Ball Point Pen Wash

This is a topical piece, actually. It’s an illustration for a song I wrote while I hitch hiked through central Nevada. Heavy ball point pen treated with water and copious crumpling.

Full size version : Ball Point Pen Wash

The Creative Brief

In school, they talked a lot about constructing a creative brief to supply to your clients ahead of time when starting a design project for them. I have put together one of my own. It’s a work in progress, but these questions have proved invaluable to me when starting a project for a customer.

What is the nature of the business – i.e. what services or goods does the company provide? This one is pretty self-evident to some, while to others it can be difficult to properly define the service they provide.

How long have they been in business? How many people does the business employ? These things are just good to know heading into a project. A designer should be equipped with this kind of information because it not only helps visualize the persons you are designing for. but it also says something about the customers.

What are the company’s goals? – Adding value to their service? Generate customer evangelists? Establish a web presence? Generate new sales? A clear objective of what is to be accomplished is good. Knowing this ahead of time allows for planning the metrics from which the relative success of the marketing effort can be determined.

What is the product and what makes it unique? Really study the product. As a designer, you should get to know it’s strengths and weaknesses for yourself. Don’t always take the client’s word for it.
What features should be the focus of our efforts? What are the strengths? What aspects of the product make it unique to the competitors.

Who are the main competitors? Who are they – and where do they live? Kidding. But you should get to know what their strengths and perceived weaknesses are. And don’t trust your own opinion alone. Get opinions from other, more neutral parties. It’s good to know what other people (ideally in the target demographic) think of both products.

What are the demographics we intend to reach? Their age, their income range, other interests they share. The more information that can be collected about the intended message recipient, the more efficient we can be in delivering the message.

What should be the overall tone of the effort? Urgent? Casual? Formal? Informal?
What emotions do we want to encourage the customer to engage in while viewing the ad?

What kind of media will be used in production? Print ad, bus bench, billboard, mailer, door hanger, poster, banner or sign. Obviously you want to know what you are designing for ahead of time.

When is project needed by?
Are there any scheduling conflicts between now & the due date?
What kind of preliminary work must be done to establish the design of the ad? i.e. Customer materials such as text copy, photos, existing graphics, etc.

Copyright – will the final design be subject to copyright? Who will own said copyright? Limited or unlimited production rights? It’s good to know this up front, so that you have an idea what to charge. One-time usage campaigns are generally a bit less cost-intensive. If a client has me design something that they will be using for years to come, a slightly higher pricing structure comes into play. Most work I do does not fall into this category, but it’s good to be prepared.