Friday 5 June
Playbook
Client patterns, sector intelligence, craft rules, process runbooks — captured from the work, not from the manual. The studio writes; the system surfaces.
10 entries · last added 12 May
Client playbooks
3
Solace Beauty
22 Apr
Esther reaches the right decision when she sees three concept routes side by side, not one. The strongest is always presented second. Single-route presentations have failed twice; three-route presentations have landed every time. Default to three.
Captured by · Account director · Solace
Auden Pharmacy
12 May
Otis runs every year-2 review against the performance dashboard before the brand conversation. Lead with ROAS + retention + reach, then move into the year-3 creative direction. The order matters; reversing it produces a defensive brand conversation.
Captured by · Felix · year-2 review
Marlowe Press
4 May
Three pieces with the ECD at a time, not seven. Felicity rejects fast-turnaround work even when it is good — the brand register is slow publishing, and she enforces it through us as well. Reduce per-week throughput, increase per-piece thinking.
Captured by · Iris · Q2 readout
Sector intelligence
3
Premium beauty
8 Apr
Across the founder-led beauty brands in the cohort (Solace, Numen), founder LinkedIn content is converting to brand affinity faster than paid acquisition. The retainer that includes voice work is 3x more likely to lead to brand identity work within 6 months.
Captured by · Sophie · Q1 retrospective
Boutique hospitality
12 May
Lyric Hotels and one earlier hospitality engagement both required deep research before identity work. Charging the research phase as a separate contract de-risks margin and de-risks the client. Default for hospitality engagements going forward.
Captured by · Sophie · Lyric scoping
Heritage F&B
18 Mar
Field & Foundry, Saltrose Spirits and Verdant Tea all need brand work completed in September to ride the Q4 retail cycle. Brief-to-ship timing is 12 weeks minimum. June scoping windows are the latest viable for September shipping.
Captured by · Iris · pipeline review
Craft patterns
2
Concept presentations
30 Apr
Across the last 14 concept presentations, presenting three routes ordered weakest → strongest → safest produces approval on the strongest route 78% of the time. Other orderings produce ~50%. Stick to the order.
Captured by · Studio pattern
Photography
4 Mar
Founder portraiture briefed by the studio without the founder in the room has been re-shot 4 times in 12 months. Founder portraiture briefed with the founder in the room: 0 re-shoots. Always invite them to the brief, even if it costs a day.
Captured by · Theo · Q1 studio review
Process runbooks
2
Brief intake
22 Feb
Two of three clients with loose initial briefs and free-form scoping ended up in scope creep. Charging discovery as a paid phase before identity / campaign work fixes both the margin and the client expectations. Default for any non-anchor client.
Captured by · Sophie · operations note
Voice calibration
18 Apr
Founder voices that are calibrated on two weeks of the founder·s existing writing produce a 91% draft-approval rate. Voices calibrated on a one-hour call produce 64%. Always invest the two weeks; the upfront cost pays back inside the first month of drafts.
Captured by · Iris · cohort retrospective