The Importance of a Good ‘Design Brief’

In order to achieve the best results for any given project, it’s imperative that a well structured ‘Design Brief’ is supplied, proving beneficial to both the client and designer.

Give any designer free reign to create you an image, a logo, a corporate identity, a company website and you are overlooking the importance of the output reflecting your needs and wants as a client. An effective design brief is the first and single most critical factor in ensuring that any design project is successful.

What is a Design Brief?

A well structured, informative design brief ensures that both parties are of an understanding as to what is required, eliminating any confusion throughout the whole design process. However, through experience, even those clients who would much rather prefer leaving everything up to the designer with very limited background information other than ie. “I’m not sure what I want, can you not just create something and we’ll see if I like it at the end” or my favourite” I just want it to look nice”, really ‘DO’ have a subconscious vision as to what they want – whether they know it or not. Perhaps it’s the thought of tackling something they’re unsure about. Listed below are some pointers to think about prior to designers starting a project.

• The background of the company, what you do and more importantly, what you are trying to achieve with the project
• Who is the target audience?
• Are there any specific guidelines, for example, fonts and colours to be used
• What sort of look they want – traditional, contemporary, artistic, fun and such like
• What’s the budget?

From a design perspective, a little thought at the outset goes a long way….ensuring the resulting design reflects the conscious (or subconscious!) vision.