Ford Field Guides
A grounded, generative system for building brands with clarity, taste, and momentum.
For pivots, fresh starts, and second acts.
Hi, I’m Carrie.
For over 25 years, I’ve worked with hundreds of solo founders and small teams to build brands, design websites, and shape strategies that actually hold up in the real world.
In other words, I’ve been translating creative messiness into clarity for a very long time.
Carrie Ford Hilliker
designer, strategist
systems thinker, artist
-> Creator of the Ford Field Guides
-> Founder of FordVisuals Design
What tends to slow people down:
Getting it right
Uncertainty around identity, language, and visuals. Knowing what you don’t want, but struggling to land on what feels true and finished enough to move forward.
Overwhelm and paralysis
There are so many decisions to make, tools to learn, software to navigate, and opinions to filter that it becomes hard to know where to start, or keep going.
Technology friction
Whether it’s aversion, fatigue, or access related, tech can be a sizable barrier for people to get a project off the ground.
Time and energy
Trying to manage all the pieces of brand building or refining is a lot on its own. Pair that with possibly another job, and most definitely a life, and timelines get stalled regularly.
Budget realities
Not having unlimited resources — and needing systems that respect constraints without compromising quality.
I’ve seen these challenges in stylists, writers, fashion designers, dancers, activists, nonprofit founders, coaches, artists, chefs, musicians, educators, and many others.
The patterns are consistent, but not unsolvable.
Across industries and stages, I see the same core challenges come up again and again. It’s not because people lack talent or ideas, but because building something that feels just right feels like it takes a perfect storm of variables.
Enter the Field Guides.
An antidote to the creative bottleneck.
The Field Guides are built around a set of simple, steady principles. They’re designed to help you move forward without losing your way.
Freedom, with structure
Enough guidance to keep you oriented. Enough openness to follow your instincts.
Evolution over perfection
Progress, refinement, and learning as you go over waiting to waiting for things to feel flawless.
Whole-system thinking
Branding isn’t just a logo or a name. The supporting cast not only matters but plays a vital role: photography, texture, pattern, type, and tone.
Foundations that flex
Build something solid enough to support growth, and flexible enough to change without collapsing.
Small, sustainable steps
This is laid out as mindful, ongoing integration. This is not a high-pressure reveal. Baby steps count.
Your pace, your rhythm
Move quickly or slowly. Dip in deeply or take what you need. The guides adapt to real life, not the other way around.
Field Guide No. 1:
Brand & Vision Mapping
LIVE MARCH 2026
SIGN UP FOR BETA ACCESS
Cross the threshold from great idea to real life.
This Field Guide helps you get clear on what you want to communicate, and then helps you translate that clarity into visuals, language, and direction you can use.
Through guided prompts, mood boards, and practical templates, you’ll define and refine your brand from the inside out. You’ll build a working style guide and a digital vault you can return to whenever you need to steady, expand, or evolve what you’re building.
This isn’t about perfection or a big reveal. It’s about creating a foundation that supports forward motion.
You’ll use this guide to:
Clarify your vision, voice, and visual direction
Translate ideas into usable brand assets
Create systems for rollout, iteration, and growth
Move forward with confidence instead of second-guessing
In addition to core brand-building work, you’ll find perspective on common blocks, shortcuts worth taking, and best practices gathered from years of real-world creative work.
The content is always available. Use it all, use a small part, or return when you’re ready. Take what you need. Leave the rest.
Field Guide No. 1 includes:
Nine focused topic areas
A mix of video, prompts, exercises, and curated resources
Access to the Human Help Desk for questions big or small
Ongoing updates as tools, tech, and needs evolve
COMING LATER THIS YEAR
︵ ︵ ︵
Field Guide No. 2:
Blueprint to Build
This is the workhorse. Turn those visuals and messaging into a functional brand: website design, email communications, social media visuals. This guide walks you through how to build a cohesive digital system that feels polished and true to you.
︵ ︵ ︵
Field Guide No. 3:
Check-in and Check-up
Ensure what you’ve built stays fresh. This guide helps you strengthen, refine or steady what already exists, without having to start from scratch. Brand diagnostics, reflections, tidying, polishing. You come out stronger, current, and confident.
I’m still confused.
What are the Field Guides?
The Field Guides combine clear frameworks with creative guidance and actionable tools to help you move from vision to execution.
They’re built around three core pillars: clarity, structure, and momentum.
You’ll work in realistically bite sized, high-impact steps via exercises, audio guides, videos, prompts, and resources, all designed to keep you moving without overwhelm. This is meant to fit into real life, not compete with it.
The Field Guides are for creative people building businesses who want clarity, structure, and momentum with support and without pressure.
They’re especially useful if you:
Care deeply about taste, intention, and how things feel
Want guidance that respects your intelligence and autonomy
Prefer systems you can adapt, not rigid formulas
Are building or refining something you plan to live inside for a while
They may not be the best fit if you’re:
Looking for shortcuts, hacks, or overnight results
Wanting someone else to make every decision for you
Expecting a one-size-fits-all answer or a fixed timeline
If you’re thoughtful, curious, and ready to work deliberately (at your own pace) the Field Guides will be a big help to you.
These are resources, not another course, webinar, or masterclass with a hard upsell. They are currently structured as a membership. This allows the content to stay dynamic and current and in tune with your needs.
You may get what you need in a few weeks, or you may feel like you need to stretch out your timeline. Life happens and projects sometimes need to pause. The Field Guides will be there when you’re ready.
Each guide is regularly reviewed and updated as tech changes, trends evolve, and your needs grow.
Your human algorithm.
Simple, straightforward pricing.
Introductory pricing is $35 per month.
Prices in USD. All currencies accepted.
Take what you need when you need it.
Cancel anytime.