The Basics of Design: How to Write an Effective Design Brief

Design briefs are documents that outline all the details of your design vision. That includes technical information like dimensions and formats as well as the overall messaging and goal of the piece.

As an unlimited graphic design subscription service, we read and bring to life hundreds of design briefs. In this article, were going to share some tips on how to write design briefs that help your designers nail the task every time.

1. The Brand

The designer should have a good understanding of the business, the industry and the goal of the design task. When your designer has a good understanding of those things, they can make more informed choices.

If you're using a Design Cloud subscription plan, the longer you work with the designer, the better the understanding will be. That means that as time goes on, design briefs will become easier. 

It's also important to let your designer know who the target audience is. The target audience will dictate design choices, so it's crucial to include that on the brief.

2. The Details

Your designer will refer back to the brief time and time again throughout the design process. They'll need to know all the technical details that make sure the design hits the brief. 

Here's a list of basic technical information that should be included...

1. Dimensions - What size does the design need to be?

2. Format - Does the final file need to be a PDF, for example?

3. Copy - Include any copy that needs to be in the design

4. Images - Include any specific images needed in the design

‍

Further to the basic technical information, you'll need to include your brand's guidelines. This is how your designer will design in line with your brand's visual identity. Strong brand guidelines also ensure consistency amongst all marketing materials.

You'll want to include...

- Font choices

- Imagery styles

- Brand colours (with hex codes for more accuracy)

- Logos 

- Iconography 

These are the basics of a brand guidelines, but most will include more detail.

3. The Timeline

A designer will always want to know what your goal is for the timeline of a project. So, make sure to propose a deadline in the design brief. Professional designers will always feed back if they feel the deadline is unrealistic, or whether it could impede on the quality of the design. At Design Cloud, we aim to have simple design tasks back in one business day. More complex design tasks may take longer, which your designer will always feed back to you. You can learn more about how Design Cloud subscription plans work here.

‍

4. The Budget

When working with traditional design agencies or freelancers, they'll want to know the budget you are working with. It’s really important that a budget is set from the very beginning to avoid any frustration or time delays. It’s a good idea to also build in some extra room to the budget for any unforeseen extras and agree on that at the beginning of the partnership.

In this article, we've discussed 4 of the major components of writing a design brief. Including these details in every brief will help to speed up turnaround times on design tasks and make your visual identity consistently strong. For more graphic design tips and updates, check out the full Design Cloud blog.