Every year more good work is commissioned across borders, and a lot of it turns out worse than it should. Not because the studio was weak, but because nobody set the project up to survive the distance. The fix is mostly process, and it is not complicated.
This is how we run cross-border projects on the International Desk, and what we ask of clients to make them work.
Pick the studio for the work, not the postcode
The instinct to hire local is understandable, but proximity is worth less than experience. A studio that has done your exact kind of project three times, in a market that looked like yours, will beat a nearer studio doing it for the first time. Ask to see the closest comparable work, not the nearest office.
Agree the shape before the first design
The single biggest predictor of a good remote project is a written scope: what is being made, who decides, and by when. We put this on the table before anyone commits. When both sides can see the same plan, time zones stop mattering.
Meet where the work happens
Weekly working sessions in your time zone, not status calls. Two on-site visits at the moments that need a room: the kickoff and the final decisions. Everything in between runs online, and it runs fine, because the important conversations were scheduled deliberately.
