Client briefs driving you mad? Whether they’re abstract, detailed, or, as in the case of this project, non-existent - focusing on the client instead and designing to their needs is a recipe for success.

Love or hate them, design briefs are a fact of life. On the one hand, they can offer a useful, sometimes indispensable guide to understanding a client’s objectives, tastes and resources; on the other, they can become mine fields of vague or contradictory ideas (as per the top post on the ‘worst design brief ever’ sub-reddit: a brief requesting a “swirly pattern type thing”.)

So how can designers navigate these potentially treacherous waters? In the case of Lot.1, a newly opened café/restaurant/cocktail bar in Sydney’s CBD, a little initiative by designers at Enter Projects has produced impressive results.

See the full story in Indesign #66. Subscribe here.