In this chapter we will outline:
- What is meant by the term ‘design brief’
- Things to consider when writing your brief
- Deciding who is going to work on your project
A brief is basically a set of instructions that set out what you want your designers to do, along with the objectives and parameters of the design project.
It should make clear what falls within – and outside – the scope of the work. This will help everybody refer back to where they started and make sure that the design work is developing according to your objectives.
It will also help you determine how successful the project has been when you reach the end.
‘The process that (design consultancy) Ziggurat put us through was fantastic to extract the info their designers needed. But to save time it is definitely good to have some sort of brief in place, whether you do that yourself or get someone to help you.’
Read the Munchy Seeds case study.
Unfortunately, all too often briefs are agreed verbally – but a well-considered brief can act as a general grounding document if the project appears to be heading in the wrong direction, so it’s well worth putting something in writing.
And remember, the brief isn’t carved in stone; it can be adapted as you go along, as long as it’s done in collaboration with everyone involved and the new version is also written down.
In short:
- Make sure you agree a brief at the start of the project
- Write it down and make a copy for you, your designers and anyone else involved
- Change the brief as the project progresses if necessary, but do so by agreement and make a new document
‘We had a brief written down after a number of conversations and emails with (design consultancy) Thompson, so it was a collaborative process to create it. We had to pin down the core of what it was we wanted and Thompson understood the problem and essence of what we needed within a few minutes of coming to meet us.’
Read the Gillies Jones case study.
Ideally, the brief will contain all the information about your business, its objectives and the rationale behind the design project that you talked about when first meeting your designer. The brief should also contain your investment expectations and timeframes.
Here’s a checklist of some of the things you might want to include in your brief:
- Business background
customers; strengths and weaknesses; strategic objectives; competitors and existing marketing
- Project objectives
what you want to achieve and how the design will be used
- Constraints on the design
to fit with any existing designs or parts; specific technical or legal requirements; manufacturing processes needed; what is inside and outside the project’s scope and any environmental issues
- Creative direction
style; materials; tone; mood; communication and usability
- Project management
budgets; schedule and deadlines; details of the team or person liaising with the designers and managing the project and how success will be measured at the end
- Intellectual property (IP)
establishing who owns IP rights to the designs being produced – for more information, read our article on Intellectual Property by Iain Stansfield.
‘Working as a designer gave me a unique insight. You sit at one side of the table thinking you know what the client wants. But as the owner of a business I now think there are things I missed as a design consultant.’
Read the Brother Max case study.
The brief might also start to give direction on the more creative aspects of the design work, such as style, mood or tone for graphic work, or perhaps materials, finishes and ergonomic requirements for a product design.
Once these types of details are being discussed and written down you may start to refer to the document as a design specification. This is something that takes the objectives of the brief and works them into a specific design route to be explored and perhaps prototyped and tested. A number of different design specs may emerge from your original brief before you settle on a final idea.
You are going to be talking to your designers quite a lot during the design process so it will help enormously to determine who in your organisation will manage the project and who else needs to be kept up to date with what’s going on. In larger organisations top-level executives should be involved regularly to avoid snarl-ups later on if management doesn’t like what’s come out of the design process.
It is extremely helpful if senior management can see the amount of work that goes into a well-run design project so they understand the value of their business’ investment and where it is being spent.
Whoever is managing the design project (assuming it’s not the managing director) should provide this regular link to top management. Alison Wright, managing director of Easy Living Home, explains how important this was in her work with plumbers’ merchants Graham:
‘If the guy at the top of the company missed a meeting then they wouldn’t know the detail of the process and this would end up derailing it. So I said “no more meetings unless everyone is there”.’
Read the Easy Living Home case study.
If possible, it’s also helpful to involve other people who will be directly affected by the new designs, maybe gathering feedback along the way. This includes employees, but may also extend to external partners, such as distributors or manufacturers. As with any changes affecting a business, it’s important to get a sense of involvement and ‘buy-in’ from the people involved, especially for branding projects.
‘In a small businesses which hasn’t used design before, it’s very important to have a champion with some authority or the process can easily run aground. And when you start to articulate a brand, you need a good representation of people from across the company to see it. Everyone needs to understand the brand’s birth, development and creation.’