Get on the same page as your designer with a solid creative brief

Before any project is started it’s a good idea to put together a creative brief that everyone can reference before, during and even after the creation of your design work.

While designers can come up with amazing and innovative ideas, they can sometimes can carried away, which is where the direction of an approved creative brief comes in handy. A solid creative brief will outline the core details of your project along with the expectations of what you’re hoping to achieve from the work.

Here’s our top five creative brief tips to ensure you’re on the same page as your designers.

1. Design specs – The holy trinity of who, what and where. Who is it for? What is it? Where is it being used? If your designer knows the answer to these questions in advance, they will be able to make relevant recommendations depending on whether the plan is to print the job or simply host it digitally, perhaps both.  Having this information from the outset will define how the artwork is setup, making sure that elements such as colour, page size and output are pre-defined. This avoids any ambiguity around what is being delivered and makes things much easier to set a...

2. …Budget – We’ve never met a designer who is in it for the money. Jokes aside, setting the budget at the beginning of a project is incredibly important. Be open and honest about what you can afford, it doesn’t mean a designer will automatically charge you the maximum limit, instead they will tailor the design work to meet your requirements. If things are tight, things can be done to help such as reducing concept development to two ideas instead of three; or if you have a hole burning in your pocket it could mean they are able to recommend alternative print processes, materials and deliverables to enhance the output.

3. Branding – ‘Consistency, consistency, consistency’. As mentioned in our Importance of Graphic Design article having marketing material that looks like it all belongs together and is sourced from your brand identity is so important for building brand reputation. By making this detail clear in your creative brief there’ll be no mistake to your customers as to who the documentation you’ve commissioned is for.

4. Intention – What is the content and where is it going to appear? Without a cohesive or plan, the key message(s) in any piece of design can easily get lost or be misinterpreted by the audience. By outlining the intention in the creative brief your designer will know what is important, how to prioritise information and how best to draw attention to the really important bit, resulting in an informed piece of design work being produced.

5. Call to Action – Also known as CTA, this is a one of the most important factors to consider as it can be the whole purpose of a design. With no CTA what is the end point? An audience could be left in the dark on how best to use the information in your message especially if you want to drive footfall to a shop, event or activity. By including a clear CTA in your creative brief, it will enable your designer to ensure it commands a prominent part of the design, drawing as much attention as possible to help drive towards your end product.

Fancy looking at and filling in our creative brief? Get in touch and we’ll send it over so we can start the process of helping you transform your design work.