When you’re working with a designer, it’s essential to write a detailed briefing before the beginning of your project. It is trough the briefing that business owners and marketing professionals know exactly the results they want to achieve, and it’s where the designers will look for to acquire the necessary information to do their work.
Keep in mind that the briefing is a valuable part of the designing process and should be dealt with care. The more information you provide to your designer, the better results you will get. An easy way of preparing yourself to write a briefing it’s by thinking in a series of questions and answers about your organization and your project. To help you start writing your briefing I wrote a few questions on tree aspects every briefing must have. Take a look.
Company Profile
- What are your business services and/or products?
- What is your company history?
- What are your business strengths and weaknesses?
- What are your strategic goals? Who are your main competitors?
- How does your brand differ from your competitors?
- Who are your customers?
- What are your target market’s demographics and psychographics?
- Who is the target audience? e.g. “male, 20-28, students of the english language.”
It’s quite important for you to try to avoid using jargons when talking about your company, products and services. The designer will use theses answers to create a mindset to work in your project, so try to be as clear as possible.
Project Goals
- How do you want your business to perceived by your target audience?
- What kind of reaction do you expect from your target?
- What kind of impression you expect your target to have from you design?
- What are the key messages do you want to deliver?
- What results do you want to get from this project?
Project Guidelines
- What exactly type of work you want? What is the format?
- If it’s a print job. What are the print requirements?
- What are the information that must be included in this project?
- Do you want this project to fit in a previous existing style? If yes, do you have samples of it?
- There are any requirements that need consideration?
- Who are the people who will work with the designer?
- What are the deadlines on this project?
- What is the project budget?
Conclusion
Writing a detailed briefing will guarantee that you will get the results you want saving money and time on the process. It may take some time, but it’s worthy. However, If you are a designer and you’re dealing with a client that does not know how to write a design briefing, try to help by submitting to your client a design briefing template. That will show you’re professional and will save you both time and money.