When you have a good relationship with a designer, all of your tasks will be simple to accomplish. That is why it is critical to begin with a pleasant interaction. A thorough design brief is the simplest way to do this. You must create a clear design brief for each project, whether it be an app, physical artwork, graphic design, or anything else.

It is your job as a client to give all of the information a designer requires to complete the project. A well-written design brief is also your most powerful friend in establishing a successful client-designer relationship.

Let's look at some pointers for creating the best design briefs. But first, just what is a design brief?

What is a design brief?

A design brief is a document that covers the key aspects and expectations of a brand's design project. The document itself should include a simple blueprint for how the project will be carried out. A good design brief ties the primary goals of the firm to the designer so that everyone is happy with the end product. Any organisation that uses design resources, whether in-house or freelance, may benefit from having designers produce a brief prior to their assignment. In this essay, we'll use the terms client and company interchangeably to refer to the entity contracting the design job. A design brief begins by stating why a new design is required. This covers how the design will benefit the target audience, advance the brand voice, and integrate into the wider competitive environment. This information is used by the designer to create the goals and objectives for the next project. Finally, the brief provides project specifics, deliverables, budget, dates, and scope to ensure that everyone is on the same page. Design briefs are excellent for keeping both the customer and the design team on the same page.

A design brief acts as the source of truth for your project and determines the general direction of the design team. A well-defined brief assists designer in focusing on their essential responsibilities and delivering excellent work.

Client Brief vs Design Brief

A design brief may appear similar to a creative brief if you've never prepared one before. Overall, a design brief is more concerned with the project's preproduction and business aspects, whereas a creative brief is concerned with the inventive implementation.

A well-written design brief provides both parties with a strong plan for achieving their objectives. It's a terrific resource to go to if one side ever feels like progress is slipping or a conflict emerges.

After conducting the research required for a design brief, your team will utilise a creative brief to delve further into the company and target audience in order to personalise your ideas to their requirements. This second brief is a more detailed look at how your design will communicate to their audience, what components you want to incorporate, and your creative judgements.

Who is responsible for creating a design brief?

A design brief is required when a company decides to collaborate with a design agency on a new design project. Design briefs serve as the starting point for every design project, providing an overview of the firm, the problem to be solved, and the expectations.

Although the design brief is created by the customer, design companies or freelancers are generally involved in its formulation. Clients, for example, may have a rough notion of the project and know what problem they're attempting to tackle, but they may be unfamiliar with the design process. Designers in this situation collaborate closely with clients to finalise the design brief and define the appropriate goals and expectations. 

What to include in your design brief?

Design briefs can take many different shapes, but essential elements should always be included. After you've covered the fundamentals, you may tailor the design brief to the specific project or customer.

Begin your design brief by providing context for why you're making creative decisions. The context should also explain how your creative decisions will help the client achieve their goals. Finally, your design brief should include all of the information required to detail a project from beginning to end.

The most detailed descriptions produce the best outcomes. A design brief should be concise and detailed. It is critical to use plain language free of industrial jargon. Not all designers are in touch with complicated marketing and commercial jargon. Aside from enabling seamless communication, the major objective of a design brief is to convey to the designer exactly what the desired output is. After providing the brief to your designer, offer to address any further questions they may have. Let's go over the essential elements to cover in a design brief.

Overview

Begin your design brief by providing information about the firm for whom you are working. This beginning point assists you in gaining the trust of stakeholders by proving that you understand their market, industry, and brand rules.

The project or brand summary often contains information such as the company's size, contact information, previous projects, or current design demands. This is very useful when several individuals are working on the same project. Once the overview is completed, everyone will have a concise summary to which they may refer as required.

Questions to Ponder

What distinguishes the client?

What exactly does the firm do?

What are their brand requirements and guidelines?

What common themes or motifs are crucial to their brand?

What are the client's major requirements? How can we satisfy those requirements?

Scope of the project

After you've given a brand overview, it's time to provide a full explanation of the design project you're working on. This description summarises what you'll be working on, why this work helps the customer, and who is responsible for what.

This is also a good time to clarify the project scope, which explains exactly what is required to complete a project. To minimise confusion or stress throughout the design phase, both parties should agree on the project scope.

Questions to consider:

What kinds of designs are we going to make?

What problems are we attempting to address with these new designs?

What are the client's hopes for this project?

What is included in the scope? What is out of bounds?

Create goals and objectives

After providing an overview of the project and firm, it is critical to clarify the project's aims and objectives. This section should concentrate on the design issue to be resolved and the methods your team will take to resolve it.

In this part, you should also explain the project's aim and lay out clear measures for achieving the desired outcome. This section should provide a clear plan for how the project will be carried out—be as explicit as possible.

Questions to Ponder:

What will make this endeavour a success?

What steps do we need to take to achieve our goals?

What are the project objectives for this design?

What measures will we use to evaluate our progress and success?

Target Audience

Understanding a client's customers is essential for creating designs that communicate with the individuals they want to reach. Create a design concept board to explain and contextualise your client's target demographic. This board is an opportunity for you to consider the client's customers and create a persona with them in mind.

Your client's persona may already exist, which your designers may leverage. If they don't, you may design one based on your client's target audience, demographics, psychological traits, and interests. All of this contributes to forming an impression of who your design work is aimed at.

Questions to address:

What are your clients' favourite pastimes?

What are the demographic and psychological characteristics of your persona?

How will your product or service benefit your target market?

What does your intended audience desire?

What major characteristics influence the behaviour of your target audience (age, gender, area, etc.)?

Budget and timeline

Writing up an agreed-upon project budget and schedule is one of the most crucial elements of any excellent design brief. Many clients who aren't designers may be unaware of how long each stage will take, so it's a good idea to have an approximate estimate for them to refer to.

When you and your client develop a project budget, it's critical to be realistic about the time it will take to research, plan, design, and make necessary revisions. Make sure to allow for unforeseen challenges or unexpected changes in their schedule and budget.

Questions to address:

How long will it take to complete this job from start to finish?

What is the project's budget?

How much time should it take to obtain feedback?

How often will you and your customer make changes to your project timeline tool?

Analysis of competitors

Every organisation has competitors; therefore, it is critical to understand the competition. You can build unique and inventive designs that stand out from the crowd if you have a deep grasp of the brand's competitors.

Designers should learn from their competitors' previous design achievements and failures to help guide the course of their next outstanding design idea. Knowing your client's rivals can help you make better design selections in the future.

Questions to be asked:

Who are the company's rivals?

What designs have previously been successful in the competition?

What distinguishes our brand from competitors?

Is my client's competitive analysis available for me to review?

Deliverables for a project

All of the information you've filled out and the research you've done to produce a design plan for them are required for describing the project deliverables. This is essentially what the client will receive, and the finished result will be

The project deliverables will differ based on the project's size, scope, and budget. Setting defined criteria and documenting deliverables can help ensure that there are no misunderstandings at the conclusion of the project.

Questions to address:

How will the finished outcome look?

What are the project's deliverables?

What are the important project milestones along the way?

Take inventory of what you already have:

Unless a complete rebrand is being done, most brands will have some assets that designers will employ in the project. Perhaps they already have a logo design in mind or a certain page layout in mind from a prior design.

They will almost certainly have a logo, brand colours, and overall brand rules. They could also have a design system in place that designers can use to help them with their work.

These factors have a direct influence on the design project; therefore, develop a list of everything important and include it in the creative brief.

Existing creative materials can help increase productivity by preventing you from redesigning anything you don't need to. Be as specific as possible about how you want to use existing assets in your work. If you're reusing brand colours, for example, jot down the hex code for the colours you'll use in the new project.

Sum Things Up

Lastly, be sure to provide an executive summary at the conclusion of the design brief. Even if it could seem a little repetitive, it's wise to have an overview that covers all of the crucial details listed in the brief. The customer may quickly assess and approve the project by receiving a cliff-notes version at the end.

Conclusion

Don't forget to provide the designer with as much information as you can when crafting a design brief. Include the critical information we suggested above. Talk to your designer, using the design brief as a starting point. If the designer asks for further inquiries, thoroughly respond to them.

The easiest way to ensure a freelance designer delivers exactly what you need is to create a solid design brief. It will provide a shared language that can be used for many design projects.