How to brief a designer or agency
Your designer is not a mind reader! The better your brief, the better the design output you will get back. A combination of a written and verbal brief will provide you with the best outcome, plus your agency can refer back to a written brief so that nothing is lost in translation. Here are a few pointers to include in your brief:
Describe your Company
Your designer or agency needs to understand the background of your company and products. Who are you and what products do you offer? Include links to your website, samples of your products and any other background material that might give them a steer as to what you are looking for.
Summarise the Project
What do you want them to do? And why do you need it? Do you need a logo or a range of marketing materials? Are you looking to update your company’s Facebook and Twitter pages for a new season or product line? Describe what the project is, what you need, and your reason for doing it.
Explain your Objectives
This is the most important element of the brief, and you should think through your strategy and objectives completely before you get started. Knowing what you need, your goals for the business and what you are hoping to achieve is critical. Is there a problem you’re looking to overcome and do you know what success looks like? For example, for our e-books, a success metric is the number of downloads we achieve. Knowing this will help your designer understand your plan and create a workable solution to address it.
Define your Target Audience
Knowing your customers and who you are looking to attract is also essential. Who are you looking to reach with this project? What do you know about them and their preferences? Share demographic information about who they are and any behavioural insights you may have gleaned about them.
Outline the Deliverables You Need
What is the output that you require from your designer or agency? Do you need a one-page flyer? A series of social media graphics? A logo for print, the web, or for both? Work with your agency to provide them with the sizes you require and the file formats that work best for your purposes (if you’re not sure your designer or agency should be able to guide you).
Identify your Competition
While your business is unique to you, you are operating in a competitive market. You may want to include an overview of your competition and trends or market conditions that impact your industry. For example, if you’re creating your logo, what types of logos and colours do your competitors use? These details can help steer the designer to create something that is workable in your sector. We’d also advise you to (where possible) include a few examples of designs you like or don’t like.
Include Details on the Tone, Message, and Style
The style and tone should be consistent across all communications with your brand, what you’re trying to achieve and the action you want your customers to take. To help your project to move forward and to ensure it aligns with your business objectives, be sure to include any key messages that need to be addressed.
Provide the Timing
Ensure that your designer or agency have sight of the deadlines you are working to and that these are included within your brief. Knowing the timings up front will ensure your project is delivered in a timely fashion and does not drift. It’s also a good idea to talk about the overall creative process and discuss if edits and how many rounds of them are possible and whether or not they’re included if it’s a fixed-price contract.
Specify Your Budget
If you have a budget, this needs to be discussed up front. This should be included in the brief and discussed with your designer. If the designer’s estimate is over the amount you have to spend, talk it over with them and agree on what is possible, deliverables, and project costs before appointing them to work on your project.
To summarise:
To get the best from your designer or agency you need to provide them with all of the information they need. They are the experts in their field as you are in yours and by working together you will get an output that you’re both pleased with.
