Briefing A Graphic Designer – To Get The Results You Want

Whether you come to hate your final design or not, boils down to how well written the design brief is. How to convey your vision (without being extremely pushy)?

Start with Your Business Goals

Replace “make it look nice” with what the design is intended to achieve. Do you have a new product, aiming to engage younger consumers or trying to be taken seriously on an industry scale? If they are not made aware of where your business fits in among the million others, how could you expect them to design anything more than something that looks good?

Define Your Audience Clearly

Of course, “everyone” is not a target audience. Specify demographics, interests, and behaviours. One designed to appeal to tech-savvy millennials will be entirely different from one that is meant for traditional business owners. For a Graphic Design Agency Birmingham, visit //birmingham.nettl.com/creative-agency-birmingham

Gather Visual References

Show, don’t just tell. Share some of your most loved designs and how they work. Add in your colours, fonts and styles that make you or your brand. That means that there is no confusion over those terms like “modern” or “professional”.

Set Clear Parameters

Include the dimensions it will be printed on, the medium – web or print etc. A billboard advertisement wants something different than a social media graphic.

Communicate Your Brand Guidelines

Include any old logos, colour palettes or fonts in lieu of brand guidelines, at least give the designer a few things to use as common elements.

Honest About Budget and Timeline

Great design takes time – the moment it is rushed, it will be poor. Top design briefs should be a practical guide to make the output of your designer not only align with what you had in mind, but also serve your business goals.