Clients sometimes ask why nothing visual arrives in the first two weeks. The honest answer: because the most valuable thing we can do early is listen, and listening takes longer than drawing.
Day one to five: interviews
We talk to founders, early employees and — when we can — a handful of customers. We ask the same eight questions every time and record everything. Patterns appear by the third conversation.
What would you never want the brand to sound like?
Which competitor do you secretly admire?
What do customers say about you when you’re not in the room?
Day six to fourteen: the brief
We turn hours of notes into a single page: the sentence, three principles and a short list of things we will not do. Everyone signs it. From then on, design moves quickly because the hard decisions are already made.
Written by
Inês Moura
Inês founded Cozova in 2016 after eight years leading brand teams in London. She writes the first sentence of every project.
