# X Gravity

> X Gravity builds your brand, your website and your tools, start to finish. One senior lead from first call to launch, specialists when the work needs them, one project at a time from $8,000 a month.

X Gravity is a brand and software studio, an Alchemic Graph company, led by its founder, a senior creative director. One senior lead runs each project from first call to launch, with senior specialists brought in for the stages that need them, one at a time. It works in two lanes. Brand covers positioning, naming, identity systems, refreshes, voice and packaging. Build covers websites, Shopify stores, custom business apps, client portals, quoting and booking tools, internal tools and dashboards, which the client owns outright rather than renting. Engagements start with a free intro call and a one-day Mapping Session ($1,000, credited to the first month if the project starts within 60 days), then run one project at a time at one flat monthly rate (from $8,000 a month) with no change orders. Content (photography, video, copy, social) is available as an add-on through a marketing partner. To start a project, use https://xgravity.co/contact.html.

Every page has a Markdown copy: add .md in place of .html (directory pages use index.md).

## Pages

- [X Gravity — brand and business tools you own](https://xgravity.co/index.md): X Gravity builds your brand, your website and your tools, start to finish. One senior lead, one project at a time, from $8,000 a month.
- [Brand](https://xgravity.co/brand.md): Brand at X Gravity: The idea your business can own, and everything that carries it into the world.
- [Build](https://xgravity.co/build.md): Build at X Gravity: Software built around your own data and processes. You own the code, not a subscription.
- [Work](https://xgravity.co/work/index.md): Brands, campaigns and builds by X Gravity.
- [How we work](https://xgravity.co/approach.md): One senior lead, one project at a time, an honest estimate and one flat monthly rate from $8,000. No change orders.
- [From 0 to 1, the whole map](https://xgravity.co/approach/map): an interactive map of how an X Gravity project really runs, using a fictional company, Northfield Supply.
- [About](https://xgravity.co/about.md): X Gravity is led by its founder, a creative director and principal brand designer. The thinking behind the studio, what we believe, how we use AI, and what clients say.
- [Field Notes](https://xgravity.co/field-notes/index.md): Thinking from X Gravity on owned software, brand, and how small businesses are changing.
- [Start a project](https://xgravity.co/contact.md): Tell X Gravity what you're building. We reply within one business day.

## Work

- [The Market Verdict](https://xgravity.co/work/marketverdict.md): A method for reading what the market has actually confirmed about a brand from customer behavior, with printed workbooks for four stages of company and an online workbook that runs the method for a whole team.
- [DotSkills](https://xgravity.co/work/dotskills.md): A learning app that turns any skill into a visual map. We took it from idea to launch: the concept, UX, UI, brand, site and the app itself.
- [Far Away Posts](https://xgravity.co/work/farawayposts.md): A letter service taken from zero to one: the name and mark, the stationery and envelopes, six storybook worlds, and the tool a parent uses to write a one-page letter from Santa, the Tooth Fairy or Cupid, printed on cream paper and mailed.
- [Monarch](https://xgravity.co/work/monarch.html): Name, brand identity and app design for Monarch, a trip-planning and navigation app for places beyond addresses and cell coverage.
- [Fucked Politics](https://xgravity.co/work/fuckedpolitics.html): A fact-checking site built with AI: the site, data, dashboards and a newsroom of agents, with a person approving every verdict.
- [Ube × Ice](https://xgravity.co/work/ubexice.html): A brand for halo-halo, the Filipino shaved-ice dessert: name, identity, cup sizes, illustration and the places it shows up, from napkins to carts.
- [Softwire](https://xgravity.co/work/softwire.md): Strategy, brand and UI/UX for an AI assistant that answers customers, books the work and fills in every customer record from normal texts.
- [SnapDTF](https://xgravity.co/work/snapdtf.md): Brand, ordering site, automatic file checking and an order dashboard for a direct-to-film transfer shop, built end to end.
- [XPLOR](https://xgravity.co/work/xplor.md): Repositioned a flexible-solar platform around reliability and adventure instead of specs, and built the brand, content and community to prove it.
- [Leges Motus](https://xgravity.co/work/legesmotus.md): An automotive apparel brand created from nothing: strategy, identity, product, production, content and a Shopify storefront.
- [Spada Scura](https://xgravity.co/work/spadascura.md): A premium rifle-accessory brand, from naming to launch, that brought craftsmanship into a category built on tactical black polymer.
- [Transform](https://xgravity.co/work/transform.md): A documentary series that showed flexible solar through the people and missions it powers, giving sales real-world proof.
- [Sunday Drive](https://xgravity.co/work/sunday-drive.md): The first chapter of Nowhere Else to Be, a story series that puts the product inside a human moment instead of at the center of it.

## Field Notes

- [From Mess to Method: What I Learned Running Creative Without a Playbook](https://xgravity.co/field-notes/from-mess-to-method.md): The best thing that can happen to a new creative lead is walking in and finding no process at all.
- [The First Ninety Days No One Warns You About](https://xgravity.co/field-notes/the-first-ninety-days.md): The org chart they walk you through on day one is the least accurate document in the building.
- [Why Your Best Work Happens Before the Brief](https://xgravity.co/field-notes/why-your-best-work-happens-before-the-brief.md): By the time a brief lands on your desk, the most interesting decision has usually been made without you.
- [Three Signs Your Creative Process Is Slower Than It Should Be](https://xgravity.co/field-notes/three-signs-your-creative-process-is-slow.md): The design is almost never the slow part.
- [What I Stopped Doing Once I Stopped Trying to Impress Everyone](https://xgravity.co/field-notes/what-i-stopped-doing.md): Most of what designers call presentation polish is insecurity with nice typography.
- [The Difference Between Being Hired and Being Trusted](https://xgravity.co/field-notes/hired-vs-trusted.md): A signed contract is the lowest level of trust a client will ever give you.
- [The Return of the Player-Coach Creative Director](https://xgravity.co/field-notes/player-coach-creative-director.md): For most of my career, moving up in creative meant making less of the work. That's starting to flip.
- [Bring Creative In Before You Commit](https://xgravity.co/field-notes/bring-creative-in-before-you-commit.md): If creative is accountable for the outcome, it needs a voice in the decisions that shape it.
- [Brand Strategy Is Mostly Deciding What You Won't Do](https://xgravity.co/field-notes/brand-strategy-is-deciding-what-you-wont-do.md): A logo tells people who you are. A strategy tells your own team what to say no to.
- [Stop renting your software](https://xgravity.co/field-notes/stop-renting-your-software.md): For twenty years the answer to every business problem was another subscription. That's ending.
- [Why we don't do change orders](https://xgravity.co/field-notes/why-we-dont-do-change-orders.md): A fixed scope pretends you can know everything on day one. You can't.
- [What owning your own tools really costs](https://xgravity.co/field-notes/what-owning-your-tools-really-costs.md): Building is the obvious cost. Here's the rest of the picture, honestly.
- [When you need a brand first, and when you don't](https://xgravity.co/field-notes/when-you-need-a-brand-first.md): Building a website before you know who you are is building on sand. But not everyone needs to start over.
- [The fractional future: when AI does the work, you need people who run it](https://xgravity.co/field-notes/the-fractional-future.md): The most expensive roles in a small business are turning into a few focused hours a week.

## Optional

- [Full site text](https://xgravity.co/llms-full.txt): every page above in one Markdown file
- [Sitemap](https://xgravity.co/sitemap.xml)