The Strategy Playbook & Creative Brief

An engagement that begins from your completed free diagnostic plus a short intake form. Within three days of intake, the Strategy Playbook arrives: what your business is, who it’s for, why it’s different. You pick a direction from three; within three days of your pick, the Creative Brief follows: how your business sounds and how it looks, pinned into rules you can use on Monday. Everything is delivered at a persistent URL you keep.

What you get

  • The Strategy Playbook: your business named precisely — what it is, who it’s for, what makes it genuinely different.
  • Three directions: distinct, worked-out ways your business could sound and look, each with real trade-offs, for you to choose between.
  • The Creative Brief: your voice pinned — characteristics, do-and-don’t rules, sample copy written in your register.
  • Your visual territory pinned in the same Brief: typography direction, palette character, and imagery standards that match the voice.
  • A persistent URL you keep — the whole engagement, permanently linkable, yours.

How it works

  1. 01Take the free diagnostic — eleven questions, at mainmade.co.
  2. 02Complete a short intake form to begin the engagement.
  3. 03Within three days of intake: your Strategy Playbook arrives, with three directions to choose between.
  4. 04Pick the direction that fits — on your timing, not ours.
  5. 05Within three days of your pick: your Creative Brief arrives. Both live at your URL.

Why this comes before the logo

Most people arrive here wanting the visible thing — a logo that finally fits, a site that sounds like them, photography that doesn’t look borrowed. Fair. That’s the point of all this. But visual work built on an assumed foundation feels right for a while and then drifts — every new page becomes a fresh guess at what the business is. The Playbook and Brief name that foundation first: what you are, how you sound, how you look. Once it’s named, the logo, the site, and the photographs have something to hold onto. That’s the order, and it’s the whole reason this comes first.

This methodology was built by someone who ran this work for the world’s biggest companies — and watched businesses like their parents’ go without it because the price was never built for them. What you’re getting is the same framework, the same standard of review, the same quality of thinking. The number is different. The work isn’t.

The Strategy Playbook & Creative Brief: $149.

Whoever builds it, this holds

The day the Brief lands at your URL, we ask one thing, in writing: what landed, what didn’t. No call, no pitch — just the door left open. Then it’s yours to hand off. The Brief pins how you sound and how you look clearly enough that your designer, your copywriter, whoever’s been waiting on clearer direction, can build straight from it. Or Mainmade keeps building with you — that’s The Build, and the same reply is where it starts. Neither path is the fine print. The Brief was written to work in either pair of hands.

FAQ

What do I actually walk away with?

A Strategy Playbook, three directions, and a Creative Brief that pins how your business sounds — voice, rules, sample copy — and how it looks — typography, palette, imagery standards. All of it at a persistent URL you keep, written in your register, usable the day it arrives.

How long does it take?

The Strategy Playbook arrives within three days of intake. Then you pick a direction — that timing is yours. The Creative Brief follows within three days of your pick. Most people have both inside a week.

Do I need to take the diagnostic first?

Yes — the engagement begins from your completed free diagnostic plus a short intake form. The diagnostic isn’t a formality; it’s the raw material the Playbook is built from, and it’s free either way.

What happens after the Brief?

If you want the Brief executed, The Build takes it the rest of the way: a pinned visual identity, a complete copy set, and a rendered homepage. Write to hello@mainmade.co when you’re ready.

Is this the real thing, or a version of it for small businesses?

The real thing. Every engagement goes through the same audit, the same analysis, the same standard of review — whether you have five clients or five hundred. The price was rebuilt for small businesses. The rigor wasn’t.

Founding 10 Case Study Program.

Mainmade is taking on its first ten case studies at no cost. We pick the work; you keep everything we make for you, to use however you want. In exchange, we ask for a short testimonial and permission to publish the case study — anonymized or named, your call.

We’re taking ten.

If you’re a solo practitioner with a craft you take seriously and a brand that doesn’t yet match it, tell us about your work.

Apply →