What Clients Ask Before We Begin: An Honest Look At The Design Process
Before a project starts, there's almost always a conversation — sometimes several — in which prospective clients ask the questions they've been sitting with. I welcome those conversations. The clearer we both are about what the process involves, the better the collaboration tends to go.
Below are the questions I hear most often, with the answers I give in the room.
How Do Design Fees Work?
Design is a professional service, in the same category as architecture, interior design, or landscape architecture.
Phase I of my Bianchi Process — the Concept Design — is billed at a flat fee scaled to the scope, size, and complexity of your site. Subsequent phases are structured differently, and each phase of the Bianchi Process can be engaged independently.
What I'd encourage you to think about isn't the fee in isolation, but what the fee represents: a fully realized Master Plan Concept Design, developed by someone whose sole accountability is the integrity of your space.
That is a fundamentally different investment than a drawing produced to support a construction sale.
Can I Hire You For Design Only?
Yes — and in fact, Phase I is always design only. The concept design is a standalone deliverable.
What I'd offer as context is this: outdoor living environments are interpretive in a way that built structures often aren't. A plan, however well conceived, requires someone fluent in the design intent to bring it to life in the field. The difference between a design executed with that fluency and one built without it is visible — and it's significant.
“A great plan built without the designer’s ongoing guidance is like a musical score handed to musicians who’ve never met the composer. The notes are right. But something essential is missing.”
Through Phases II, III, and IV (should you choose to engage me), I remain engaged as Artistic Director — curating the team of artisan craftsmen, overseeing construction drawings, and providing field presence through completion.
That continuity is what protects the design from the thousand small decisions that happen during a build.
How Detailed Are Your Drawings?
The design process unfolds in layers.
Phase I delivers a fully realized Concept Design — complete enough to give you genuine clarity about the direction and the potential of your site, and detailed enough to support general pricing and budget conversations.
From there, Phases II and III develop construction drawings with the specificity your craftsmen need in the field. The level of detail at each phase is calibrated to what that phase requires — not more, not less.
What If I Don't Like The Design?
This question comes up occasionally, and I find it worth examining.
Genuine design is not guesswork — it is a disciplined process of listening, observation, and elimination, grounded in the specific qualities of your site and your own stated intentions. A great design is the meeting point between what a client deeply wants and what the property is capable of becoming.
That said, Phase I includes a revision session precisely because design is a conversation, not a decree. If something isn't landing, we work through it together.
The goal is always a result you feel — not just approve.
How Long Does The Process Take?
It depends on the scope and complexity of the project, and on how quickly decisions are made at each phase. What I can say with confidence is that the process is never rushed.
True excellence — in design and in execution — requires the time it requires. Not a day more; not a day less.
Clients who work well with me tend to share that sensibility. They understand that a space they'll live with for decades is worth the deliberate attention it takes to get right.
Where Do We Start?
With a conversation.
I want to understand the site, your life in it, how you use the space now, and how you'd like to experience it. I'm listening for the things you articulate directly and the things that emerge between the lines — because the best designs tend to honor both.
From there, if it feels like a good mutual fit, we move into Phase I … and the work begins.
