The restart isn’t the hard part
If it’s been a while since your last project with us, the door works the same way it always did.
Most practices that go quiet on a vendor for a year or two don’t come back worried about the work. They come back worried about the process — will we have to re-explain everything, will it take longer, will it feel like starting from zero. It won’t. A restart has exactly three moving parts, and none of them require you to re-brief a project you already briefed once. Here’s what actually happens, in order.
What a restart actually asks of you
Not a fresh intake. Three questions, one reconciliation, then the same turnaround as any other job.
What we ask for again
Not a fresh intake form — three questions.
When a scheme comes back after a couple of years, we don’t start from a blank brief. We ask what’s still true from the original scope, what changed in the team or the design, and whether the site conditions still hold. That’s the whole re-onboarding. Everything else — the palette, the camera logic, the studio’s read on the building — comes from the file we already have, not from you re-explaining a project you already explained once.
What doesn’t move
The judgment calls made two years ago are still in the file.
A material decision, a camera angle, a lighting logic — none of it evaporates when a project goes quiet. It sits in the file exactly where it was left, the same way a stone archway keeps its proportions whether or not anyone walks through it for a while. Coming back doesn’t mean re-arguing settled choices; it means picking the thread back up at the point you dropped it.
How fast the first frame comes back
Honestly — faster than a new project, not instantly.
A restart isn’t a cold start, but it isn’t free either. We still need a day to reconcile the old file against whatever changed. Past that, the first frame moves at the same pace as any other job on the same scope — no premium for the gap, no penalty either. The door being open again is the whole point: nobody has to re-earn a place in the queue.
What a restart from us actually looks like
Match the gap you’ve actually got to what it takes to close it.
- It’s been under a year No reconciliation needed — send the brief update, we start.
- It’s been a couple of years Three questions, one day to reconcile the file, then normal turnaround.
- The scope or the site changed Tell us what changed — the rest of the file still holds.
- You’re not sure it’s worth restarting Send the old file. We’ll give you an honest read before you decide anything.
The file didn’t go anywhere. Only the conversation did.
