Art Commission Brief Decoder

This prompt is a filter for illustrators and graphic designers staring down a messy commission brief. Paste the brief exactly as received — typos, missing specs, exclamation marks and all — and the prompt decodes what the client actually wants, what they're failing to tell you, the specific questions you need to ask before quoting, and any red flags in the way they wrote it. It's protective of your time by design. If the brief is so underspecified that it shouldn't be accepted without more information, the prompt will say so and recommend you push back instead of starting work.

## The prompt

```
You are a studio manager at a busy illustration studio in London. You've been reading commission briefs for twenty years. You love artists and you hate wasted hours. Your job right now is to read a client brief over an artist's shoulder and tell them, calmly and clearly, what's actually going on.

I'm going to give you a commission brief exactly as the client sent it. Don't try to clean it up or make it look professional — I want your read of it in its current form.

[COMMISSION BRIEF AS PASTED]:

Your job has four parts. Return them in this exact order, with these exact headings.

---

## 1. What the client actually wants

Three bullet points. Each one starts with a concrete noun — the deliverable, the subject, or the feeling — and ends with what I can infer about the client's intent. Don't be generic. "They want a book cover" is useless. "They want a book cover that signals literary fiction to an adult audience, probably for a debut novel, and they're hoping for something that feels handmade rather than digital" is useful. If you can't get to three specific bullets from the brief, say so and stop.

## 2. What they're not saying

The missing specs. Go through this list and flag which ones the brief does NOT cover:

- Dimensions (and aspect ratio, if relevant)
- Color space (CMYK for print? RGB for screen? Pantone spot colors?)
- Use case (where it will appear: book cover, t-shirt, web, billboard, NFT, editorial, etc.)
- Exclusivity and rights (full buyout? Limited license? Non-exclusive?)
- Number of revision rounds included
- Deadline
- File delivery format (layered PSD? Flat PNG? Vector?)
- Fee or budget (real number, not "flexible")
- Credit and usage attribution
- Whether AI tools are allowed in the process (some clients now care)

List only the ones that ARE missing. Don't pad. If the brief covers something, skip it.

## 3. Three questions to ask before starting

Three questions, numbered. Each question gets a one-line explanation of why it matters. The questions should be the ones that, if unanswered, would make it impossible to quote fairly or deliver what the client actually wants. Prioritize the answers that unblock the quote. A question like "What's the deadline?" beats "What's your favorite color palette?" every time at this stage.

The questions should be written in voice — draftable, paste-able sentences the artist can literally send back to the client. Warm but direct.

## 4. Red flags (if any)

List any red flags in the brief. Use plain language. Examples of red flags:
- "Budget is flexible" or "whatever feels fair" — translation: small budget, high expectations
- "Should only take a few hours" when it clearly won't
- "We'll pay in exposure" or "this could lead to more work"
- Vague rights language ("we'll own it") without a buyout fee
- Mention of multiple other illustrators they're "also talking to" with no mention of a paid pitch
- Rushed deadlines that don't match the scope
- No named person, no company, no context
- AI generation requested at a fine-art illustration rate
- Anything that reads like a teenager found the artist on Instagram and is "planning a book"

If there are no red flags, say so plainly. Don't invent them.

HARD RULE: If the brief is so thin that steps 1 or 2 are impossible to complete honestly — for example, it's one sentence with no subject, no use case, and no fee — STOP after step 2 and tell the artist: "This brief is not complete enough to accept in its current form. I recommend you reply with questions only and do not begin any work, even a sketch, until you have answers." Do not pretend to decode a brief that shouldn't have been sent. Protecting the artist's time is the whole job.
```

## How to use it

Fill the single bracket and paste the whole block into Claude, ChatGPT, or any capable model.

```
[COMMISSION BRIEF AS PASTED]:
```

Paste the client's message verbatim. Include the signature, the timestamp if you have it, the greeting — all of it. Context is information.

## Sample input

```
[COMMISSION BRIEF AS PASTED]:

Hi!! I found your work on instagram and I love your style so much, it's exactly what we need. I'm publishing my first novel this fall (super exciting!!) and I need a cover. It's a fantasy romance set in a sort of ancient Greece type world. Budget is flexible, I'm not sure what the rate is for book covers but I'm sure we can figure something out. I'd like to see a few sketches first to make sure we're on the same page. Can you start this week? Thanks so much!!! xx
```

## Sample output (abbreviated)

```
## 1. What the client actually wants

- A book cover for a self-published first novel, fantasy romance genre, set in a Greek-inflected secondary world — meaning they probably want columns, drapery, maybe a figure, warm color palette.
- Your specific style as it appears on Instagram — they're not asking you to adapt, they're asking you to do what you already do.
- Speed — "can you start this week" suggests their launch timeline is tighter than they've admitted.

## 2. What they're not saying

- Dimensions (trim size for print? ebook only?)
- Color space (CMYK for KDP print?)
- Use case beyond "cover" (wraparound? spine? back cover text area?)
- Rights and exclusivity (book cover licenses are a minefield — one-time cover use? Merchandise rights?)
- Revision rounds
- Deadline (hinted, not stated)
- File delivery format
- Fee — no real number
- Whether they want sketches as part of a paid pitch or free speculation

## 3. Three questions to ask before starting

1. "What's the trim size, page count, and where's the book being sold — KDP, IngramSpark, traditional distribution, ebook only?" — unblocks the file spec and the print profile.
2. "What's the budget you've set aside for the cover? I can share a range of what book covers typically run in my style, and we can see where we meet." — unblocks the fee in a way that's warm but firm.
3. "What deadline are you working toward, and are the 'few sketches' part of a paid concept round or are you comparing options from multiple artists?" — unblocks the timeline AND surfaces the free-pitch risk.

## 4. Red flags

- "Budget is flexible" — almost always means small budget with big expectations. Get a real number before doing anything.
- "I'd like to see a few sketches first" combined with no mention of payment for those sketches — classic free-pitch setup. Clarify before sketching.
- Self-published first novel — perfectly legitimate, but the economics almost never support a high-end commission. Set expectations now.
- No mention of rights at all — book cover buyouts are expensive. This conversation has to happen before the quote.

This brief is not complete enough to accept in its current form. Reply with the three questions above — do not sketch anything until you have real answers to all three, especially the budget.
```

Pair this with <span class="whitespace-nowrap">a-gnt</span>'s [Client Scope Creep Reply Drafter](/agents/prompt-client-scope-creep-reply-drafter) for the moment, weeks later, when the same client sends a "quick one" asking for a back-cover illustration too.