It’s time to address the faults in the pitching process

The news story about the Central Office of Information roster review and Adrian Shaughnessy’s Private View about the client/design consultancy dynamic (DW 7 April) made me laugh in an ‘I told you so’ manner. They confirmed that the pitch process is still a mess.

The COI has put in place a very structured roster and has scrapped the ‘one size fits all’ system. We look forward to seeing objective appointments outside of the usual suspects.

Shaughnessy’s column was a fantastic insight into the guesswork that goes into the majority of pitches on the designer’s side, and the angst a client goes through when he realises that the brief wasn’t as good as it could have been.

Tenders aren’t answered like sales requisitions – it is the designer’s responsibility to make a judgment on what the client is really looking for.

That said, responding to a bad brief is a waste of time and creating a sensible structure for giving designers a fighting chance is well overdue.

Paul Duncanson, Managing director, Creativebrief, London W1D