Decide what the gift should remind people of
A company has more material to work with than its logo. It might have a recognizable product, an office with a distinctive entrance, a mascot, or a moment the team still talks about. Pick one of those as the subject before deciding how many pieces the set should contain.
Consider a fictional audio startup celebrating its first speaker launch. A brick version of the speaker might be immediately recognizable to the engineers who built it. For customers who have never seen the product, a small listening-room scene could explain more. For a reception desk, a larger sculptural interpretation might have enough presence to work across the room.
Those are three different briefs. None is automatically the best. The choice depends on the recipient and the place the finished model will live. A useful test is to remove the printed company name from the concept: would the intended recipient still understand the connection?
Choose a format before chasing detail
A relief or framed logo
This format suits artwork whose identity lives in a strong outline, lettering or color arrangement. It gives you a clear front view and can make sense when desk depth is limited. It also asks you to accept a particular viewpoint. A logo that depends on very thin lines may need to become larger or simpler to read in bricks.
A freestanding product or mascot
A three-dimensional object rewards being seen from several sides. It can be a good fit when the subject has a distinctive silhouette: the speaker’s proportions, for example, or a mascot’s posture. Supply side and rear references as well as the front. Otherwise the designer has to invent important surfaces.
A small scene
A scene gives context to a subject that is hard to recognize alone. The fictional speaker might sit beside a chair and a record shelf, with the company mark placed discreetly on the base. The tradeoff is attention: every extra object competes with the thing you meant to celebrate. Choose a single focal point and let the surroundings support it.
If the goal is a gift that fits beside a monitor, give a maximum footprint in centimeters or inches. “Small enough for a desk” leaves too much room for interpretation. If the model will travel home from an event, include how recipients are expected to carry it.
Spend the budget on the features people recognize
Piece count is a rough description of scope, not a complete pricing method. Two models with the same count can use very different elements and colors, require different sourcing work and take different amounts of time to review and pack.
Identify the details that must survive simplification. On our fictional speaker, that might be a circular dial and a contrasting grille. A tiny port on the back could be optional. If the first concept costs too much, this distinction gives the designer a way to reduce complexity without losing the subject.
Separate your total project budget from the amount available for each delivered kit. Design and setup, parts, instructions, packaging, assembly or packing work, delivery and tax can all affect what fits. Ask which of those are included in the proposal. For a quantity change, request a revised quote rather than assuming that doubling the order halves the unit price.
Our kit-cost page shows examples with current prices. Treat them as references for those specific designs, not a promise that your custom project will cost the same. Exact requirements and quantities still matter.
Give the designer constraints they can act on
Send the actual brand assets and a short explanation of how flexible they are. A color can be essential to recognition while an exact shade may be difficult to reproduce with available elements. Say whether an approximate brick color is acceptable, and who will approve it.
Keep “must have” separate from “nice to have.” For the speaker project, the must-haves might be the dial, grille and compact footprint. A moving control could be an optional exploration. Calling the mechanism optional lets the designer assess whether it adds enough value to justify the extra construction and testing work.
Describe the builder, too. Experienced hobbyists may enjoy intricate subassemblies. A team gift for mixed experience levels needs instructions that make unfamiliar connections easy to understand. If assembly time matters for an event, ask for it to be assessed with a representative builder. Piece count alone is a poor guarantee of how long people will take.
Finally, name one person who can consolidate feedback. Conflicting comments from several approvers can turn a clear concept into repeated redesigns. Agree on the subject and silhouette first, then refine details.
A brief you can copy
The following is a fictional example, not a 2nd Brick customer order or a priced package. Replace the details with your own constraints.
We want a custom set to celebrate our first speaker launch with the product team. The subject is the speaker itself, with its circular dial and contrasting grille clearly recognizable.
We are considering 40 kits. The finished model should fit within a 15 × 15 cm desk space. Recipients have mixed building experience. A moving dial would be interesting, but the silhouette and a straightforward build matter more.
We will provide front, side and rear product photos and the approved logo. Please show any proposed color substitutions. Our total budget is [amount], including [required cost items]. Delivery is needed by [date] to [US destination or destinations]. Please identify any costs excluded from the quote.
[Name] will approve the design and consolidate feedback. Before ordering, we want to review the model, instructions, construction checks, physical-test status, packaging scope and delivery schedule.
A brief does not need polished prose. The quantity, budget, date and references do much more work than a paragraph of brand adjectives. If one of those is undecided, say so and ask which choice would change the proposal most.
Review the proposal as a build and an order
Start with the design: can the intended recipient recognize the subject, and does it fit the space? Then review the practical evidence. Which construction checks have been performed? Has the proposed revision been physically built? What changes remain before production? Our buildability guide explains how to read those answers.
Next, check the order itself. Confirm the quantity, included components, packaging, delivery destinations, price and schedule. Establish how revisions, missing pieces and unclear instruction steps will be handled. These details belong in the actual agreement; a gallery image cannot establish them.
At 2nd Brick, you can send a company brief without an account or payment. The design response is by email within 12–24 hours. That is a design-response window; production and delivery timing are confirmed separately. Kits currently ship within the US.
You can also explore the company-gift options or develop your own idea in Studio. Start with a subject worth keeping, give it a clear set of constraints, and let the design earn its detail.