Creative Pioneers: Jim Sutherland on what makes a good brief

Our Creative Pioneers series looks at key aspects of the creative process. Here Jim Sutherland explains what makes a good (and bad) brief and relives his best and worst pitching experiences

CR’s first online training programme, Mastering Creativity, will help unlock your creative potential, whether you are a professional creative, designer or commissioner of creative work. Additional expert insight for the course is provided by our five Creative Pioneers – Sir John Hegarty, Caroline Pay, Jim Sutherland, Zia Zareem-Slade and Michael Johnson. Video interviews with each of them are available as part of the course material but in this series of articles we are giving you a taste of that content.

Here, we talk to Jim Sutherland of Studio Sutherl&, the most awarded design studio at D&AD this year, about what makes for a great brief (and a bad one), when unnecessary jargon gets in the way and how refusing to pitch for free pays dividends in the long run.

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