How To Write An Effective Design Brief and Get The Design You Want!
Written by Jacob Cass on Friday, September 26, 2008 – 12:31 am
How do you get the design you want? The perfect design you envision in your head? … The design brief is the answer.
Whether you are a designer or a client, an effective design brief is the single most critical factor in ensuring that a project is successful.
This article will tell you how to write an effective design brief that will be both beneficial to the client and the designer.
This article will be based from the client’s perspective.
What Is A Design Brief?
First off, you may want to know what a design brief is. A design brief is something that is vital to any design project as it will provide the designer(s) with all the information needed to exceed your expectations.
A design brief should primarily focus on the results and outcomes of the design and the business objectives of the design project. It should not attempt to deal with the aesthetics of design… That is the responsibility of the designer.
The design brief also allows you (the client) to focus on exactly what you want to achieve before any work starts on the project.
A good design brief will ensure that you get a high quality design that meets your needs, providing you have chosen the right designer.
How To Write An Effective Design Brief
If you answer these questions below in an ordered and detailed fashion, your design brief will be 90% done… the other 10% will come from further questions from the designer after you submit your brief.
Have fun answering the questions and remember, provide as much detail as possible!
What does your business do?
Tip: Never assume that the designer will know anything about your company. Be clear and concise and avoid jargon when replying.
- What does your company / organisation do?
- What is your company’s history?
What are the goals? Why?
- What is the overall goal of the new design project?
- What are you trying to communicate and why?
- Are you trying to sell more products or get awareness of your product / service?
- How do you differ from your competitors?
- Do you want to completely reinvent yourself or are you simply updating your promotional material?
Who is the target market?
- What are your target market’s demographics & phychographics? ie. the age, gender, income, tastes, views, attitudes, employment, geography, lifestyle of those you want to reach.
Tip: If you have multiple audiences, rank them in terms of importance.
What copy (text) and pictures are needed?
Tip: The copy and pictures used in a design are as crucial as the design itself and you should clearly state who is going to be providing the copy and pictures if needed. You may need to look into getting a professional copywriter / photographer - ask your designer for some recommendations.
- What copy needs to be included in the design? Who is providing the copy?
- What pictures / photographs / diagrams etc need to be used? Who is providing these?
What are the specifications?
- What size is the design going to be?
- Where is it going to be printed / used? The web, business cards, stationery, on your car?
- What other information should the designer know in regards to specifications?
Have you got a benchmark in mind?
- You should provide the designer with some examples of what you consider to be effective or relevant design even if it is from your main competitors. This will set a benchmark for your designer.
- Provide the designer with things not to do, and styles that you do not like or wish to see in your design. This will give the designer an idea of what to avoid and will avoid disappointment on your behalf.
What Is Your Budget?
- Providing a budget prevents designers wasting valuable time and resources when trying to maximise your budget.
- Providing the budget upfront also allows designers to know if the project is going to be worthwhile to complete. Make sure you are worth their time.
What is the time scale / deadline?
- Give the designer a detailed schedule of the project and set a realistic deadline for the completion of the work. You should take into account the various stages of the design project such as consultation, concept development, production and delivery.
Tip: Rushing design jobs helps no one and mistakes can be made if a complex job is pushed through without time to review, however, there are times when a rush job is needed, and in these cases you should be honest and upfront about it.
Tips For The Designer
As a designer it is important to have a template such as this one to give to clients as clients will not always come to you with a design brief - feel free to use this one as you please. By having a template ready, it shows them your professionalism and ultimately saves them (and you) a lot of time and money.
Do you have any more tips of what should be in a design brief? Leave them in the comments below.
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By Bill Biwer (6 comments) on Sep 26, 2008 | Reply
Great article!! Very informational.
By Mohamed Shinaz Saeed (1 comments) on Sep 26, 2008 | Reply
This is just perfect. This article basically covers all the information needed for a designer to start work. Great one!
By John McFarlane (1 comments) on Sep 26, 2008 | Reply
This is a great help, I just sent off my first design brief request form to a client, I can amend this now and add some points you’ve raised here.
Great Post
By Jin (6 comments) on Sep 26, 2008 | Reply
I’m a boxer type of guy.
Great list you got there.
By Steve Brown (12 comments) on Sep 26, 2008 | Reply
Hi Jacob, back again, we are in the process of creating a new logo, we are using my nephew who has just finished a design course (we will pay him I promise) this article is useful for both parties and may speed the process up a little, we were finding it difficult to be clear about what we wanted, but this helps. I am sure he will be pleased about our new found appreciation of what he requires.
By Eivind (12 comments) on Sep 26, 2008 | Reply
Great article! One thing I also ask is “How do you differ from your competitors” – I guess this is something they can answer under “What are the goals of the design project”, but it never hurts to be more specific.
Just to be picky, demographics are things like age, gender, geography, while attitudes, beliefs and tastes are called psychographics. demographics are “Who/what is the client”, psychographics is “Why is the client like that”.
Thanks for another helpful article, Jacob!
By Eivind (12 comments) on Sep 26, 2008 | Reply
I meant of course “Who/what/(why) is the target audience (like that)”.
Too focused on clients at the moment
By Jeremy (10 comments) on Sep 26, 2008 | Reply
Great article, I have been trying to strengthen the way I gather information for quite some time and some of the tips you provided in this article have got me thinking about it again. Putting extra time into working through the natural progression of a project idea and developing a strong design brief saves you time in the long run and makes for a smooth(er) development process. As always great work, keep em coming.
By Rob Barrett (12 comments) on Sep 26, 2008 | Reply
Another great article, Jacob. A very handy, well-worded and succinct list of requirements that are necessary for any job to go smoothly. I’ll be utilising a lot of this for future client ‘interviews’.
Eivind’s additional question is a valuable one too in getting across the benefits of a product/service/company rather than just the features.
By Jacob Cass (634 comments) on Sep 26, 2008 | Reply
Bil,l, Mohamed, John, Jin, Jeremy,
Glad to be of service, thank you!
Steve,
Hello again, I would interested to see the final logo design - hopefully not $5.00! You may also find my logo design questionnaire quite useful.
Elvind,
I will add that one in too, thank you! I have fixed up the demographics thing too, thanks!
By Dan (7 comments) on Sep 26, 2008 | Reply
This is really great, I might lift this set of questions in future, if that’s OK?
By Erika Nicole (3 comments) on Sep 26, 2008 | Reply
I appreciate this! I have been consulting a lawyer about revising my contract, and we were looking to separate the brief-related content from the terms and conditions, so I think this gave me a little insight into a way I could do that. Thanks.
By Carina (3 comments) on Sep 26, 2008 | Reply
Great - thank you very much!!!
By Steve Brown (12 comments) on Sep 26, 2008 | Reply
I will tell Roy you are interested in seeing what he comes up with, I think that works in my favour, it will certainly be a figure of more than $5 with this added pressure. Will check out the questionnaire.
By Nathan Beck (13 comments) on Sep 26, 2008 | Reply
Ugh Jacob if only this were the case with client!
Right, when it comes to freelance work - the points you’ve raised above are only a dream, and even I were to shove this in front of a clients face before we discussed anything - they still wouldn’t look at it.
Even now working at Flame, some of the briefs we get from clients are, well just that - brief!
I used to love it when clients said ‘it’s a blank canvas - just go for it’… but now I hate it. With no brief you end up with a bad design, no direction often leads to too many ideas floating around and the design falls apart.
Constraints provide a better end result, as long as they’re not to tight! A healthy design brief gives good direction and will not only develop a better, more confident design, but will more than likely reduce the design time.
This applies not just to the design but to every aspect of the project. In the case of a website; if you have a good, sturdy brief - chances are the design, the copy, the project management, the PR and marketing and SEO will all fall in to place better if everyone working on the project has a better understanding of the final goals.
By Conrad Gorny (5 comments) on Sep 26, 2008 | Reply
Interesting stuff. Might use some questions provided
By Omega (11 comments) on Sep 27, 2008 | Reply
Hi Jacob! Awesome post. My company, Elune Art, has always used a similar questionnaire for the clients. Thanks for such good description of all the important points!
By suraj naik (2 comments) on Sep 27, 2008 | Reply
Well at work we call this as Web Design Questionnaire. We include many questions starting from the client name to their competitors websites. Even the column structure is also asked for. Over all this helps the designer to understand what client is envisioning & to know what is he looking for is always better. Sometimes even change in color hurts a client a lot & that can be taken care by a good design brief.
By Ann Edwards (1 comments) on Sep 27, 2008 | Reply
A couple of great resources for this topic from a designer’s standpoint include: Writing A Design Brief and Our New School Design Brief example.
Though, this definitely was a far more succinct list of steps to provide the client with. Thanks for the great insight yet again!
By Roy Nottage (10 comments) on Sep 27, 2008 | Reply
The design brief is something that my course should of covered a lot better, since being handed a warm, freshly printed and stapled brief (like the lecturers would hand us) by your client is not how it usually works, I understand.
Though since my uncle has read this article, I will most certainly be expecting one from him before I start his $5 logo.
By Acuity Designs, London (1 comments) on Sep 29, 2008 | Reply
Great article Jacob. Used it myself to put a logo design brief form on our website! Thanks
By Dainis Graveris (35 comments) on Sep 30, 2008 | Reply
Yeah, already fulfilling those points in my workflow - very detailed and thanks Jacob. The more You know about Your work and specific company - output will be even better..!
By Vivienne Quek (1 comments) on Oct 1, 2008 | Reply
Sad to say, very few of my clients prepared written brief for us. Instead we asked the clients many, many questions, write the brief and get the client to endorse that what’s documented is correct. I agreed that getting the client to show old marketing literature is important. 2 questions that I’ll always ask:
1) What works for this marketing material? What is it you like about this marketing materials?
2) What didn’t work for this marketing material? Is there anything you wish can be improved.
By James Kurtz III (10 comments) on Oct 2, 2008 | Reply
When do you typically send a brief to a client? Meaning: Do you send the brief before or after you have the client locked in for the project? Do you send it to prospective clients? I’ve experimented with when to introduce the brief into the work flow and am wondering what your (and your community’s) thoughts are on the timing. Thanks!
By James Kurtz III (10 comments) on Oct 2, 2008 | Reply
Another thing I forgot to add in my previous comment… If you have problems getting good answers to your brief, like Nathan Beck mentioned above, I’ve found it’s best to schedule a brief (no pun intended) meeting with the key players instead of sending a form. Most people hate filling out forms, it interrupts their busy day and they rush through it. A face to face chat, telephone call, or video conference will get you much better answers. Through a discussion you get brilliant insights that may otherwise have gone unknown. It’s a bit more work on your part but it’s worth it, and you can usually charge for the time.
By Theo (2 comments) on Oct 3, 2008 | Reply
Thanks for the info… selling one’s design is a skill young/stubborn designers doubt.
By Pat (3 comments) on Oct 5, 2008 | Reply
Thanks
By Jacob Cass (634 comments) on Nov 13, 2008 | Reply
Just realised that my replies never posted to this article… I did it from my admin panel and it is not here now so I will reply again.
Dan,
No worries at all, even said so in the article!
Erika, Carina, Conrad, Omega, Acuity, Dainis, Theo, Pat,
You’re all welcome.
Steve,
Has he finished the logo yet?
Nathan,
Indeed, that is one of the reasons I wrote this article, so I had something to refer the clients to rather than repeating the same questions over and over. As I said in the opening paragraphs… “Whether you are a designer or a client, an effective design brief is the single most critical factor in ensuring that a project is successful.”
Suraj,
It is interesting that you ask your client the column structure. Isn’t that the designers job to decide?
Ann,
Thank you for the links and feedback. I came across the first article when researching this article.
Roy,
A questionnaire is a good starting point for a logo design… you should set one up with the questions you ask. You can find mine here for starters: http://justcreativedesign.com/web/logo.pdf
Vivienne,
That is one of the reasons I wrote this article, so I had something to refer the clients to rather than repeating the same questions over and over. Some other very valid questions you have there.
James,
I ask for the brief before the project begins, this way you also get a choice if you want to work on the project or not. I then put together a proposal and send that to them of which they can then decide to go ahead with the design or not. After the first deposit comes through, I then ask more questions related to the project. This ensures that you are not wasting your time with research, questions, etc without being paid.
I prefer a form to a meeting as you have something to refer back to - a safety net if you will but it is true, a meeting can get get valuable insights.