How to create a Design Brief that doesn’t suck

Do you know what happens when your design brief sucks?

brief,design brief,design brief template,design brief example
THIS! This happens when your design brief sucks.

You might have seen James Fridman (@fjamie013) on X (previously Twitter)—a guy who accepts Photoshop requests for fun.

His edits are not only excellent but also hilarious.

It’s enjoyable, really.

I can easily find myself in this rabbit hole for a few hours.

You see, design requests here are one-liners, so it gives the designer a lot of room for creative interpretation.

A one-sentence creative brief simply cannot help a designer do exactly what you like.

This is why a well-written design brief is a primary need for any design project.

In this article, you will:

  • Understand the importance of an effective design brief.
  • Get tips on how to write a design brief.
  • Be able to get a FREE design brief template.

messy table cartoon

Like you, brands and stakeholders who invest in expensive marketing campaigns also need a tangible document to convey their ideas and project goals.

This helps align their goals and objectives with the design process of the design agency or whoever is creating their designs.

The benefits of creating a well-thought-out brief flow two ways: to you as the client and to your design team, which works on your new project.

With this document, the guesswork is out of the way, and the designer will be able to see a clear path to deliver the requested designs with high quality, speed, and without too much back and forth.

But Deer Designer offers Unlimited Revisions, so why create a design brief if I can request revisions over and over again?

Well, that’s true.

We will make changes to your designs as many times as you need.

But do you want to be frustrated with never-ending revisions? 😨

I mean, we don’t mind, but it’s your time and money you’d be wasting.

We would rather streamline the design work so all the project deliverables are sent within the projected timeline with few revisions.

Without a design brief, a designer implodes, cries (for help), guesses (badly), and worst of all, fails to reach YOUR project goals.

You are lucky if you’re subscribed to a design service like Deer Designer that offers unlimited designs and revisions.

But what if you’ve got a freelancer that charges per hour and only communicates whenever it’s convenient to them?

It can be easy for you to go over your project budget, not make it to your deadlines, and still not like the final design.

Que Horror!

What details should you include in your design brief template?

designer quote Charles Eames
Recognizing the need is the primary condition of Design. – Charles Eames

In order for your design brief to not suck, it must first help clarify the need.

Your need.

Here are some guide questions that can help you organize your thoughts before writing the brief:

  • What is the purpose of the design?
  • What are the objectives of your campaign?
  • Who needs to see it?
  • What are the colors, fonts, and styles?
  • What is the design inspiration?

FREE DESIGN BRIEF TEMPLATE

Want to get it right the first time without countless revisions?

Here’s our fool-proof design brief template!

DOWNLOAD NOW!

brief,design brief,design brief template,design brief example
Yes, master.

How do you write an effective design brief?

However, at the end of the day, this Design Brief Template is just a document.

A piece of pen and paper needs a writer for it to have value.

In order to write a good design brief, you need the following:

1. Clear and concise vision for the design project

The vision doesn’t have to be your own brainchild.

You just have to have a good grasp of it.

This helps your team understand the scope of the project and gives realistic timelines for how soon things can be done.

2. Your brand guidelines and background

To create designs that match your brand, your designers need to know where your brand is coming from.

You want to have information on your brand guidelines and brand identity.

Your project manager can optimize your workflow better if you also include any design problems and marketing mistakes the brand has made beforehand.

This way, your current design team can learn from the mistakes of others and not waste your time with Deja Vu.

3. Audience insight for your design decisions

To make designs that create a connection with your target audience, you should have data on them.

This includes their data, likes, dislikes, language, comfort content, and more.

Create an effective brand brief with our template

Now you are ready to use the Design Brief Template.

Let us go through each field one by one:

Field Content
Brand With Deer Designer, you’re able to request designs for your own brand or for your clients.

Each brand has a different brand identity, so you want to let your designer know which brand they are making this design for.

Project name

A clear and concise title is helpful, so you and your team can easily track and search for your design tickets for future reference.

If you need something revised, or if you want to make a similar design, a specific project name makes it easier to search for it. 

Good examples:

– Christmas banners for ACME Limited

– Stark Industries

– Homepage design for 21/08

– Banners (Facebook/Instagram) for Coca-Cola

Bad examples:

– New request (not clear or specific enough)

– New order for Monday (not clear and the deadline is vague)

Background story

Let your team know the “why” of your design. 

A 4-5 sentence paragraph is enough to tell everyone “why” this design should be done.

Objective

Tell your team what the purpose or goal of this design is.

If it is a part of a campaign, you can include this so your project manager can align this design with any existing designs in your campaign.

Audience

Tell your design team who your target audience will be. 

If you don’t have a specific demographic, you can indicate if the design is for your brand’s existing followers or if you are trying to widen your reach to people who don’t know your brand yet.

Deliverables

List down the design items you need in order of importance.

For example, if you need illustrations, indicate how many you need and what each illustration should be.

Project tone

Give your team an idea of what the tone or mood for the design should be.

Should it be happy? Serious? Professional yet approachable?

This can affect the look of your design.

Look and feel

Provide any colors, fonts, pegs, or inspirations you have so your designers have a visual of what your ideal final design should look like.

Desired reaction

Similar to the project tone, this gives your designers an idea about the mood of your design.

However, this part is specific to how you want your audience or customer to feel when they see your design.

Do you want them to feel like a discount offer is limited and they should make a purchase now? Do you want them to feel supportive of your company’s cause? 

Mandatory elements

What logos, taglines, icons, product photos, etc. should be included in your design?

Copy

We don’t do copywriting at Deer Designer and most designers don’t either.

Indicate what text you want to include in each design request and which keywords you want to be highlighted.  

 

Making it easy for you: design brief examples

Check out this pre-filled template to see how it works:

From this template, for example, the graphic design team was able to come up with these great designs:

Key Takeaways

So now that you know what a design brief should look like inside and out, let us summarize by outlining what a design brief is NOT:

👉 A design brief is not… Brief.
A design brief contains a lot of information, all in one document.

So it can be kind of wordy, but each part of it is significant.

👉 A design brief is not… Simple.
A design brief can make or break a design.

When writing a design brief, you need to put a lot of thought and consideration into what assets your design needs, what your target audience might think of the design, and what can help your designers understand your creative vision.

👉 A design brief is not… Set in stone.
The beauty of a design brief is that it leaves enough room for creativity, both for you and your design team.

You, as the client, communicate what you need, your project manager converts your goals into specific design tasks, and your designers will do their magic.

What’s important is that the entire team is targeting the same goal.

Now go and save tons of time and fewer revisions by using the Design Brief Template to communicate your vision with your team.

Good luck!

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