How to write a design brief

Get it right and you will reap the rewards with success. Get it wrong and it could seriously compromise the results and, if that's not bad enough, have a less than favorable impact on budgets and delivery.

Creating a worthwhile design brief

With these points in mind we've put together a simple guide to creating a worthwhile brief:

A brief overview

If design is, indeed, a problem solving discipline then great design must start with the designer developing a complete and thorough understanding of the problem to be solved! Insight and enlightenment is best found in the design brief. It's fair to say that most clients have some understanding of the necessity for a complete and useful design brief. However actually putting one together can be a lot more difficult and time consuming than expected.

What is a design brief?

There is no single right way to format your brief - it’s OK to compose a ‘narrative’ with paragraphed text, although a ‘bullet point’ list will work equally as well. On the whole the format you adopt will reflect the complexity and depth of the information it is designed to convey.

There is only one golden rule - the brief must be ‘written’ and never verbal! Despite common belief a well written, extensive brief will not only save time on production but it will also enhance and focus creativity!

Does every project need one?

Not at all. Many projects could be considered ‘ongoing’ or ‘routine’. Minor changes to existing documents, price list revisions etc, wouldn’t require a full brief as it might take longer to write and process than to actually complete the entire job!

How long should a design brief be?

Again, it depends entirely on the complexity of the project however one should never produce a short, simple brief at the expense of information.

A good brief is as long as it needs to be!

Who is responsible for it?

Writing the brief is entirely down to you - you are the expert at what you do and nobody knows more about your business than you and your colleagues. However we are experts at what we do and so, when it comes to ‘developing’ the brief we believe there should always be a commitment to ‘co-ownership’.

As design experts we see it as our responsibility to highlight any potential design, production or time issues that may arise from the specifics of the brief before the actual work begins.

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