The prompt is the brief.
How we rewrote our intake after a year of running AI-first projects.
We used to ask clients for adjectives. Now we ask for verbs, references, and one image they can't stop thinking about.
We used to ask clients for adjectives. 'Premium.' 'Bold.' 'Clean.' Words that mean nine different things to nine different people, and nothing at all to a model.
Now we ask for verbs, references, and one image they can't stop thinking about. A brief that works for AI works better for designers too — it forces a precision the old format never demanded.
The shift is simple but it changes everything: a good prompt is just a good brief, written down honestly. If you cannot prompt it, you have not briefed it. And if you have briefed it well, the first round is already close.
So our intake got shorter and sharper. Fewer boxes. More specifics. One reference is worth a paragraph of adjectives.