The Brief: A Letter to Prospective Clients

This is a letter to the clients I am looking for, and who may be looking for me. It explains what I need from a brief, what you should expect from the relationship, and why the work only functions when both parties understand what it is — and what it is not. If it resonates, you already know whether to get in touch.

Introduction

The best design relationships begin before a single mark is made. They begin with a shared understanding of what the work is for.

My practice is built on a single conviction: luxury is coherence. Not a logo. Not a colour palette. The feeling that every detail — from the website to the wayfinding, from the business card to the bar menu — was conceived by a single, considered mind. When that coherence is present, a brand communicates authority without saying a word. When it is absent, no budget can compensate.

I have spent 25 years building that kind of coherence for brands across hospitality, healthcare, fashion, and finance. Some of that work is in selected work. Some of it is in offices and hotel lobbies that carry the brand in three dimensions.

This letter is about the work that comes next. Specifically, it is about whether we are right for each other.

What I Am Looking For in a Client

The clients I work with best share a handful of qualities. None of them are about sector or budget. They are about disposition.

They have a physical presence, or they will have one. A hotel. A clinic. A restaurant. A members' club. A retail environment. The brand does not live only on a screen; it lives in a space, and they understand that both must speak the same language.

They are building something they intend to be proud of for a long time. Not a fast brand. Not a rebrand driven by a deadline. A considered investment in how their business is perceived, now and five years from now.

They are aesthetically literate. They do not need to know the difference between a serif and a sans-serif, but they know when something is exactly right and when it is not. They have taste, and they trust it enough to commission someone whose taste they also trust.

They understand that design is strategy. The clients who have taken the most from working with me — the Lion Inn, whose complete rebrand produced a 30% increase in bookings, or the Private Harley Street Clinic, for whom I built a complete brand ecosystem spanning identity, digital, print, wayfinding, and interior concepts — came in knowing that the brief was a strategic document, not a shopping list.

If that portrait resembles you, read on.

What This Engagement Is Not

Clarity on this point saves us both time.

I do not offer packages. There is no "starter brand" or "digital-only" option. Every engagement is scoped specifically to what the client needs, and that scope is established through conversation, not a menu.

I do not delegate. The work that leaves Idun Design has been conceived, directed, and refined by me. There are no junior designers, no subcontracted studios, no offshore production. This is a constraint I impose deliberately: it is what makes the coherence possible.

I do not take on every project that comes to me. A small number of commissions are accepted each year. This is not a scarcity tactic. It is a quality guarantee. Every commission I accept is at the direct expense of giving full attention to the ones already underway. The clients who benefit most from this arrangement are the ones who understand it.

I am not the right fit for a client who wants to be deeply involved in design decisions at an executional level, who needs a brief turned around in a fortnight, or who is primarily motivated by finding the most affordable option. I say this with respect, not judgement. Those clients exist, and there are excellent designers who serve them well. I am simply not one of them.

What You Should Expect From Me

If we work together, here is what you can count on.

One creative mind, present at every stage. From the strategy conversation to the final artwork file, the same intelligence that shaped the brief is the one executing it. You will not find yourself explaining the original thinking to someone who joined the project halfway through.

Honesty over flattery. If your current brand has structural problems, I will tell you. If your brief has gaps, we will close them before the work begins. A designer who tells you what you want to hear is not serving your interests.

Institutional rigour applied to boutique precision. My current engagement at Goldman Sachs requires the kind of standards, discretion, and attention to detail that institutional clients demand. I bring that same standard to private commissions. It does not matter whether the deliverable is a set of brand guidelines or a menu cover: the level of consideration is the same.

Honest timelines. Good work takes the time it takes. I will give you a realistic programme at the outset and I will not compress it for the sake of an arbitrary deadline. If a timeline is non-negotiable on your side, tell me at the start. We can plan around it. We cannot retrofit quality into a schedule that has already been agreed.

How the Relationship Works

The process is straightforward, and it has not changed significantly in 25 years.

It begins with a conversation. Not a pitch, not a proposal — a conversation. I want to understand what you are building, why now, and what success looks like for you in three years, not just at launch.

From there, I develop a brief. This is a working document, not a formality. It captures the strategic thinking that will underpin every creative decision that follows. Clients who engage seriously with the brief stage get significantly more from the work.

The creative process then unfolds in phases: strategy and positioning, identity development, and then the extension of that identity across every relevant touchpoint — digital, print, environmental, or all three. You will see the thinking at each stage. You will have the opportunity to respond to it. But you are commissioning a creative direction, not co-designing one. The distinction matters.

Communication is direct and substantive. I do not use project management software or status update decks. If something needs to be said, it is said.

What I Am Looking For in a Brief

A good brief tells me three things: what you are trying to achieve, who you are trying to reach, and what you are willing to invest to achieve it.

The third point is the one most people are reluctant to address. I understand why. But ambiguity about budget does not protect you: it leads to a scope of work that does not match your expectations, or an engagement that runs out of resource before it reaches its potential. Both outcomes serve neither of us.

A good brief does not need to be long. It needs to be honest. Tell me what you know, what you do not know, and what you are worried about. The gaps are often where the most useful work happens.

What I do not find useful: briefs framed entirely around aesthetic references, briefs that have been written to impress rather than to inform, and briefs that open with "we just need a logo." In my experience, no client who is serious about their brand just needs a logo.

Why Selectivity Is the Guarantee

There is a version of a design practice that takes on as much work as possible, delegates most of it, and competes primarily on speed and price. That practice exists, it serves a purpose, and it is not this one.

The value I offer is not efficiency. It is the application of a single, experienced creative intelligence to every aspect of your brand, without interruption and without dilution. That is what brand identity and environmental design looks like when it is working: not a collection of well-executed assets, but a coherent whole that communicates authority in every context it appears.

That level of attention is only possible when the number of commissions is controlled. It is also why I serve as a judge at D&AD's annual New Blood Exhibition: the standards I hold my own work to are the same ones I use to assess excellence in others. Selectivity is not a posture. It is the mechanism by which the quality is maintained.

Conclusion

If this letter reads like it was written to you, it probably was.

The clients I work with best are not looking for a designer. They are looking for a creative director they can trust with the whole picture — someone who will hold the vision together across every expression of their brand, for as long as it takes to get it right.

If that is what you are looking for, I would be glad to hear from you.

The next step is a conversation. There is no form to fill in, no discovery call template, no onboarding sequence. Write to me, tell me what you are building, and we will take it from there.

Begin a conversation — or write directly to hello@idundesign.co.uk