BrandiSea's Basic Design Brief

It’s “The Brief”. Commonly called a “design brief” or “creative brief”, it’s basically a questionnaire. This brief is something you use to guide your initial conversation with a potential client.

What the brief is.

The brief is in essence your best communication between the client and yourself about the project they are inquiring about. In this basic design brief, I have compiled for you what I have found to be the most useful and core questions. But it is not exhaustive. There are many different ways of coming up with your brief. I even have a different brief for logos and web design to ensure I ask the right questions for each project.

Some of the most important questions in the brief are meant to help your clients figure out what it is they actually want out of the new design. Whether they already have a clear idea or are clueless, the well-crafted brief should force them to have to think more deeply about the project.

Here are some examples of the kinds of elements your brief should contain:

• Information about the company (competition, background, contact, etc.)
• Ideal target audience profile (demographics, psychographics, etc.)
• Project goals and scope (increase sales, encourage referrals, etc.)
• The overall visual style, and concept references (descriptive words to help you with your brainstorming)
• Material requirements (who will provide copy, photos, etc.)
• Deadline information (fixed or flexible)
• Visual likes and dislikes (colors to avoid, etc.)

The questions in each section will provide the best information for you to give your client(s) the best design solutions. Unless the client completely changes their mind or answers the questions incorrectly, you should never have to backtrack on the direction you are taking in concept discovery and design execution.

The brief is the designer’s roadmap to a foolproof design solution.

Hope this helps! For more on how a design brief works, check out this episode of Design Speaks Podcast