What does a brand strategy engagement include?

A brand strategy engagement includes a positioning audit, competitive landscape review, messaging framework, brand voice guidelines, and visual identity direction. You receive a complete brand system — not just a logo — with clear guidance on how to apply it across every channel.

How long does a website design and build project take?

A typical website design and build project takes 6–10 weeks from kickoff to launch. This includes discovery, wireframes, visual design, content integration, and QA. Timeline depends on content readiness and revision rounds.

Do you work with international clients?

Yes. Noran Design works globally — we have supported 130+ organisations across 15 countries including the UK, Hong Kong, Singapore, the United States, and Europe. All engagements are fully remote.

Can you design and build the website as well?

Yes. We offer end-to-end website design and build as a single engagement — strategy, UX, visual design, and CMS development. We build primarily in Framer and can integrate with your existing tools and content systems.

How is Noran Design different from a traditional agency?

Noran Design is a studio, not an agency. You work directly with Nicole Fung and a small senior team throughout your engagement — not a junior account manager. We operate as a strategic partner embedded in your organisation, not a vendor delivering to a brief.

Your programme deserves a digital presence as considered as the work itself.

We work with museums, galleries, theatres, arts organisations, and cultural institutions that need design rigour, accessibility compliance, and multilingual capability — without the overhead of a large agency.

Trusted by 130+ brands across 15 countries

Trusted by 130+ brands across 15 countries

Philosophy

Design that serves the work, and the audience.

Cultural institutions face a specific set of pressures: public funding scrutiny, accessibility obligations, multilingual audiences, and the need to communicate complex programming clearly. We understand that context and design for it.

Accessibility and EAA compliance

The European Accessibility Act is now in force. We audit, remediate, and build to WCAG 2.1 AA across websites, digital publications, and interactive experiences — protecting you from legal exposure and serving every audience member.

Multilingual design

Websites, publications, and campaign materials designed for multiple languages from the ground up — not retrofitted. RTL language support, cultural sensitivity, and typographic care across scripts.

Impact reports and annual reviews

Publication design that meets funder reporting standards and tells your story with rigour. From Arts Council to National Lottery reporting — we've done it, and we know what panels look for.

Digital ticketing and visitor experience

UX design for booking flows, visitor information, and programme discovery. Designed for clarity — whether someone is booking their first visit or navigating a complex season programme.

Brand and visual identity

Identity systems built around your artistic programme — flexible enough to evolve season to season, consistent enough to build recognition over years.

Digital operations and automation

CRM setup, audience communication systems, membership flows, and internal tooling — so your small team can manage large audiences without burning out.

A team that understands your world.

Trusted by 130+ brands across 15 countries

Trusted by 130+ brands across 15 countries

Studio Retainer

£2,400/mo

Advisor Retainer

£4,400/mo

FAQ

Do you understand the arts funding landscape — Arts Council, National Lottery, and similar bodies?

Yes. We've worked with cultural institutions on projects funded by Arts Council England, The National Lottery Community Fund, and various international arts funding bodies. We understand what grant reporting requires, how impact data needs to be presented, and the design standards that publicly funded organisations are expected to meet.

We also know that grant cycles don't map neatly to standard agency billing schedules — which is why we offer flexible payment arrangements for funded organisations.

What does EAA compliance mean for our institution specifically?

The European Accessibility Act (EAA), now in force, requires digital products and services to meet WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards. For cultural institutions — especially those in receipt of public funding or serving public audiences — this is both a legal obligation and an audience expectation.

In practical terms, it means your website, booking flows, digital publications, and any interactive content must be navigable by screen readers, operable by keyboard alone, and perceivable without colour dependency. We audit what you have, tell you what needs fixing, and can implement the remediation directly.

Can you design for multilingual audiences, including right-to-left scripts?

Yes — multilingual design is a core part of our practice, not an add-on. We've worked with organisations serving Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew, and other RTL-script audiences, as well as European multilingual contexts. We design layouts that work across scripts from the start, rather than retrofitting an English-first design.

We work closely with your translation providers or can recommend partners for languages we don't cover in-house.

How do you handle the tension between artistic vision and digital usability?

We don't treat them as opposites. The best cultural institution websites are both beautiful and functional — they communicate the ambition of the programme while making it effortless to find information, book tickets, or explore the archive.

We start by understanding the artistic identity and letting that inform the design direction. Usability constraints are introduced as parameters, not compromises. The result is design that feels intentional rather than templated.

Our institution has a board and trustees involved in approvals. How do you manage that?

We're accustomed to it. Governance structures, trustee review cycles, and committee sign-off are part of how cultural institutions operate — we build them into the project timeline from the start and produce board-ready presentations at key decision points.

We'll be clear about what decisions need to be made and when, so approvals don't become bottlenecks.

Can you work within our existing brand guidelines?

Yes. If you have an established visual identity, we work within it. If the guidelines are outdated or incomplete, we'll flag that early and recommend whether they need light extension or a fuller update — with your input, not unilaterally.

If you're starting without guidelines, we build them as part of the engagement so future work — whether done by us or in-house — has a clear reference point.

We're a small team. How much of our time will this take?

We build our working process around small in-house teams. After an initial onboarding session, most of our cultural institution clients spend fewer than two hours per month in active collaboration with us — the rest is handled by our team autonomously, with your sign-off at defined milestones.

We use async-first communication so you're not pulled into frequent meetings, and we document everything so nothing depends on institutional memory.

Do you offer print design alongside digital?

Yes. Print and editorial design is one of our core capabilities — programmes, brochures, season guides, exhibition catalogues, and campaign materials. We design for print and digital in parallel, ensuring consistency across the full audience experience rather than treating them as separate commissions.

Your programme deserves a digital presence as considered as the work itself.

Design that serves the work, and the audience.

A team that understands your world.

Let's talk about your next season.

Let's talk about your next season.

Let's talk about your next season.

FAQ