How to create a great design brief
Every design project starts with the creative brief. But how do you ensure the brief you're putting together communicates your design needs as clearly as possible?
How important is a good brief?
Irrespective of the type of design challenge that needs to be addressed, the starting point for any design project is to compile the brief. For simple design tasks this might be quite a straightforward process, but where your design requirements are not clearcut, where you’re working with a new in-house designer or new agency partner, or are collating inputs from multiple internal stakeholders, then you will reap the benefits from taking the time to think about what you really want in terms of outcomes.
Agencies often complain that they receive poor briefs, but that can create an opportunity to support clients to improve the effectiveness of this crucial process.
What makes a brief great?
Part of the struggle is often knowing what to include in the brief and this is where having a briefing template to work from can help. But even when the ‘categories’ of required information are used, the quantity or quality of content can be lacking because it hasn’t been properly considered before the briefing begins. For this reason we sometimes suggest that clients begin by putting together a ‘pre-brief’ - more of a brain dump to ensure that everything that might be relevant has been collated.
What should I include in a design brief?
A copy of our generic briefing template, which is tailored to suit the type of design required, can be downloaded here.
This template asks guiding questions (when, where, what, why, how, and plus) to assist you in creating the post detailed brief possible.
At the risk of repeating the often-quoted saying ‘You get out what you put in’, prioritising the briefing process will bring numerous benefits and will ultimately make sure that the creative work is stronger, more effectively engages the desired audience and better meets expectations.
Share your brief with us
Do you have a brief that you'd like us to take a look at? Our design team are highly experienced and creative - whatever the challenge, our focus is to deliver quality, creativity and value. Feel free to reach out to us at hello@wdc-creative, or fill out the form on our Contact page.
