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Part 2 of Core Concepts focuses on problem solving, working to a brief, understanding client expectations, researching and developing ideas and getting to know your demographics before finally reaching a design outcome. This is certainly an area I feel I need to develop a better understanding of. This page offers further details about ‘Working to a brief’ and completed exercise below. Please see learning log here.
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Brief is the term used to describe a task in sufficient detail for the designer to be able to do the work required.
The brief is a communication problem waiting to be solved. The process of creative problem solving is at the heart of being a graphic designer. It is about analysing the problem, researching possible ideas and responding with a creative solution.
All design work starts with a brief – even if you write it for yourself. For the purpose of this project, we will assume that you are working to a client’s brief.
The brief outlines, as clearly as possible, all the information you will need to complete a project successfully. The first thing to do with a brief is read it through carefully and make sure that you understand it. If there is anything you are not sure about ask for clarification.
The brief should cover:
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• What are you being asked to do
• What the client wants the work you are doing to achieve
• Who your target audience is
• Where and how it will be reproduced
• Whether there are any restrictions as to colours you can use
• Whether you need to incorporate illustrations, photographs or diagrams and who will supply these
• The timescales – when they want to see the initial ideas, the proofs, when the artwork goes to print and when the finished job is distributed
• There may be a budget you need to work to, particularly if you are buying print as well.
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Working through a brief, from the initial reading through developing your ideas to producing the finished artwork is the design process. If you look at any established graphic designer, you will find that the consistency of their work is not necessarily based on the kind of work they produce or their visual style, but how they approach the work through their design brief.
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Finding a brief
Briefs can be self-initiated, client or competition based.
Self-initiated briefs are useful to help practice and develop your skills. These briefs can often be very loose and open and allow for lots of experimentation and creativity, however because you set it yourself it can lack real challenges.
Client briefs are an excellent way to develop your graphic design skills in a real context, however if you are just starting out as a graphic designer they can be daunting and it can be easy to bite off more than you can chew. If you want to work with a client try and find somebody to work with who is supportive of you as a learner. Perhaps you have a friend or family who needs some design work or you are a member of a club that needs some publicity designing.
Competition briefs are challenges laid down by professionals to design students across the world; they’re a great way of testing your skills out. There are plenty of competition briefs that provide interesting design challenges such as the Design and Art Directors (D&AD) Student Awards, The Young Creatives Network (YCN) or The International Society of Typographic Designers (ISTD) student assessment awards.
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I keep six honest serving-men (they taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who – The Elephant’s Child Rudyard Kipling.
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Analysing the brief
Once you have a brief the first part of the design process is to ensure you know what you are being asked to do and have a good understanding of how the client will judge a successful outcome to the brief. Start by reading the brief carefully, highlighting actions that need to be fulfilled and keywords that suggest what the client is looking for. For example, have they suggested something innovative or functional, elegant or eye-catching? Look through a brief or your notes with a client and identify what they are expecting to see and how they might judge a good response to the brief.
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Identify the keywords
These are often the descriptive words that are crucial in understanding what a brief is asking of you; they give a sense of the overall feel that the client is looking for. When analysing your brief, highlight the keywords and if possible, simplify them down. For example ‘innovative’, ‘fresh’ and ‘ground-breaking’ all suggest the client wants something new, while ‘functional’, ‘direct’ and ‘simple’ suggest your designs need to be practical. Knowing about the client and their values can help you understand what they are looking for. A good brief will provide you with much of this information and most clients are very upfront about what image they want to project, their product and your role in promoting it. However, when it comes to client briefs it is worth remembering that the client does not always know best. Just because they are asking for a particular design product that does not mean it is the best way to solve their design problem. Use the ‘W’ questions Who, Why, What, Where, When and How to check that you have all the information you need. For example the Who question might throw up: Who is my main contact? Who is the main audience? Who is providing the copy and the photos? Who is printing it?
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Managing the brief
You need to think about how to project manage the brief. Project managing is about how you structure your time, think about resources and costs and your relationship with the client. For the exercises in this course your tutor will be your client. A key consideration are the deadlines. When does the client want the proofs and when does the design work need to be finished? When planning your time work backwards from the final deadline, identifying what time you have available and sketching out your design process in those slots. How much time are you giving for research, ideas development and doing the finished artwork? You will probably find that you underestimate the amount of time you need by a factor of two or maybe three. Keep a note of how long things take to help you better plan your time. When working with a client you need to be clear at the beginning how you are going to communicate, what the expectations of the project are and the timescale. Things nearly always take much longer than you think, particularly if you take time to consider and improve your ideas as you work. At this stage it is likely that things will go wrong and the designs may take longer than anticipated. As you work through the course you should find that you begin to get a fairly good idea about how long things take to do and you will be able to negotiate time scales (and pay rates) with more confidence.
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Exercise: Working to a brief
These are extracts from briefs set as part of a student competition. Your task is to read and analyse them. Ask yourself:
• What are you being asked to do?
• How will the client will judge a successful outcome to the brief?
• What are the keywords?
In addition log any other questions you would want to ask the client.
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Brief 1 Create packaging for Quaker’s new ‘Chilled Creamy Oats’ product for young women looking for a truly delicious healthy snack. The target audience is young women juggling many jobs and priorities everyday. They like to eat well but also love treats and hate feeling hungry. They like the idea of oats for their natural goodness but find the idea of eating them bland and unappealing.
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Brief 2 Most of us have experienced a long rail journey – we witness the dramatic contrasts of the changing landscape, the inter-connections at various points along the way; various people embark and disembark; the dynamic is ever- changing… finally we reach our destination. This brief challenges you to take a metaphorical journey on the theme of connections. Explore the theme as broadly as possible and take us on a journey that might link, amongst other things – people, events, philosophies, theories, objects, movements, inventions, history, literature, etc. Your journey is only limited by your own imagination and the quality of your research – surprise us with the juxtaposition of your selected themes but be sure to communicate to the viewer the ‘connectedness’ of the thinking within your design. Define your market, and how you will target it.
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Brief 3 To raise awareness of the risks of underage drinking and contribute towards a cultural change in society’s attitude towards alcohol. The purpose of the Department for Children, Schools and Families is to make this the best place in the world for children and young people to grow up… to make children and young people happy and healthy and help them stay on track. With a core proposition of ‘Alcohol leaves you (or your children) vulnerable’, the campaign will urge parents to talk to their children before they consider drinking, to help avoid vulnerable situations. The messages to young people will get them to think about the effects of drinking. Creative ideas should use the campaign identity ‘Why let drink decide?’ to extend the campaign’s reach and specifically target young people aged between 13 and 16. We are open to ideas about the media or format you think is most appropriate to reach the target audience.
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Having analysed the briefs which one do you think you would most like to tackle? Is it the one with the most restrictions or the one that is most open to interpretation? What do you think your chosen brief would offer you? In what way do you think it would stretch your skills and abilities? Make notes in your learning log.
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Conculsion
Brief 1 – Although the first brief is clear and easy to understand in terms of WHAT I am being asked to design, its target audience consisting of busy, working females, leaves the door open for interpretation and doesn’t feel specific enough for me to confidentially deliver the message to the correct viewer. This brief requires refining and filtering to establish a more accurate demographic.
Questions for the client:
- What is the age range you wish to appeal to?
- Is the product produced in specific flavours?
- What colours are you wanting to see in the design?
- In the brief you mentioned that it should be targeted to women juggling many jobs – what jobs are these? This will help to establish a concept.
- Can the product be heated as well as eaten cold?
- Materials used for packaging? Microwavable?
- Are the oats ready to eat?
- Ingredients / Nutritional Factors?
- Are all ingredients produced in the UK?
- What imagery / logos / photography should be used and who will provide these?
- Where will the product be distributed?
- Who will produce the final product?
- When is the deadline?
- What are your expectations and how will you judge a successful outcome?
- Is your product original?
- Who are your main competitors?
- What do you believe makes Quaker stand-out from it’s competitors?
- Have Quaker Oat’s received any awards worth mentioning in the packing?
- Do Quaker Oats support any charities?
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Brief 2 – Firstly, WHO is the client? If you were in a meeting with them it would be safe to assume you would know who they are, but this brief didn’t make that clear. What type of design are they looking for? With experience this level of freedom could be a blessing but I feel it lacks direction. Maybe with experience that confidence will grow but in my current stage of knowledge, I wouldn’t feel confident enough to tackle such a broad idea without digging deeper. I liked the inspiration that supported the brief but was unable to gauge a starting point in my mind. The brief lacked guidance or a clear enough message to know how to achieve a successful outcome.
Questions for the client:
- Who is the company / brand?
- What are you wanting designed? A poster or leaflet etc?
- Who are you trying to reach out to?
- What are you trying to achieve?
- What makes your train journey’s better than your competitors?
- How will you judge a successful outcome?
- The concept is broad, but what would you ultimately like to see in the design? Colours, mood etc?
- Who will provide imagery / logo etc?
- When is the deadline?
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Brief 3 – The third brief seemed the most specific. I had ideas racing through my mind the moment I read it. From a personal point of view, it was more ‘up my street’. Any response to this would be controversial to some degree. Personal views aside, it’s a daring and exciting project, one that will most likely push boundaries, but a design of deep meaning that is intended to instil shock and deliver uncomfortable, but factual messages that are generally avoided topics of discussion in everyday life. Whilst the client is open to ideas in terms of design, format etc, they also have a clear message they are wanting to share and to whom it should be targeted to, which makes a starting point easier to gauge. I find that I had the least questions for this client. See below.
Questions for the client:
- What are they expecting to see in terms of colours, mood etc?
- How will you judge a successful outcome?
- Who will provide imagery / logo’s etc?
- When is the deadline?
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My choice based on the above conclusions is brief 3, however because I was eager to test my abilities I decided to try brief 1 as an additional project as a way to overcome my fears and lack of experience.
Graphic Design - Core Concepts: A log by Jade Wylie 