Stop 1 of 8 · Weekly
The brief and the scope
A brief PDF becomes a scope table, a questions email and a quote priced from your own rate card, before you say yes.
A brief is not a job yet
Rami gets briefs three ways. A nine-page PDF from an agency. Two paragraphs of email from a restaurant owner. A voice note from a gym owner who is driving. None of them say how many rounds are included, who owns the layered files afterwards, or what happens when the owner's brother turns out to have opinions about the logo.
Designing is the part Rami is good at. Saying yes before a scope exists is the part that costs him money. Claude reads a brief the way a producer reads it, so Rami can read it the way a designer does: the deliverable list with real sizes, the gaps the brief does not fill, and a quote structure he prices himself.
The five lines that decide the price
| Line | What it actually decides |
|---|---|
| Deliverables and sizes | The hours, rather than the feel of the job |
| Rounds included | Whether round four is free |
| Turnaround and approver | Who can say yes, and by when |
| Usage and ownership | Print, paid ads, franchise reuse, source files |
| Assets they supply | Photos, copy, logo files, or you are art directing a shoot |
If the brief does not answer one of these, it is a question. Never a guess.
Brief in, scope out
[upload the brief PDF] Read this as the person who has to deliver it, not the person who wrote it. Give me four things. One, every deliverable with the exact size and file format, as a table. Two, the deliverables this brief implies but never names. Three, which of these five it fails to answer: rounds included, final approver, deadline, usage rights, who supplies photography. Four, anything in the brief that contradicts something else in it. Do not estimate hours or money.
Using the gaps you just listed, write the email I send before I quote. Friendly, six questions maximum, numbered, one sentence each, written for a restaurant owner and not for a designer. Close by saying the quote follows within two working days of their answers. Do not invent any price, date or deliverable I have not given you.
Here is my rate card: [paste your rates]. Using the scope table and the client's answers, lay the quote out: line items with my numbers, the total, what is included, how many rounds, what counts as a new round, the usage the price covers, and the two things that are explicitly out of scope. Use my figures only. If a line has no rate on my card, mark it TBC and tell me which ones.
The out-of-scope line
Two sentences at the bottom of the quote do more for a freelance year than any contract clause anyone reads. Name what is included, name what starts a new quote. Ask Claude to write them in the client's language, then keep the same two sentences for every job so you stop rewriting them.