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What is a design brief?

Posted on : 26-01-2010 | By : admin | In : Designs

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18

What is a design brief?

A design brief is something that is vital to any design project, as it will provide the designer(s) with all the information needed to create a great visual design solution.

There is no single, off-the-shelf format for a design brief but there are a number of key points the agency MUST understand. The project team should create the brief focusing on the results and the business objectives of the design project. All stakeholders should unanimously agree on the content prior to starting the design process. This ensures an effective design solution as well as keeps the expected changes to a minimum.

What are the specifications?

What is the finished size of the completed design?

How is it going to be printed or used?

What other information should the designer know in regards to finished specifications?

Company profile

• What your business does
• What is you USP (Unique Selling Proposition)
• How you fit into your industry sector

Project overview and background

• What are you trying to communicate and why?
• What is the ‘call to action’ or business objective
• Who are your competitors and how do you differ from them?
• Does it need to match existing material, conform to Brand guidelines or is it a new direction for your company?

Benchmark

It is just as important to provide us with what you DON’T want to see along with what you DO want to see in the designs. Provide us with some examples of what you consider to be effective or relevant design even if it is from your main competitors. This will set a benchmark for your project.

This will give the designer an idea of what to steer clear of and will avoid disappointment on your behalf.

Target audience

Provide demographic figures about your audience (in order of importance) that may be useful to the designer. These may include: age, gender, income, tastes, views, attitudes, employment, lifestyle.

Business objectives and strategy

• Generate sales?
• Encourage enquiries?
• Gain newsletter subscribers?
• Obtain information from your audience?
• Encourage them to tell a friend?

What is the time scale / deadline?

Provide a ball-park figure, a budget expectation will give the designer a good idea of the type of solution they will realistically be able to provide. Providing a budget prevents designers wasting valuable time and resources when trying to maximise your budget.

Give the designer a detailed schedule of the project and agree on a realistic deadline for the completion of the work. You should take into account the various stages of the design project such as brief, concept approvals, development, production and delivery.

What copy (text) and pictures are needed?

Tip: The copy and pictures used in a design are as crucial as the design itself and you should clearly state who is going to be providing the copy and pictures if needed. You may need to look into getting a professional copywriter / photographer – ask your designer for some recommendations.

• What copy needs to be included in the design? Who is providing the copy?
• What pictures / photographs / diagrams etc need to be used?
• Who is providing these?

Watch the video related to designs

See www.evilmadscientist.com

Help answer the question about designs

I design things on Photoshop, but want to materialize my designs on pro-quality Tee-shirts. How can I do this?
I want to make T-Shirts to depict my photoshop designs. Who do i take them to. I ultimately want to start a clothing line.

Comments (18)

great talk!

maybe we’ll have gecko gloves shoes and stick on tails in the future.. for climbing and jumping

or maybe we’ll just inject gecko genes, and grow our own pads+nano hairs? o.O

Ironically, mother nature knows nothing. The watchmaker is blind. :D

Design brief:
Age and size of user. What the use will be. Rough land, smooth, tarmac etc.

Specification:

Size, overall dimensions. Simple sketch of actual design. Chassis design, layout of peddles and seat. What braking system. Foot brake, hand brake. Operating on one wheel, both wheels, axle? Design of steering. Any body work? Where the cup holders will go. Very important that!

For the go kart:

Similar to above but you will need to add engine position and drive train configuration. Engine behind driver, alongside driver? Better braking system. Transmission: clutch or not? Protection around wheels or not? Where will it be raced? By amateurs/kids? Add protection around wheels. If by adults, no protection.

Just go through the process of building it from scratch, on paper, and you will discover all you need to know about design brief and specification. Because they are two things you need to have firmly in your mind before you can build the thing.

go over several options to do with any necessity the elders may need, and some that that would find handy due being elder and around others with similar conditions,

a portable depends diaper bag, and toilet container,
a portable med kit bag for pills, oxygen, insulin,
a portable bag for trinkets, glasses, phone, makeup, paper and pen, keys,
a portable secure carry bag for them alone with pass-code, for credit cards, monies, and gps locator chip attached if lost or stolen,
a portable case for hat, umbrella ,or cane, or extra clothing for weather,
a portable pet carry case for small pets and kittens,
a portable bag for maps, and communication tools, sign language, braille for blind, hearing aid booster,
a portable flyer and grocery bag, just-in-case shopping spree
a portable leaf and plant collection bag, to collect sample while going for walks,
a portable all purpose bag for knitting, or harmonicas, or swim trunks, tools, change,sketchpad,
..

Wow.That’s a cool video.Thanks for posting it :) .

Really Great!

I’m gonna go throw my Gecko of a skyscraper be right back lol

I love these TED videos. They make me think again, unlike most youtube vids.

Design brief – A comprehensive written document for a design project developed in concert by a person representing the business need for design and the designer. The document is focused on the desired results of design – not aesthetics. Design Briefs are an extremely important part of the functions of Companies and corporations, especially engineering firms. A typical Design brief will follow the below layout:

Title Page
Table of contents
Company Profile
Specializations
Chief Engineer/Designer Profile
Company Name
Past Accomplishments
Problem Statement
Problem Description
Constraints
Budget
Time
Needs of the Problem
Goals
What you plan to accomplish
Due dates
Solution Analysis
Risks/Benefits
Planned Solutions
Sketches
Synopsis
Evaluation
Conclusion/Summary

specification is an explicit set of requirements to be satisfied by a material, product, or service

Lol big science is out to get you!

This is BRILLIANT. A real step in the right direction, in my opinion. da Vinci said we should learn from nature; holistic technologies that use nature’s principles.

To me, this is where science will really find the most incredible discoveries. Why base our technology on human discoveries, which are juvenile and incomplete, when we can base them on nature’s methods, something that has been perfecting them for millions upon millions of years?

Mother Nature knows all :D

Here are a few thoughts ….

1. Issues associated with apparel fit.

2. Issues associated with Functionality — where is it intended to be used / worn (work clothes, formal wear, etc)

3. Materials science of Textile effect on comfort — the effect on the material (cotton, polyester blend, etc.) on wearing Comfort.

4. Materials science of Textile effect on performance — the effect on the material (cotton, polyester blend, etc.) on how long the clothing lasts before wearing out.

5. Assessment of clothing trends — Is it likely to go out of style in 6 months … or be something someone can own / wear for years.

6. Best methods to market the item (on the rack, fashion show, free samples give away, etc.)

superbly amazing

well if its like the thing my brother did i think you have to put the designs in and initial ideas and stuff but im not 100% sure

that will depend on what level you are at and how big a project this is – the best way to find out how much is expected is to ask your teacher

1st Answer:
Can't say

2nd Answer:
22 – 25

3rd Answer:
I use smartphones, not cellphones. I use them to call, text, video call, 3G internet (sometimes GPRS or EDGE when my network is having problems with their servers). I also use a smartphone to view and edit PowerPoint, Excel and Word 2007 documents when I'm on the road, I watch YouTube and listen and watch to some video Podcasts. When I'm bored, I play N-Gage 2.0 games cause my phone supports it (N95)

4th Answer:
'Connect' means the ability to access any type of information, person or activity. 'Being Able To Connect' means, for me, being able to 'Connect' in your current position or situation at the given time and date.

In most cases, a client should have a brief developed, but the problem today is that many clients believe that they know what they want and what they want is right and all they have to do is hire someone to execute it when in fact a designer does much more than that. I think that you will save your client time and money and (at the same time) display your professionalism by having a brief prepared in the event that your future clients do not.

If you have a local book store near you, you may want to look into "Creating the Perfect Design Brief: How to Manage Design for Strategic Advantage" by Peter L. Phillips, published in 2004 just in case you have any further questions.

Before any business goes down you should want to know the budget of your client (AVAILABLE BUDGET) and when they expect this project to be done (DEADLINE). With the deadline, the client should take into consideration the time spent on research and strategy, concept and design, production (printing and other forms of production) and delivery.

The rest of the brief should pretty much support the design you will be doing:

OBJECTIVES — what does the client want to achieve? Whether it be more business or something more up to date or asthetically pleasing, their expectations should be realistic.

TARGET MARKET — age, gender, geography, lifestyle of those the client wants to reach. Some clients may not know this while others may not think they know this.

I was doing a flyer once and the client asked me to include an image of a well groomed young male in a tux and a pretty lady in a dress. I ended up using an Asian couple, yet the client came back and said that the party was going to be populated with a majority of Blacks. This could have saved some embarrassment and time if this was mentioned earlier before the design went under way.

“THE MESSAGE” — this is one thing the client should be able to provide you with. What do they want to get across? Also what do they want used in the design and what are they providing you with: product shots, photographs, diagrams, text/wording?

CORPORATE PROFILE — so they could say that "We are a realty agency," but the client shouldn't assume that you know everything about them nor will you. It never hurts for them to provide a small summary of their business along with a brief history.

WHAT TO DO AND WHAT NOT TO DO — This part is most clients favorite since a lot of clients love to play the role of artist. It is best to get this understood in the beginning though. I have had a case where a project seemed to be going well. The lady didn't have much of a budget, but I thought that I would help her out. I constantly kept her up to date with the work I was doing and the project was progressing. All of a sudden, contact between us lessened. I sent her a follow-up e-mail and she suddenly started to say that she wanted to atake alter the project a bit and she now wasn't too pleased with some of the photos used and she wanted to do a photo shoot all over again when I was thinking the project was near completion.

Another thing that a lot of clients misunderstand is what design works and copyrite laws. If a client shows you something and says "We love this, but just want to erase X and replace it with Y and maybe do away with A and add some B instead," listen to them but at the same time offer your views and guide them from what they think might be good for them to something that is extremely better and will definitely give them their money's worth.

There are maybe many more things you can include, but you cannot go wrong with the basics that I touched on. Depending on the brief and the client, you may get more descriptive and helpful feedback from one person as opposed to another.

Your idea to design the brief is good. I will leave the decision up to you as to whether you would like to design the brief for Adobe Acrobat or Microsoft Word or some other file format in which the client can easily type in the information. For the less computer savvy and those with a printer though, they should also have the option to print the brief, fill it out and fax or scan it to you.

Good luck!

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