Founding agencies
The Team plan for up to five people, free for a month. In return: real client work, two short calls and an honest word on what doesn’t work. Working on your own? You get the Solo plan on the same terms.
01First layer
The real ask, the contradictions and the questions for the client are on the page before the debrief. The question that turns the brief around still comes from you.
First layer
Client: mobile bank · launch-brief.pdf
Questions for the client
You
The question the brief missed
Who chose the bank they use now?
Usually a parent, years ago. So this isn't a download problem. It's a switching problem, and a viral video won't solve it.
Underpaint found the gaps. You found the problem.
02Four roles
Four roles. Each has a pain, a method, and a first answer you can take to a meeting.
A new brief: thirty pages, three goals in one sentence and a debrief worth preparing well.
The real problem, the gaps, and the questions you still owe the client. The insight stays yours.
Break the client brief
See the methodsA good brief deserves more than the first three ideas anyone would have.
Three routes in that brand's voice, so the team argues about ideas, not about the tone.
Campaign routes from a brief
See the methodsThe client’s email says what they want. The team needs to know what they need.
Walk in prepared. Notes become a brief, a status, and the questions you still need to ask.
Brief intake notes
See the methodsA concept that still has to become a picture, without breaking the brand.
Three visual directions and a key-visual prompt that respects the brand book.
Visual directions and KV prompt
See the methods03The programme
The Team plan for up to five people, free for a month.
A direct line to the authors. What you ask for can end up in the product.
Help setting up your first clients, brands and files.
Use it on real client work, not a demo.
Two calls, at the start and at the end, and a few short questions in between.
Tell us plainly what doesn’t work.
Independent creative, marketing and PR agencies, and freelancers who work for several brands.
Teams that work for several brands at once.
Strategy, creative, account and design. Ideally all four at the table.
04One month
A 45-minute call. Together we set up your first two clients from your own briefs, brand books and files.
The team works on live client work with the methods for their role. Now and then a short question from us, never a survey marathon.
Write to us whenever something slows you down. What we can fix, we fix while you’re still testing.
A 30-minute call: what worked, what didn’t. Then move to a paid plan or stop. No card on file, so nothing renews by itself.
05What we promise
An answer within a week
Every application gets a reply, also when it isn’t a fit yet.
No training on your work
We don’t train models on your content, and we route around providers that train on customer data wherever the model allows it.
Your name stays yours
We never mention your agency or your clients in public without your written OK.
You can leave any time
Stop whenever you like and take your work with you as an export.
We tell you what changed
After the wrap-up you get a short note: what we heard and what we’re doing about it.
06The people behind it
Briefs, debriefs, pitches, a status the client actually reads. We built Underpaint for our own teams first. It does the groundwork and leaves the craft with you.
07Data
Files and the database stay in the EU. Before anything reaches a model, names you mark and the contact details we recognise become placeholders, and the answer comes back with the real names. Models run at the providers on our list, some outside the EU. One client's data never enters another's.
08Apply
Two minutes. We read every application and reply within a week. If it’s not a fit yet, we’ll say so.
No card · a reply within a week
09Questions