How to Create your Graphic Design Briefs?

Graphic Design Brief Writing

Communication is key to the overall success of all kinds of creative projects. If you want to get the best results while working with a graphic designer on a new catalog, website, promotional flyers, or logo for your business, then a comprehensive graphic design brief must be on hand. And if you don’t know what graphic design briefs are, this post explains what it is in precise details. You also get to learn how to create detailed graphic design briefs without having to pay anyone to do it for you.

What is a Design Brief?

Graphic design briefs are documents – usually completed by an organization or individual that explain the objectives, highlights, expectations, and goals of design projects to a creative professional. As a client, you are expected to write design briefs that people who offer creative services can follow. Design briefs serve as a reference for all the parties that are involved in the project, thereby making them critical aspects of any design process. Graphic design briefs are fashioned in such a way they capture the perspective of a client, thereby ensuring the success of the project. When you show a creative professional precisely what you want, less money and time will be spent on the outcome.

Benefits of Creating a Design Brief

The following are the benefits of creating and using design briefs in any project:

Graphic designers get the necessary foundation, background, and insight for the efficient creation of the project
It helps in keeping individual contributors to the project on track while ensuring the project is carried out on budget and on time
The team of creative professionals get a detailed picture of what you, the client, expect from them via your elaborate design brief
It also gives clients a sense of participation or involvement in the project and comforts them that every aspect is understood correctly
It grants designers access to all the graphic design specs in advance or upfront

Design briefs help creatives to understand the tastes of their clients. Designers will be able to readily identify the “must-haves” and “must not-haves” in the project so that they don’t step out of line when executing it

How to Write Your Graphic Design Briefs

As stated in the opening paragraph, getting the best creative designs requires detailed communication, and that can only be possible if you provide an extensive graphic design brief. But the following are some of the factors you need to consider when creating your design briefs:

1. Your Design Brief: Who Should write it?

Your design brief should be put together by someone who understands your business and company exceptionally well. It is usually the responsibility of the marketing manager of a company to create a graphic design brief. And after it is drafted, one of the marketing executives of the organization presents the design brief to the creative professionals who will carry out the project. However, for startup companies, the business owner usually writes the design brief. If you belong to this category, you need to provide explicit details about your business as well as your expectations. This will help the design agency to have an overview of what you need to get done so that they can start processing it without any delay.

2. Be as Detailed as Possible

You should provide all the accurate details that you think the design agency will need to do their job. Do not assume for one second that the creative professional or designer will take the time to research your company or business to find out more about what you do. Here are some of the information your designer will need:

3. What is The History of Your Organization?

What was the motivation behind the launch of the business? How useful or impactful, is it in the lives of your target customers? Etc. Your designer should not find it difficult dealing with your design brief in any way.

4. What are the Objectives of Your Business?

Every business has an objective, and hopefully, yours is not an exception. You should provide goals such as:

Empowering your target customers with new and innovative products
What your plans are
Your target market or audience
What you intend to achieve with the design
How you intend to enhance the satisfaction of consumers, etc.

When you highlight your objectives in a design brief, your designer will know what elements to use to convey your mission. Logos, for instance, are excellent marketing visuals in any niche, and this is why they should be memorable and exceptional to have the right impact.

5. State Your Specifications

Spell out any specifications you have in mind in your design brief. Provide pictures, text, and mention stuff such as:

The dimension or size of the design you need
Where you intend to use it, g. on the web or to be printed in flyers, posters or offline banners, etc.

Other specifications to add when creating your design brief include:

The color palette that you prefer
Image assets
File formats
Style preferences
Asset resolutions and dimensions
References that will be of help to the designers such as mockups, mood boards, brand identity guidelines, etc.

6. Schedule and Budget

Most clients do not know how long a particular project will take. Good design usually takes a lot of time. So, be willing to discuss this aspect with your designer so that you don’t set unrealistic deadlines for them. Of course, if there is an event – such as a trade show or an upcoming product launch – which makes it imperative for your website to be ready within a stipulated period, you should state it so that your creative professional will work towards meeting or beating the deadline. The discussion of budgets is usually a sensitive matter as most clients erroneously assume that once the designer learns what their budget is, they will be charged the maximum amount for little work. But what you should understand is that when a creative professional knows the kind of budget they have to work with upfront, they will be able to tailor their services so that you can derive maximum benefits for your money.

7. The Target Audience

Your target audience will determine the outcome of the project you assign to a graphic designer. A website designed to target baby boomers will look different from the one designed exclusively for millennials. So, you must highlight who your target audience is so that the designer can work according to what you have specified.

Conclusion

Creating your graphic design briefs is not rocket science. However, you need to do it well if you hope to get something meaningful and satisfying from your designer.

Article Posted 19 Oct, 2019