Writing an Effective Creative Brief for a Design Project
Project specifics
What are the deadlines? What are the deliverables? What is the desired output size, orientation, printing specifics (e.g., DPI, full bleed, etc.)?
To meet the request of the news publishing client, we had to create a strong draft that could be shared in two or three days. Kelly felt a two-page, 8-1/2 X 11" flyer would be best, with a portrait orientation. Because this document will ultimately be provided to all our clients using website services, we needed to create a design that could easily be adapted by adding specific company names and logos.
Mandatory information
In addition to details like contact names and numbers, addresses, website addresses and social media information, what absolutely must be incorporated?
For this project, we used placeholders for all of the contact information. The document will serve as a leave-behind for newspaper sales people, so it should enable advertisers to reach the sales person easily to say, "Yes, I want you to build me a new website!"
Audience
Who is the target audience? What are your competitive differentiators? What is the call to action?
We have two audiences for our website sales tool: our clients and their local advertisers. To illustrate the advantages of our offering, we highlight the price but also include a matrix of features. This gets the message across that our clients can deliver high-quality, feature-rich websites at very competitive rates compared to other providers in the marketplace. We included a call to action for small- to medium-sized businesses to contact their trusted newspaper salespeople for more information or to place orders.
Reference materials
Do you have examples of the look and style you want to achieve? What are the styles you want to avoid?
This is one of the best ways to communicate intent. As they say, "a picture is worth a thousand words." Whether it is a professional sample you love or a hand-drawn layout to show where you want to put various elements, designers are visual people and can grasp your concept much faster this way.
