Years ago AIGA promoted the idea that "Design isn't Pretty." And we tend to embrace that ideology. Design should first be about solving a problem - and what it looks like is secondary.
This means we do research, writing, sketching and meetings to get ideas out quickly. Once we have a concept that is relevant to the audience - we work on the visuals to match a refined concept. And with 40+ years of combined experience, we find that we have a certain way of thinking mixed with a collaborative working style that is indeed useful to our clients. We should probably mention we're also sorta fun to work with as we check our egos at the door.
Here's some examples where we had our smart pants on.