Outsourcing a Design Project? Here's How to Write a Design Brief

 During my career, I have freelanced on and off. The biggest lesson I've learned in working with clients was the importance of setting expectations from the very beginning.

It helps both parties get on the same page and can prevent miscommunication down the line. That's why you often have initial discovery calls, set meetings, and draft contracts.

Free Download: Creative Brief Templates

Another way to set expectations is by creating a design brief. It's essential in the early stages of your design project, whether you're working with someone in-house or outsourcing it to an agency or independent contractor.

Here's everything you need to know about what to include in a design brief and the templates that will help you create one quickly.

What is a design brief?

A design brief is a document that outlines the details needed to complete a design project, such as the scope of work, timeline, and branding guidelines. The brand seeking out the work will work with a designer or design agency to develop one.

Think of this brief as a blueprint: It lays out all the information your designer will need to complete the project and helps align both parties on the expectations. Typically, the client (or brand) will fill out most sections in the brief once they know what they're looking for.

The assigned designer will then complete it based on conversations with the client. It serves as a baseline from which to build the project.

So when would you use a design brief? For:

  • A website (re)design
  • A logo (re)design
  • A (re)branding package
  • Creative assets for social media or ad campaign
  • Video assets

What to Include in your Design Brief Template

1. An Overview of Your Brand

The first thing you'll want to outline in your design brief is information about your brand. This gives a big-picture understanding of your business and helps frame the rest of the brief.

Here's what to include:

  • Your industry
  • Your products and/services
  • Your unique selling position (USP)
  • Your mission and your values
  • Your competitors

In this section, you can also list your direct and indirect competitors, depending on the project.

If you already know who you will be working with on this project, list the decision-makers for the project and any key stakeholders involved. Outlining the points of contact right from the beginning will streamline the workflow and prevent communication silos.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Biggest and Most Authoritative Library of Open-Source UX Design Resources

Open-Source, Open-Access Literature The democratization of design knowledge is at the very heart of our mission. That’s why—over 19 years after we started—we will never stop bringing leading designers, bestselling authors, and Ivy League professors together to create open-source, free-to-access textbooks on UX design. This is the world’s most comprehensive compendium of design knowledge, made available to everyone around the world. The Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction, 2nd Ed. The Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction, 2nd Ed. Free textbooks written by more than 100 leading designers, bestselling authors, and Ivy League professors. We have assembled our textbooks in a gigantic encyclopedia, whose 4,000+ pages cover the design of interactive products and services such as websites, household objects, smartphones, computer software, aircraft cockpits, and what have you. Name an item of design interest, and you'll probably find it discussed inside. Table of Contents 1 In
Read more

Want to Learn Graphic Design? 8 Tips & Tricks for Beginners

  For many of us, the thought of high school conjures memories of ample notebook doodles. Hand-drawn bubble letters, pictograms, and stick-figures would decorate homework, tests, and papers -- and teachers, of course, were constantly asking us to knock it off. And so, most of us did, perhaps because we figured out that we just weren't that good at drawing on paper. But when some of us were in high school, we didn't yet have the numerous digital options for "drawing" our ideas. But now, machines can help us bring them to life -- and it's become a career path for many people. Graphic design is something that marketers can always benefit from learning, even without a formal education. In those cases, we enter a world of do-it-yourself education, with repeated recommendations like, "learn Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign," or, "read a book about basic design principles." And as much as those help, learning fundamentals, navigating new tools, an
Read more

Introducing Ultimate Gray and Illuminating: Pantone's Colors of the Year for 2021

Image
  There is   strength in optimism . Or at least that's Pantone's proposal for 2021: a color story that combines vitality and fortitude. The resilience we'll need to overcome 2020's challenges and the vivacious energy that will inspire us to do it. In selecting Ultimate Gray and Illuminating (Yellow) as their colors of the year for 2021, Pantone hopes to convey a mix of temperance and warmth. In the last few years, we've gotten used to seeing a single hue as Pantone's Color of the Year. Perhaps as evidence of our conflicting emotions, this year's color pair invites us to embrace the value of our differences. Creatives' reactions to this choice are divided, to say the least. We're used to adding white to create tints, gray to create tones, and black to create shades. Many use gray as a tool to precisely  reduce  chroma, or neutralize colorfulness; so seeing it as one of 2021's most influential color picks creates mixed feelings. However, regardless
Read more