How we ask.
We spend the first two weeks of any project on one sentence: the question. If we can’t write it, we’re not ready to design. Then we answer it once, plainly, and make everything else follow.
Edda Varkonyi
Strategy
Tomas Okafor-Reyes
Design
2 weeks
on the question, before any design
1 sentence
what every brief becomes
2016
the year we opened, in a former print shop on Raadselstraat
What we do
Strategy
What are we for?
Positioning, audiences and the one sentence everything else follows.
Naming
What should people call it?
Names for companies, products and places, checked before you fall for them.
Identity
What does it look like when nobody explains it?
Marks, type, colour and the rules that hold them together.
Campaigns
What do we say first?
Launches and seasons, from the line to the last poster.
Tone of voice
How does it sound on a bad day?
Writing guides, and the training to use them.
What clients ask us first.
Why start with a question and not a brief?
A brief lists what you want made. A question says what has to change. We can design against the second; the first only tells us how many pages.
How long does the question take?
Two weeks, usually. Interviews, the numbers you already have, a day in the place itself. It ends with one sentence both of us would sign.
What if we already know what we want?
Then the two weeks are short. We still write the question down, so the work has something to be checked against later.
Do you only take whole projects?
No. Often we hand over the question alone, and your own team designs the answer.
What does it cost?
The question is a fixed fee, agreed before we start. The answer is priced once we both know what it is, not before.
What’s the question you can’t answer yet?
Send it to us