how to write a brief that fits on one page.

The problem, the audience, the deadline and what success looks like. Everything else can wait for the first meeting.

Every project in the studio starts with a brief, and the best ones are short. A single page forces the big decisions to happen before anyone opens a design file, which saves everyone a week of guessing.

If you lead one of the companies in the collective, this is the page we’d love to receive. Four parts, in this order.

the four parts

The problemWhat needs to change, in one or two sentences. “Sales of the winter range dropped after the relaunch” is a problem. “We need a new label” is a solution, and it closes doors before we’ve looked behind them.
The audienceWho has to notice, believe or do something differently. Be as specific as you can: current customers, trade buyers, a new city, your own sales team.
The deadlineThe date it has to be live, and why that date. A trade show, a launch, a season. If the date can move, say so. It changes what we can make.
What success looks likeHow we’ll all know it worked. A number is great; a sentence is fine. “Buyers at the spring show ask for samples” counts.

a page you can copy

Fill this in, keep each answer short, and leave anything you don’t know blank. A blank is more useful to us than a guess.

brief · company name

One page

Company and lead

The problem

The audience

The deadline, and why

What success looks like

Budget range, if known

Anything we must keep

Paste it into an email or a doc.

what can wait

Mood boards, colour preferences, folders of competitors and the list of everyone who needs to approve it. Bring them to the first meeting, where they’re genuinely useful. In a brief, they tend to answer questions we haven’t asked yet.

A brief is a problem with a deadline. The rest is a conversation.

what happens next

Send the page to your company lead. They’ll pass it to the studio, and we’ll come back with questions, a rough plan and a time for the first meeting.

brands worth quoting.

In-house studio
of the collectiveScroll to explore

another agency,
the in-house voice

We are the creative studio inside the collective: one team working for every company in the group, whatever industry it's in.

Most groups hire a new agency for every company they own, and each one starts from zero. We don't. We already know the brands, the people and what worked last time, so the best idea from one company can go straight to work for the next. Because the best lines are the ones worth repeating.

The companies we work for · and counting

Every brand keeps its own voice

01 / 04

01 · Strategy

Strategy

Before anything gets designed, we work out what the company needs to say and who needs to hear it. Positioning, naming, audiences, and a plan everyone in the room agrees on.

02 · Design

Design

Identity, packaging, print and spaces. Each company in the collective gets a look that belongs to it alone, built as a system its own team can run with.

03 · Content