Every job with a real client starts here. Fill it out sitting with the client, in their words, not from memory afterward. A blank on this page is a fight later.
If the person you're talking to isn't the one who signs off, you need that other name today. Finding out in April is the single most common way one of these dies.
"I need a flyer" is not an answer to any of these. Keep asking until you can picture the person looking at it and what they do next.
The vendor's deadline is earlier than the client's deadline. Always. Find out by how much before you promise anything.
Late copy is the number one reason design work misses a deadline, and it will not be your fault but it will be your problem. Put a date on it here.
Standard terms: two rounds of revisions included. Anything beyond that, or any new deliverable added later, is a new work order. Say this out loud at the meeting — it is much harder to say once you’re halfway in.
This work is done by high school design students as coursework. It's free. Two rounds of revisions are included; anything past that is a new work order. Final files are delivered in the formats listed above, and the student designers keep the right to show this work in their portfolios.
If the deadline moves or the project is cancelled, tell the designers as early as you can — they're graded on how this is handled, not only on whether it ships.
Required on any job with a real client, whether it shipped, changed shape, or died. A cancelled project with an honest postmortem is a passing grade. A shipped project with no postmortem is not.