house teams directly, taking as much or as little of the workload as your requirements need.

Shaun Lonergan

Founder and Strategic Director
Leads strategy on every project and stays across the work from kickoff to handover. Your direct line to the thinking.
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Shannon Adam

Client and Delivery
Looks after client communication and delivery. Keeps the rhythm agreed at kickoff and makes sure each gate is clear before work moves on.
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David Henderson

Strategic Advisor
Advises on strategy and commercial direction, bringing senior experience to the decisions that shape a project.
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Scaling

Lean on purpose

Noisin is agile by nature, and deliberately so. Around our leadership sits a broad network of specialists we've worked with for years, brought onto projects as they're needed and scaled up as quickly as a project demands. It's how a boutique team delivers at corporate scale: you draw on depth of capability across every discipline, without paying for overheads that don't directly connect to your work.
Our independence

Independent by design

We hold no platform partnerships and no reseller arrangements, so our recommendations have nothing behind them except your interests. Noisin works across multiple platforms and holds a deep understanding of those providers.
This depth of knowledge allows us to understand new platforms and programs, as most systems follow a similar underlying philosophy in how they operate.
Where we encounter a system we're less familiar with, we align with specialists who bring the knowledge to engage with and understand it efficiently.
Operational FAQ

The questions that actually matter

We do our best to flag it before it happens. Anything outside scope gets named, priced and approved as a variation before work starts, so scope grows by decision rather than by drift. If the new work changes the shape of the project, we rescope the stage properly rather than patching around it.
If scope creep is only assessed after the fact, we provide evidence of why it occurred and request the additional scope with that evidence to back it up. In cases where project delivery is prioritised over a scope discussion at the moment, we re-engage that conversation once the busy period has settled.
Project holds can be instigated by either Noisin or the client. Any holds require clear written documentation from whichever side initiates it. We also hold the right to pause projects where a client is in breach of continuous communication and engagement, as set out in the service contract.
In these cases, we hand over everything completed to that point. Payment continues to reflect the agreement rather than stop outright. Monthly billing pauses for the duration of the hold, and milestone billing requires payment for whatever is owed for the work in progress.
Holds do not release either side from the agreement, and there is a cost to placing a project on hold and a cost to restarting it. Pausing and resuming a project can carry real administrative work on our side. Furthermore, restarting a project out of sync with our current work allotment can add additional costs to bring that workload back into an active work capacity.
We go back to the strategy. Every design decision traces to the direction you approved, so most disagreements become questions with an answer rather than a contest of taste. Where it's truly a matter of preference, we'll give you our honest recommendation once, clearly, and then build the version you choose. It's your brand.
Once you've signed off at a gateway, that decision is locked in. Any further changes to work that's already been approved are treated as new scope, priced and costed separately, and depending on the extent of the change may require us to rescope the project. We treat approval gates seriously, as the natural endpoint of a work cycle and the point at which paid work for that stage is considered complete.
We generally work to two rounds of review, and the exact number is stated clearly in your service contract. If we go beyond the allotted rounds, it's at the agency's discretion whether we charge for additional revision and feedback cycles. Often we can absorb it where the extra work was needed to land on a viable option. Where that isn't the case, we'll communicate clearly with you about the cost for further revisions before proceeding.
Each stage includes defined feedback rounds, agreed in scope before we start. The sign-off gates exist so feedback lands at the right moment, in strategy phase while we are still defining the strategy or in a design run while we are creating, rather than everything arriving at the end when change is most expensive.
You do. Final assets, source files, accounts and platforms are handed over at completion. No ransom on working files, no lock-in through access, and everything documented so your team can run it without us.
We'll do our best to re-engage several times, but if a client doesn't respond within a reasonable timeframe, it's at our discretion to place the project on hold, or in some cases close it out completely, in line with the hold terms above.
Projects are generally billed as one full engagement rather than a pay-as-you-go arrangement. Speak up as soon as something feels off. We'll do our best to resolve it, often within existing scope and at no additional charge, at our discretion.
If a resolution truly isn't possible and you want to step away, we complete and hand over all work completed to date, and the remaining balance for the full project is invoiced to close out the engagement. A project can't be exited partway through simply because you're unhappy without us first working through it together. The agreement covers the full scope regardless of the point at which it ends.
Yes. We've prepared and delivered tender submissions for government and public sector clients, and we're comfortable working to structured evaluation criteria, staged approvals and formal governance reporting. If your process needs particular documentation or checkpoints, tell us early and we'll build the engagement around it.
Noisin can be flexible with billing structures depending on the agreement. Generally, we work on a deposit and monthly payment cycle. Fifty percent is paid upfront to commence work, and the remaining fifty percent is spread across monthly payments over the agreed project timeframe.
This means we are not stuck waiting on milestone approvals to trigger payment. Work continues moving cleanly through the agreed timeline while payment keeps pace alongside it.
We are open to discussing milestone payments or other structures, but our standard billing process is what we recommend by default.
This varies from project to project, since each organisation has its own communication channels and structures in place. Generally, we prefer direct email and phone calls when information needs to move quickly or a decision requires a proper conversation, backed by formal check-ins through video or in-office meetings.
We can use more casual channels like Messenger, Slack, or WhatsApp if a client needs immediate feedback. Our preference is always email, though, as it keeps progress clearly documented and easy to reference during check-ins and approvals.
This varies from project to project, but a general pattern holds. Engagement is most intense at the start. This is when we're sourcing information and data from you. It eases through the middle stages, as we move into stages two and three. It becomes more relaxed toward the end. At this point we're bringing items to you for commentary, review and approval.
For a standard six-month project, this typically means weekly check-ins for the first two months, then fortnightly check-ins for the remainder. Direct engagement happens as needed alongside this.
We know your time is precious, and we keep engagement as concise as possible. But this is a collaboration. Continual client engagement is what lets us deliver the best outcome.

If the process reads like the way you want to work, the coffee is on us.

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Brand and digital for businesses with something at stake. Melbourne.
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