OUGD603: Writing An Effective Design Brief

Writing an Effective Design Brief: Awesome Examples And a Free Template To Get You Started

You’ve gotten a lead on a really sweet client.

The kind that makes you do a happy dance. You quickly research their company, their branding and their social media outlets. You’re ready to make a Skype date to talk about their needs and goals.

You usually grab a pen and pad and scribble notes while talking with them. And you’re so excited about the project, ideas are already flowing that you can’t wait to start.

But what happens when you get off that client call and realize you forgot to ask some important questions? You don’t want to start your design only to discover that what you thought they wanted and what YOU wanted are two different things.

Or worse, you thought you knew what they wanted, submitted the designs, and it wasn’t what they needed; you’re not only back to the drawing board, but you may have lost credibility.

That’s where a detailed design brief would set you up to create great design. It answers all of the questions you’ll need for the project — and you won’t have to email the client to ask them questions you should’ve gotten up front.

It’s a definite blueprint for the project, with a clear set of expectations and goals.

Not having a clear design brief is like going grocery shopping for someone with a shoddy list. They’ll tell you they want two bell peppers, a loaf of bread, cheese and cereal.

You grab the list, head to the store and quickly realize you don’t know what kind of cereal or cheese they want. You can guess, be embarrassed when you’ve made the wrong choices and then have to go back to the store. Or you can call them midway through your shopping trip, but you will then look like you can’t handle the task.

When creating a design brief, imagine anything and everything you may need to complete the project. You don’t have to ask all of these questions (it may depend on the project), but sometimes more information is better than not enough.

Start by doing your research before the call or meeting. Check out their website and social media profiles. Google any articles about them. Read their blog.

Some design briefs are submitted and completed by the client and then handed off to the designer. But if you’re a designer working directly with the client, going through the questionnaire with them can get you more detailed responses and more clarity if you’re not sure of an answer.

Here are 10 questions to start with that’ll give you the information you’ll need to get started:

01. Who are they and what do they do?

What’s the size of their company and how long have they been in business? How did they get started in this business? What is their product or service? How do their customers or clients talk about them?

Get more details: Have the client describe their business as if they just met you at a party and not at a conference trying to sell you.

People get in the habit of selling their business instead of talking about it.

Ask them to describe the company in layman’s terms if it’s something you’re not very familiar with. What do they love about their company and what are they most proud of?

02. What is the scope of the project?

What is the project? Why do they need you? What materials do they need?

Consider this checklist:

• If they need a logo, do they want a type treatment, an image or both?
• If it’s a web design project, ask if they also need a developer and if they have a WordPress theme?
• You may be responsible for an entire ad campaign or new branding. Find out what formats are needed for all of the deliverables.
• If there are print files, what sizes and formats are needed.
• If there are social media files, which platforms does the company use?
• If you’re designing letterheads, do they need editable Word templates?
• The next important question: What is the deadline or deadlines? If there’s more than one piece, ask when each of the deliverables is due, and have them rank each by level of importance.
• If there’s an advertising schedule to follow, a blog calendar or deadlines for a publication, ask for those to be forwarded to you.

Doing it right: Knowing the extent of the campaign, how many platforms will be covered and how your design files will be used, helps you know, for instance, how the new logo will work online, in print and on other collateral pieces.

Cedra Branding campaign by Quí Nguyễn. Creative brief specified specified design for print and online.

03. Who’s their audience or target market?

Have them describe their usual customer. What’s their age range, race and gender? What type of businesses are these customers involved with? How often do they buy or use their service?

Get more details: Can they put a face to that customer? For instance, is it a 30-something male or stay-at-home-mom?

04. Who’s their competition?

Why do they think a particular company or companies are their competition? What do they offer that the others don’t? What does the competition offer that they don’t? What makes them unique?

Get more details: Ask them how they want to be different than their competition. Do their customers often confuse them?

Doing it right: Two coffee shops sell the same basic product, coffee, but they appeal to their audiences in quite different ways. Mad Cap Coffee Company is bright, bold and urban. Assuming their customers are young, hip professionals is probably right on. Coffee Supreme is earthy, mellow and rustic. Their customer is most likely a little older, aware of the environment and professional as well.

Mad Cap Coffee Company’s branding aesthetic is bright, bold and urban.

Coffee Supreme’s branding aesthetic is earthy, mellow and rustic.

05. What tone or image do they need to portray?

Are they high-end, helpful, friendly, techy or earthy? Do they want to be bold and dominant or easily approachable?

Get more details: What colors do they like and don’t like? Maybe their competition uses blue and green, so you want to make sure they don’t look similar. They may want a new logo but may need to stick with blues because they aren’t changing the look of their website right now. The CEO may also despise the color purple, so this is all good information to know ahead of time. You may want to ask what fonts appeal to them. Show them a variety of serif, san serif and script fonts. Do they like straight-laced fonts that show seriousness? Or do they go for the scripty, handwritten ones that show they’re playful and welcoming? Is the photography they’re using professional or whimsical? This will help you figure out the tone of the design pieces.

Doing it right: Create a mood board. Pinterest makes it super-easy but you can also create them on a bulletin or cork board. Tear out ideas from magazines, grab color swatches from a paint store and anything else that inspires you such as pieces fabric or postcards. Start with a color then add fonts or type treatments. Look for photos that illustrate their perfect customer. It’s just like putting together an outfit or decorating a room.

Shrimp Salad Circus mood board.

06. What is their ultimate goal and how will they measure it?

Are they looking to grow their mail list, get more clients, gain awareness, sell more of their product or change their image? Ask how they’ll measure success of the campaign or the piece. Is the goal 4,000 subscribers? Do they want to increase their sales by 10 percent? If you’re only designing a new logo for them, there may not be any measurable results, so ask how the new logo will be used and how it fits into their new business plan.

Get more details: Do they have a call to action? Are they looking for customers to click through to buy their product, sign up for a course or make a phone call? Facebook now has a Call To Action button. How can they use that as part of their marketing?

Doing it right:  When designing the marketing campaign for songwriter Sara Lyn Baril, the call to action IS the campaign — and so easily measurable. The results are immediate so marketing efforts can be changed, if need be, to get the desired results.

07. What’s their budget?

This is the amount they have available to pay you. It also gives you guidelines in which to design. You don’t want to design an annual report that they can’t afford to print. Nor do you want to spend 20 hours designing a piece when they’ve only budgeted enough for 10.

Get more details: For instance, make sure they define whether the design budget is separate from the web development piece. Does the budget include any copywriting or photography? Do they need to have materials printed? If so, did they already get costs for that and have budgeted that separately?

08. How should approvals and presentation of concepts be handled?

Ask if they’ll be the main contact person for the entire project and if they’ll have final sign-off on all materials.

Get more details: If anyone else is to be included on approvals, make sure to get their name, email address and phone number. Once you have concepts to present, will you need a Skype session to present to more than one person or can you email files over with an explanation of your ideas and designs?

Doing it right: Putting the creative brief online for the design team is a fantastic idea.

With links to the client’s website, design files and the examples they like, it’s everything you need right at your fingertips. Connect Communications, Inc.’s brief is short but concise: It has every piece of information that you’d need, including how much they’re paying, what date the project started and who all of the contacts are.

Connect Communications, Inc.’s brief is short but concise.

09. What previous design and marketing materials have they used?

What marketing materials do they currently use? Besides looking at their website, ask to see what they’re using now. What marketing pieces do they like and which ones are working for them? What’s not working for them and why?

Get more details: Do they have existing brand guidelines? Will they supply their logo in an EPS, JPG or PNG format? Do they have required fonts or colors? If they’re hiring you to create a new brand for them, what is your place in that process? Are you selecting the fonts, colors and creating the logo that will be their future guidelines, or is there a creative team involved?

10. Are there other people responsible for other pieces of this project?

This is necessary information when you’re scheduling due dates and setting expectations with the client. If you need to rely on others for information you’ll need before designing a piece, you should make sure the client provides it to you before you begin work.

Get more details: Will website copy come from a copywriter? Is a photographer taking photos? All of those pieces should be completed and approved before they’re sent to you.

Every design brief doesn’t have to include all of this information. It’ll usually vary from project to project but the more you ask, the more you get — and the more clarity you’ll have about what your client needs.

As soon as the initial call is done:

• Go through your notes and type up a clear, detailed brief for yourself and share it with anyone else on your team.
• Add links to the client’s website and social media profiles so they’re handy.
• Add all contact names, numbers and emails.
• While your mind is fresh with ideas and excitement, jot down a few design ideas so they don’t vanish.
• It’s also a good idea is to put all deadlines immediately into your calendar and set up a thorough task list.

You should also plan on keeping the design brief within view as you create concepts. It’s easy enough to put it in a pile and think you’ll remember everything. Review it again before you begin to design and again before you’re ready to present your concepts to confirm you’ve met the goals.

Recap: A successful project starts with an excellent creative brief

Finished product: branding campaign by design firm Anagrama for Xoclad.

A detailed and thoughtful design brief will lead to a successful end product — whether it’s a logo, brochure or entire branding campaign. If you’ve nailed their target audience, know their budget, have a detailed list of all materials needed and know what their ultimate goal is and how they’re going to measure it, you end up with a beautiful campaign that the client will be pleased with. And it’s flexible enough to use across many platforms, will put them on the road to success and will also be a fabulous portfolio piece for you.

Let’s discuss: What’s the difference between a brief that works, and one that doesn’t?

That’s biggest difference between briefs that work and other that don’t are whether they contain all of the necessary information you’ll need for a project. Briefs don’t have to be pretty, but they have to informative. Here we compare three case studies, and look at what works best.

Case study #1

Andate Publishing brief vs. Glitschka Studios brief

The first brief, from Andate Publishing, while it contains a good deal of useful information, lacks just as much. The team knows what the overall project is, who the audience is and what their strengths are. But what they don’t know is who the contact person is, what the budget or deadlines are and what the tone should be. Now take a look at the brief from Glitschka Studios.  They ask many of the same questions about scope of project and audience. But they also want to know their color preferences and tone, where the materials will be printed and how to measure success of the project.

Case study #2

PR Guy Online brief vs. TOMS Shoes brief

The first brief, from PR Guy Online is much too brief (no pun intended). The team knows the contact info and the project scope, but what about budget, deadlines and competition. While they may think they’ll add that all under project scope or background, they may forget to ask once they’re interviewing the client. It’s better to have it all spelled out. Now take a look at the brief from TOMS Shoes. This is a super-thorough brief. The designer knows what the project objective is, tone, message, why buyers should believe in TOMS and what buyers believe in. They’ve included theme, a brand character and space for project approvals.

Case study #3

Laughing Man Media brief vs. Krista Kennedy brief

Again, we have too little information gleaned from the first brief from Laughing Guy Media. The designer knows the basic project objective but even that’s vague. They know the audience and project concept but have no idea about tone or deadline. Who’s their competition and what are they currently using for marketing? Now jump over to the brief for Krista Kennedy.  It’s clean and concise.  Scope of project, contact info, problem to solve, audience, sizes of materials needed and deadlines for all pieces are included.

Inspired? Download this free template and start planning your next creative project.

Whether you’re a designer working with a client, or a solo-preneur starting a new business – planning is the foundation of every creative project. If you’ve never used a creative brief before, now’s the time to do so!

OUGD505 - End Of Module Evaluation

OUGD505 - End Of Module Evaluation

Overall this module was highly challenging but I have learnt a great deal and my overall outcome has become a lot more professional and engaging by a thorough more developed design process. Studio Brief 01 was a way for me to use and engage with more of the colleges resources such as print processes and libraries  where I have visited various locations throughout the college which is documented in my work. In turn this has also enabled me to develop a practical and conceptual understanding of a lot more design processes for print based production which will enable me to use this in my further studies next year and in my future career. This therefore will create a better production of work as it is not just limited to screen based design. I also learnt a lot about english culture and the history of bank notes, something I use everyday however never studied its function. My outcome, I believe was extremely functional to the future of bank notes not entrée;y focused on design but product functionality, therefore furthering my skills and expertise into product design, a career path which I could potentially go down. However, what i have created communicates a higher level understanding of a solution to a problem within our world today based on excessive research which has therefore led to more informed design decisions and a direct link to my target audience.
Studio Brief 02 was also a way for research to enable my design process become more detailed and thorough as I gained a higher level understanding of the purpose of my design to target a specific audience, to therefore communicate a specific message through a selection of what will work better. Therefore I have learnt that if you research the topic in great deal, it can enable you to produce more effective, relevant work and inform your design decisions based on the target audience and solution to a problem discovered in extensive research. This makes your design process, increasingly more detailed which gives you or your clients and opportunity to pick out mistakes which can be easily solved with other ideas or research topics which have led up to the final idea. 

OUGD505 - Study Task 04 Vote

Vote

A survey in May 2014 stated less than half edible young people planned to vote in the following general election. 

How could Graphic Design be used to ensure that more than 41% of 18-21 year olds actually participate in the election process?

We researched into examples of elections that successfully enticed voters ( inc Barack Obama's used of social media within  his campaigns and the scottish referendums engagement of first time voters alongside wants and needs of your target audience.

We worked in a group of 5 to tackle all the problem areas in our age range as quickly as possible. The final outcome was a short pitch to the government organisation to engage young people to vote. 

We started by getting together and brainstorming all of the problems as to why we don't vote ourselves. We used a technique using post it notes to quickly throw ideas out there.

The main points that came up were;

• Bais information from various parties.
• Lack of information about how it benefits our age range
• Lack of passion/interest in politics
• Don't think our vote will make a difference

We then started to collect the problems into different categories adding solutions as we went along.

Solutions included;

• To give young people incentives to vote
• Create unbiased information
• Simplify information
• Mandatory education in schools

After many ideas such as to create an unbiased publication aimed at young people or posters simp lying information and how it effects us directly. We came up with the idea to create a YouTube Channel named Make Your Mark. 

Slide 1 – Logo

Slide 2 – Problem

·      There were a wide range of problems

·      As students, we found the information given by parties too confusing and biased.

·      It’s mainly aimed at an older target audience, therefore we find it hard to relate.

Slide 3 – Solution

·      Wanted to make it easy for young people to digest the information

·      Make them more aware of how the process works, how it directly affects them and how their vote counts.

Slide 4 – (Video)

·      Short videos is an appropriate because younger people have short attention spans

·      They would have catching, engaging titles. The different videos would explain different things e.g. a summary of what was said in the last debate, how the party’s choices affect us such as tuition fees and who’s currently in the lead.

·      They often feel overwhelmed by big bodies of text and don’t want to read them.

·      We created campaign that creates short stock motion hand drawn on a whiteboard videos that concisely explain what is going on in politics.

·      Drawings as the narrator is speaking to make the information easier to understand as well as making it more interesting and fun.

Slide 5 – Distribution

·      Main platform would be YouTube Channel

·      People could share on Facebook/Twitter etc. - young people are constantly on social media

·      Sponsored ads on social media

·      Promote it at uni events

·      Info flyers in student unions

OUGD505 - Studio Brief 02 - Anti-Social Media Campaign

Practical Work 
Research

I started by coming up with various ideas or practical work which covered my topic of technology and social media. 

As my project was based around social media. I wanted to create a social and ethically driven poster campaign to convince people around the ages of 8 - 28 to spend less time on technology such as iPhones and laptops and on social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter as it can have negative effects on health and also make you miss opportunities in life you don't even see/realise. I started noticing that as I became around the age of 12, that I was using social media more and more. iPhones make the sites easily accessible to children of all ages and it has become increasingly more popular and a way of life. I, myself have been a social media addict and some people don't even realise that they are. I wanted people to become more aware of their attraction and attempt to use creative imagery and messages to create negative connotations to brand social media for exactly what it is, ANTI social media.

Therefore I named my campaign Anti-Social Media and started to think about where my campaign posters would be located to target my main audience and consumers. The posters would be located on the back of toiliet doors and corridor walls in high schools, universities, children's hospitals, youth hostels etc. I wanted to use a shock factor advertising approach or commonly known as "shockvertising'.

Shock advertising or Shockvertising is a type of advertising that deliberately, rather than inadvertently, startles and offends its audience by violating norms for social values and personal ideals. It is the employment in advertising or public relations of "graphic imagery and blunt slogans to highlight a public policy issue, goods, or services. Shock advertising is designed principally to break through the advertising “clutter” to capture attention and create buzz, and also to attract an audience to a certain brand or bring awareness to a certain public service issue, health issue, or cause (e.g., seen in urging drivers to use their seatbelts, promoting STD prevention, bringing awareness of racism and other injustices, or discouraging smoking among teens).

This form of advertising is often controversial, disturbing, explicit and crass, and may entail bold and provocative political messages that challenge the public’s conventional understanding of the social order. This form of advertising may not only offend but can also frighten as well, using scare tactics and elements of fear to sell a product or deliver a public service message, making a high impact. I looked on Pinterest to see if there were any existing images/posters following the same theme to gain some inspiration. 

I then noted down various ideas for my poster campaign.

Poster 1

Initial Design/Design Choices 

Face a book 

My first poster design was extremely simplistic. I started by analysing and picking apart the Facebook logo to see if I could change it slightly. The Facebook font is a custom font created  by a font designer named Joe Krall. It appears to have been designed based on the letterforms of  Klavika Bold. 

I came up with the idea to separate the logo and make the text "Face a book" instead. I decided to do this to create connotations of lack of intelligence by using the site and promote ideologies of education via literature for young children/adults to get off the site and educate themselves. I stubbled to find the font itself, so I created one which was as similar as possible. 

The uppercase A seemed too harsh against the existing logo and became the central point to the image which I didn't want.

Final Design 

I wanted the poster design to be as similar as the logo as possible so therefore I changed it to lower case and added spaces to make the sentence flow a small r was added on the end to create a final finish identical to the Facebook logo. The poster was landscape as this enabled the logo to be as central to the page as possible to create focus and structure. 

Poster 2

Initial Design/Design Choices 

Addicted to Facebook

This poster followed poster number one and could potentially be used as a set alongside each other in the various locations, however also worked individually due to its strong imagery. I started by thinking of a few things people can be addicted to, such as alcohol, smoking, drugs etc. I created an illustration of a hand smoking on adobe illustrator and added the f from the Facebook logo. I thought about how I could add the f into the illustration somehow. I slimed the f down to make it as similar to the cigarette as possible. 

Next I coloured the design in and made the f into a cigarette shape. To ensure it was more vibrant and eye catching. I created it in a pop art/cartoon style to appeal to a younger audience instead of a hand sketched design. 

I then added the famous blue background to make more evident that the cigarette was the f out of the Facebook logo. This design is a direct shocking portrayal that Facebook/social media is an actually an addiction just as much as smoking and that it can have serious negative health effects. This poster used the shockvertising advertising strategy to help young kids understand the serious negative side effects of excessive social media usage. 

Poster 3

Initial Design/Design Choices 

Feed Your Ego

This poster design was based upon Instagram likes and how gaining more can make you feel better about yourself, which is what young kids are striving to achieve however this also has a negative impact on self-esteem as if an individual doesn't gain as many likes as they wanted it can actually have the complete opposite effect. I came up with the message of "feeding your ego" by putting a picture up that gains likes to create connotations of hunger for acceptance in an increasing self-obsessed and self concious society. I brain stormed a few ideas to communicate this. My first initial idea was to have the Instagram logo with teeth eating likes up however I found it quite challenging to illustrate this so I started to focus on another way to portray this message. I then came up with a cereal box. So I illustrated this using black and yellow to make it vibrant to attract a younger audience again the colour themes throughout the poster adopted this strategy too. 

Final Design

I deveopled this further by added a bright orange and a table with a bowl on it branded the "ego" bowl. The cereal box poured out instagram likes. I wanted this poster to make young children/adults be aware that it isn't all about gaining likes and acceptance and that you don't need Instagram likes to make you feel better about yourself. As in reality Instagram likes don't give you the sufficient nutrients and calories to feed your hunger to keep you alive. 

Poster 4

Initial Design/Design Choices 

Sorry The Lifestyle You Ordered Is Currently Out Of Stock

This poster design was also based around Instagram. I Initially wanted a dull background and an iPhone screen to show how filters make something to appear to be something it isn't. I came across something which inspired me in a great deal. Ironically, it was a Facebook post of a famous super model, Kendal Jenner. The post basically showed the difference between a real life picture and an edited instagram filtered picture. The post stated; 

"To any young girl or any woman - please please don't be fooled by a filter. I feel like Instagram can be such a damaging and unrealistic idea of what beauty is and what 'perfection' is. We all have spots and blemishes. No one walks around with a permanent ring light to make you look flawless. Enjoy using makeup but don't ever feel like you have to compare yourself or try be like kenny on the right because she's not reall !! Embrace makeup and wear it for you. Don't wear makeup to look like someone else because realistically they don't look like that ether."

After reading this I came up with a clear concept for this poster. I started by making an illustration of a hand holding an iPhone, similar to poster 2. 

Next, I found the typeface that is used for the Instagram logo to make the consumer easily associate the poster to Instagram as quickly as possible. Just in case they didn't i made the screen on the phone look similar to that of the Instagram homepage. 

Final Design

I coloured the background brown as it was one of the colours used on the Instagram app logo which would again link the target audience back to the app. The poster attempts to define that Instagram is actually an unrealistic virtual reality where people are able to portray themselves and their lifestyles in the best possible light, with the use of filters etc. I wanted my target audience to understand that none of it is real and it is all based around how people want other people to view other peoples lifestyles not how they actually are. 

Poster 5

Initial Design/Design Choices 

Technological Relationships

Initial Designs/Design choices

When researching this topic, I looked at quite a lot of Banksy's work as it had the desired effects on the public through strong imagery. 

This artwork was named mobile lovers. Banksy shows the common trend in society with smart phones and relationships. Mobile lovers is an extremely popular piece which is ironically received massive exposure on social media.

The story about the peice is pretty interesting as Banksy painted it outside of a boys blub in Bristol and the piece was sold shortly there after. Talk about having a good day when Banksy stops by to drop some work on your front door. The work sold to a private collector for the incredible sum of £403,000. Banksy never seems to amaze, the “Mobile Lovers” work is no different.

I loved this artwork along with the connotations it bring with it and I attempted to create something similar on illustrator however, it just didn't work as effectively. 

Final Design

So therefore I decided to take this image and add a meaningful message overlaid over the top of it. 

The message was to make people sound as stupid as possible for using their mobile phones in social situations such as when your with the person you love. Find someone who makes you forget to look at your phone. 

Poster 6

Initial Design/Design Choices 

Enjoy Your Life/Like

After looking at Bankys work, I wanted to create a similar style design using typography which looked almost graffiti like. I started by finding a wall background and adding text on it to make it look realistic as possible like I had gone and painted it on myself. However, most of the wall backgrounds and the typography choices i used weren't realistic enough. 

Final Design

I therefore found a different wall texture to eliminate this. The message was to encourage people to enjoy the life around them instead of constantly  having to capture moments on their iPhones to share/please people on social media sites. When intact you can ruin the moment by getting your phone out as you miss it with your own eyes.