Learn Graphic Design: Master The Graphic Design Brief

1. Class Introduction: What's more important than design itself? It's understanding why you're designing in the first place. Now, for beginners, when jumping into a new design project, it's tempting to dive straight into the fun stuff playing with color, picking type, and trying out layouts. But here's the thing. Design without direction is just decoration. If you want your work to actually mean something to hit the mark, to do its job, then you've got to start with one thing a proper design. Brief. Understanding a project's requirements could possibly be the most important step in your design process. If you fail to give this adequate attention, you could completely miss your project's goals. So have you ever been given a project with little to no direction? Maybe just a short email or a quick phone call, and suddenly you need to produce great work without any real clarity, or maybe you're working with a client who needs assistance, giving you what you need to start a project. This is something every designer encounters at some point, and it's exactly why the design brief is one of the most important tools in the entire creative process. Hello, and welcome to this class. My name is Gareth David, and I'm a designer with over 15 years of experience working across both freelance and full time roles in the design industry. And in this class, we are going to cover one of the most important resources in any design project, the Graphic Design Brief. Over the years, I've worked with a wide range of clients from those who have provided fully structured briefs to those who are completely unfamiliar with the concept of a design brief. But what I've learned is this, every successful project starts with a clear and thoughtful design brief. It's what gives your work direction, purpose, and impact. How you avoid endless revisions, miscommunication, and missed goals. In this class, I'm going to share with you everything I've learned about design brefs, not just what they are, but how to make them work for you as a designer. We'll start by breaking down what a design bref is and why it's so important. Then we'll explore the three main types of briefs you'll come across and how they influence your creative freedom and the direction of a project. And if you ever find yourself in a situation where your client doesn't provide a proper design brief, which happens more than you might think, I'll show you exactly how to create one yourself. Over the years, I've developed a method, a formula that can help you extract the right information, ask the right questions, and build your own design brief that you can refer to and share with your clients before you ever start designing. In this class, you'll also get access to design resources you can use that include over ten design brief examples, a client questionnaire to help gather key information, editable in design and Illustrator brief templates you can customize and use on real projects and resources to help you create a fictional brief. Whether you're a freelance designer, a student building your skills or someone looking to improve your professional workflow, this class is designed to give you the tools and the confidence to start every project strong. So if you're ready to bring more clarity, control, and confidence into your design process, let's dive in and get started. 2. Before You Begin: So before we dive into this class, there are just a couple of things I recommend you do to get the most out of this class. This class comes with a PDF that contains everything you'll need to follow along, including demo design briefs, client questionnaires, and a set of editable brief templates. These are the same resources I'll be walking through in the class. So having them in front of you will make things much easier to follow. So before you begin, head over to the project description section and download the class PDF. Once you've downloaded the class PDF, you'll be all set and ready to go. 3. Your Class Task: So before we jump into the main part of this class, let's talk about your task. The purpose of this class isn't just to help you understand the theory behind the design brief, it's also to get you to practice creating one for yourself. After watching the first videos, which will bring you up to speed with the design brief and its importance, use the tools and templates provided in the class PDF to go ahead and create your own graphic design brief from scratch. If you have a real client or a live project you're working on and you need assistance, building a design brief, perfect. Use the templates to help gather and structure all the information you need to build a proper professional brief. However, if you don't have a real client right now and you want to practice, you can create a fictional brief. The instructions to create your brief will be presented in the last video of this class. Once you've created your design brief, feel free to share it in the project section of this class. We'd love to see how you approach it, and it's a great opportunity for us to see each other's briefs. For example, so as you move through this class, remember, your goal is to understand the role of the design brief and create one of your own using the provided resources. Okay, so with the introductions out of the way, let's get into it. 4. Graphic Design Brief Overview: Start Any Design Project the Right Way!: Understanding a project's requirements could possibly be the most important step in your design process. If you fail to give this adequate attention, you could completely miss your project's goals. To confidently begin a project, you're going to need a graphic design brief, especially if you're unsure of what you need to solve. So let's break down what a graphic design brief is and why it's so important. So as designers, we want to do great work, work that delivers and work with impact. And to do that, we need clarity. We need to understand exactly what the project is asking from us and why it even exists in the first place. Jumping into design decisions without a clear understanding of the problem, well, that's risky. You might create something that looks good but misses the point entirely. Best design does two key things, serves a clear function or purpose, and it responds directly to the project goals. And if it looks great, too, that's a bonus. Remember, your job isn't just to make something pretty, it's to communicate a message, an idea, a story, visually and effectively. The graphic design brief is your blueprint. What is a graphic design brief? Well, put simply, it's a practical document that outlines the scope of a project and includes all the key details a designer will need to be aware of before they embark on a design process to solve a creative problem. Now, a design brief can come in many formats. Depending on where the brief is coming from, a brief could be a branded document carefully crafted as a booklet or leaflet, or it could be a very simple document printed across a few sheets of paper printed out in black and white from an ink jet or laser jet printer. While some design briefs may be created in a digital format, such as a 16 by nine landscape document, they are more commonly prepared for print as A for portrait documents. This format is practical, easy to compose, and ideal for sharing and working with in a tangible way. Designers often like to get hands on with a brief, making notes, highlighting key points, and referring back to it throughout the project. For that reason, printed briefs tend to be the most practical and user friendly option. Design brief is usually written by a person or team requesting the work. This could be a marketing manager, account manager, or creative director. In smaller teams, it may come directly from the client. In education, briefs are often created by tutors to mimic real world scenarios. But often, especially in freelance or solo work, it may be a designer who will need to craft the brief. A graphic design brief should help you understand the problem you're solving. Identify the needs of the client or audience, stay focused throughout the project, understand exactly what you need to deliver and help you explain your decisions with confidence. A good design brief will include key criteria such as a clear overview of the client and project, details about the target audience, clear goals and objectives, competitor or market context, the deliverables, success metrics, a timeline, any constraints or requirements, a budget, and any additional information a designer will need to know. So here are some typical graphic design briefs. Now, while every brief might look a little different, depending on the client or the industry, they all aim to cover the same essentials. If you want to explore these brief examples more closely, you can get them from the class PDF that comes with this class. Download the class PDF from the project section with it open, navigate to the design resources section where you can click on Design briefs, click on the design brief examples, and from here, you will see several brief examples which you can click to open and observe. So why is the graphic design brief so important? Because when you have a solid detailed brief, everything becomes easier. Having everything clearly outlined and organized at the start can give you the best start to a project. In the industry, time is money, and the less time you can spend preparing to start a project, the more time you can spend on the design process. The design brief helps a project stay on track where you're less likely to go off course, which can prevent less back and forth later on and becomes a point of reference that you and the client can return to if anything becomes unclear. Now, an often overlooked benefit of a solid design brief is rationalizing your design decisions during review or client feedback. A good brief doesn't just help you start. It helps you defend your work. When it's time to present your designs, you'll be able to point back to the brief and show how each decision connects to the goals, audience, and tone. It gives your work context and makes you look professional. So a graphic design brief will help optimize your time, direct your creativity, inform your decisions, and safeguard your sanity. So you really should not start a project without one in place. So what if you don't have a brief? Well, not all briefs are created equal. Sometimes you'll be given a clear and detailed brief. If you work as a full time designer with established clients, chances are you might get a well prepared brief. Other times, not so much. Some clients might hand over a short email, some might want to chat over coffee, and some might not even give you a brief at all. Which can be common if you are a freelancer working with small businesses. So what if you're not provided a brief? Well, in those cases, it's up to you to help guide the process and ask the right questions to get the information you need to do a good and informed job. If a brief isn't handed to you, you can build one by taking some effective steps, either by sending over a quick questionnaire, requesting a meeting or jumping on a call with the client, which we'll talk more about how to do in a future episode. So what if a design brief is too vague or missing key details? Now, even if you're handed a brief, that doesn't always mean it's ready for action. Remember, not all briefs are created equal, and some can be vague, incomplete, or even confusing. You might get a few bullet points in an email or just a vague idea like Make it look cool. In those cases, don't be afraid to push back politely. You're well within your right to request more clarity or ask additional questions before you begin designing. You can enhance the brief by filling in the gaps, taking steps to acquire the information you need from the client directly. Remember, you're responsible for delivering effective design, and to do that, you need a clear and focused brief to work from. If something's unclear, seek clarity. It's part of being a professional designer. Now, it's also worth knowing that there are different types of brefs which can exist across a wide spectrum. Open briefs give you a high scope of creative freedom. Closed briefs are more prescriptive and specific, which may give you a lower scope of creative freedom. Whereas flexi briefs can define limitations, but also offer a good degree of creative freedom. Now, I won't go too deep into those right now. We'll be looking at these in a feature video. But at this point, it's good to know the different exists at this early stage. Before you start to design anything, ask yourself, do I confidently understand the problem I'm solving? If the answer is no, press pause, and don't start until you've got a solid brief in hand, whether it's given to you or crafted by you. Because the success of any design doesn't start with color or layout. It starts with clarity. In the next episode, we are going to take a deeper look at what actually makes a good graphic design brief. I'll break down the sections and give you a closer look at one of the examples I showed earlier. So see you in the next video. 5. Anatomy of a Graphic Design Brief: What Makes a Good One?: Now, you can't hit a target if you don't know what you're aiming for. A strong graphic design brief gives you clarity. Without it, you're just guessing at the style, the message, the audience, and what the client actually wants. So what does a good graphic design brief actually look like? Let's break it down. In the last video, I unpacked what a design brief is and why it's essential to the design process. Now, let's go deeper and look at the anatomy of what makes a good graphic design brief, the kind that gives you direction, saves time and sets your project up for success. Now, not every brief will look the same. The structure might change and the language might vary, but the core content should always hit the same notes. Now before we get into the details of what a brief should contain, it's important to talk about format. Depending on where the brief comes from or who's creating it, it can take many forms a screen presentation, a PDF, or a printed document. In my experience, it's always best to have a printed brief. Designers usually prefer to get hands on making notes, highlighting key points, and referring back to it throughout the project. The design brief is a big part of the design process. While a digital brief might look polished, the best briefs are practical. They're printed, easy to work with, and designed to be used. Remember, a design brief isn't meant to be pretty. It's a working document that should clearly present all the information a designer needs to absorb and act on. So what does a good design brief contain? Well, a strong brief should give you all the information you need to understand the project context, client goals, what's required, target audience, what success looks like, visual direction, timeline, and deliverables. So here is an example of a good and thorough design brief. If you want to explore this brief example more closely, you can view it from the class PDF that goes with this class. Download the class PDF from the project section with it open, navigate to the design resources section where you can click on Design Brief, click on the design brief examples, and from here, you will see several brief examples which you can click to open and observe. In this instance, click on the Soul Hydro brief to follow along with this video. So this design brief example is separated into four key sections, each including many key parts. Section one, project client overview, Section two, Design overview. Section three, deliverables, and Section four additional notes. So Section one focuses on the client and project overview. This introduction will outline all the details a designer will need to learn about the client and the context of the project, and we'll start with the following Project brief title, a simple, clear title that captures the essence of the project, client and contact details. This will include names, roles and contact info. You're working with and who to go to with questions and then move into a more detailed overview of the project and client, which contains project business name story. This can include any backstory or reasoning behind the business or project name, why it was chosen, what it represents, or how it came to be. This kind of insight can spark creative direction and help ensure the design aligns with the deeper meaning behind the brand. What? A short paragraph about the client and what they do. This provides context about the business, organization, or individual behind the project. Who are they? What do they offer? What industry are they in? This helps you understand their space and how they position themselves in the market, all of which can influence the direction of the design. Why? A short paragraph about why the client does what they do. This is about uncovering the passion, purpose, and motivation behind the brand or business. What drives them? What's their mission? Understanding the why gives you insight into the heart of the product or brand and helps shape design decisions that feel meaningful, authentic, and aligned with their values. Goals, a short paragraph about the client's ambitions and long term vision. What are they ultimately trying to accomplish? This could include where they want the brand to go, how they want to grow, or the impact they hope to make in their industry or community. Understanding their goals gives you a clear picture of the bigger journey they're on and helps you design with that destination in mind. Brand values, a short paragraph outlining the core values or guiding principles of the product or brand. Understanding the brand's values helps guide visual decisions and feel authentic and aligned, ensuring the design reflects not just how the brand looks, but what it stands for. Unique selling points. A short paragraph outlining what makes the client product or service stand out from the competition. This helps clarify the brand's strengths and distinct qualities, whether it's their story, their values, pricing, product features, customer experience, or market position. Knowing the unique selling points gives the designer insight into how to shape the visual identity and messaging to highlight what truly sets the brand apart. Tone of voice and personality. Few keywords or short phrases that describe how the brand should sound when it communicates. Is it friendly and approachable, bold and confident, professional, and informative? This can also include three to five traits that best describe the brand's personality. This helps define the personality of the brand's messaging and ensures that both the design and the copy feel consistent across everything from packaging to social media. A clear tone of voice and personality helps guide not just what's being said, but how it's said. Strap lines include any existing strap lines, tag lines or slogans the client currently uses or would like to use. This gives insight into the client's voice and competitive edge. These short punchy phrases often capture the essence of the brand or communicate its key promise. Whether it's something already in place or still in development, strap lines can help guide the overall tone, message, and creative direction of the project. If none exist yet, this is a good opportunity to brainstorm potential decisions based on the brand's goals and values. Primary audience. A clear overview of who the design is targeting. This should include details like age, gender, location, profession, lifestyle, income level, and personality traits. Anything that helps paint a clear picture of the core customer or user. Knowing exactly who the design is for helps guide visual choices, tone, and messaging. So the final outcome speaks directly to the people it's meant to engage and connect with. The better you understand the audience, the sharper and more effective your design will be. What they care about a short summary of the audience's interests, values, and priorities. What matters most to them? What problems are they trying to solve? What influences their decisions or builds trust? This insight helps align the design with what the audience truly connects with, whether it's quality, convenience, sustainability, status, or something else entirely. Understanding what your audience cares about helps shape messaging and design choices that feel relevant and meaningful. Secondary audience, an overview of any additional groups the design should consider. This might include future users, adjacent markets, internal stakeholders, or fringe demographics the brand wants to attract or grow into. Recognizing secondary audiences ensures the design doesn't alienate other potential users and allows for broader appeal where needed, supporting long term growth, inclusivity and strategic expansion. Competitors, a list of any direct or indirect competitors in the same space, along with links, visual references or notes on how they position themselves. This helps identify how your client fits into the market, what others are doing, and where there might be opportunities to stand out. It also helps avoid unintentionally mimicking competitor branding or messaging. Understanding the competitive landscape is key to designing something that's both relevant and distinctive. Strategic considerations, big picture, an outline of any broader vision and strategic goals behind the project, whether it's breaking into a new market, shifting public perceptions, challenging industry norms, or launching something entirely new. Understanding these bigger picture aims helps designers move beyond surface level aesthetics and develop more intentional meaningful work. Strategic insights can spark bold creative ideas and cover opportunities to differentiate and shape a design solution that's not only visually strong but deeply aligned with the brand's mission and future direction. Budget. This outlines the financial scope of the project, either a fixed amount or a general range. If a quote has already been provided, it can be included here. If not, this is where the client can note what they are willing to spend. Having a clear budget helps define what's realistic, ensures expectations are aligned and can influence the scale, timeline, and deliverables of the project. So the project client overview will include all the details a designer will need to learn about the client and the context of the project. A good brief will cover these key criteria. Now, Section two focuses on the design criteria of a project. This will include all the details that give a designer all the information about what they will need to keep in mind regarding the design of the project. This section will include objectives. A clear summary of what needs to be designed and why. What is the project aiming to achieve? Are we raising awareness, increasing sales, launching something new, or shifting how the brand is perceived? This outlines the functional purpose behind the design and gives direction to your creative decisions. Having clarity here helps ensure the work is focused and built to deliver real results. Distribution, placement context. Clear summary of where the design will appear, whether it's for print, like posters, flyers, packaging, digital platforms like Instagram, websites or email campaigns, or other environments. Understanding the placement helps shape everything from layout and format to tone and scale. So the design is optimized for its environment and reaches the audience where they actually engage. Impact, emotional response. A short paragraph about the kind of response the design should create. This is all about how the audience should feel when they interact with the design. Should it excite them, build trust, inspire action? Or create curiosity, whether it's emotional, intellectual, or sensory, this helps define the intended experience. Clarifying the desired impact helps guide tone, style, and creative choices to ensure the work resonates in the right way. Lis a list of visual preferences, what the client likes. This can include brands, colors, styles, layout, and photography. It's also helpful to note any visual references the client has already researched. Understanding a client's preferences gives you a creative starting point and helps shape a direction. It can spark ideas and build early confidence in your design approach, dislikes to avoid a list of what the client would prefer to avoid. Capturing this early helps steer the creative direction and avoid missteps, saving time and keeping the project aligned with the client's expectations. Visual references, color preferences, styles to avoid, anything that helps you steer clear of what the client doesn't want existing brand assets. Summary of any current branding or materials already in place. This might include logos, color palettes, typography, imagery, brand guidelines or past marketing material. Knowing what already exists and what should be kept or evolved helps maintain consistency and ensures the new design fits within the broader brand system. If no assets are available, that's useful to know, too. It often means there's more creative freedom to explore. Key design considerations. This should include any important notes, limitations or requirements that could affect the design. This might include format constraints, accessibility needs, platform specifications, print requirements, or specific elements that must be included. It can also cover technical aspects like file types, image resolutions, or usage contexts. Identifying these early helps avoid surprises later and ensures the design is both creative and practical. Accessibility or legal requirements, an outline of any accessibility standards, compliance rules or legal guidelines that need to be considered, such as WCAG accessibility, color contrast, alt text, copyright usage, disclaimers, or industry regulations. These requirements ensure the design is inclusive, legally sound, and suitable for all users, helping avoid potential issues while making the final outcome accessible, ethical and compliant. Design achievements. This outlines the core goals of the design itself. For example, should it attract attention, informed clarity, driver response, or simply look professional and on brand? These are the practical outcomes the design should deliver once completed. Keeping these goals clear helps you stay focused on what the design needs to do, not just how it looks. How will success be measured? This should outline the metrics, feedback, or outcomes that will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the work. This could include increased sales, higher engagement, improved brand recognition, or feedback from a target audience. Defining this early helps align expectations and gives you something concrete to work towards and reflect on once the project is complete. Timeline. This should outline key milestones and the final deadline. It can include start dates, phases of development, and any important delivery checkpoints. A clear timeline helps manage expectations, keeps the project on track, and ensure there's enough time allocated for feedback, revisions, and final delivery. This keeps everyone accountable and gives the project structure. Approval process. A clarification of who will be responsible for reviewing and signing off on the design, including any stakeholders or decision makers involved throughout the process. Knowing who has final say helps streamline communication, avoid unnecessary revisions, and keep the project moving forward with clear accountability at each stage. So the design overview will include all the details a designer will need to know about what is required. A good brief will cover these key criteria. So the next section focuses on the design deliverables for the project. Depending on the scope, there may be one or many deliverables required. In this brief, there is a checklist of exactly what needs to be created, whether it's a logo, print files, social media assets, packaging, or all of the above. This can be sectioned into various subcategories, making it easy to manage with a simple checkbox system to highlight what is required. So the deliverables overview should include all the items a designer will need to know about what is required. A good brief will cover these key criteria. The last section focuses on additional notes. This is a space for additional information, links and anything else that may be important for a designer to know about. So those are all the key criteria a good design bref will include. A strong design bref allows a designer to take a step back, digest the information, and start the design process to problem solve with purpose. Because what makes a great brief isn't how pretty the template is, it's the quality of the information and the clarity of the intent behind it. When the right questions are asked and answered, everything else gets easier. So here's the insight I want to leave you with. Great Design starts with great understanding, and that starts with the graphic design brief. Whether you're handed one or you have to build it yourself, take the time to get clear on the details before you dive into the design process. In the next video, we're going to look at the different types of briefs you may encounter and how each type of brief can shape your creative direction in very different ways. So see you in the next video. 6. Three Types of Design Briefs You’ll Work With: Now, not every graphic design brief is created equal. Some give you room to explore, invent and play. Others hand you the structure and expect you to work within the lines, and some are somewhere in the middle. One isn't necessarily better than the other, but knowing the difference, that can change how you approach a project or even decide what kind of designer you want to be. Do you thrive on creative freedom or do you prefer clear boundaries? Let's take a look at the three most common types of design briefs and what they mean for your creative process. So when you're working on a project, you'll usually be issued with a design brief. And that brief will typically fall somewhere on what I like to call the creative freedom spectrum, which ranges from low to high creative freedom. So what's the difference? Open briefs offer more creative freedom. They don't tell you exactly what the solution is and will give you room to explore. On open briefs, you'll likely be spending more time researching, sketching ideas, developing multiple directions, and presenting concepts before one is chosen. Open brief examples might be for creating a new logo design, creating a new brand identity, creating a new marketing campaign, creating a new layout for an annual report, creating a pitch deck for advertising ads, or developing concepts for an event booth. Now, closed briefs, on the other hand, are more specific. And will offer lower creative freedom. You might be working within set brand guidelines, using existing assets, or updating something that already exists. In closed briefs, the design direction is typically already defined, and your job is to execute it effectively and accurately. Closed design brief examples might include creating a brochure from strict guidelines, creating a presentation, using a template, develop brand guidelines for an already established brand, taking specific direction from a creative director, producing social media using pre approved layouts and templates or creating internal PowerPoint slides or branded forms. So open and closed briefs will give varying degrees of direction, which will shape the design process very differently. It's also important to understand that design briefs aren't always strictly open or closed. They often fall somewhere along a spectrum. Some briefs may sit firmly at the closed end with clear guidelines, strict brand rules, and very little room for interpretation. Others may be wide open, giving you complete freedom to explore ideas from scratch. But many briefs land somewhere in between. A flexi brief sits somewhere in the middle. These brefs offer a blend of creative freedom and structure. You're usually working with an established brand that already has specific design elements and guidelines in place like logos, colors, typography, and a general tone. But within those parameters, there's room to explore and create something new. You might not be building from scratch, but you're still contributing to how the brand evolves or shows up in a fresh way. It's about problem solving with freedom but also responsibility. Flexi briefs can involve designing a campaign using existing brand assets, creating new posters, banners or social templates, developing a sub brand or product extension, expanding a brand's asset library with new icons, patterns, or illustrations, developing a brand identity uplift or refresh, or designing an event booth or presentation space that uses brand guidelines. In instances like this, you're not inventing the rules, but you're also not stuck inside a rigid box. It's a great space for designers who enjoy both creative exploration and strategic structure. Recognizing where a brief falls on this spectrum helps you manage your process, set expectations, and make the most of the creative opportunities available. Here I have three design briefs to demonstrate an example of an open, closed and flexi brief. If you want to explore these brief examples more closely, you can get them from the class PDF that comes with this class. Download the class PDF from the project section with it open, navigate to the design resource section where you can click on Design briefs, click on the design brief examples, and from here, you can see several brief examples which you can click to open and observe. In this instance, we'll be looking at the gold line clothing brief, the Strata pharmaceuticals, and the Roster coffee brief. The first example is an open brief for a fictional business called gold line clothing. This company is launching a new online platform called One Star T shirts to allow designers to create and sell their own t shirts online. So the brief was to create a brand identity for a new online T shirt platform. From the design overview section, some key highlights. They want a full brand identity created, logo, look and feel, assets, the whole kit. There's no existing branding to build from, so it's a full creative build from the ground up. Want to see multiple creative routes before moving to execution, and there is a good amount of time to do it in. So this is a classic open brief. Here, the job is not to design but to invent. There's a lot of space to explore, test, and define the direction and requires multiple routes to pitch. On a job like this, you would use all your design skills to develop a completely new creative direction. Here, you would have the possibility to put your stamp on the design. So the next example is a closed brief for a fictional company called Strata Pharmaceuticals. This company is preparing for an exhibition and wants print materials for the event. The brief is to create promotional print media for an exhibition to engage and interact with attendees. From the design overview section, some key highlights. Brand guidelines already exist. They're using last year's templates. They want new imagery and minor updates only, and there is a short two week turnaround. So this is a classic closed brief. The job is not to create a new concept. It's to work within the structure they've already established. And even use some of the already established templates from the previous year. So the solution is already defined. On a job like this, you would be applying your design skills, but the creative boundaries are much tighter. You might have some input on details like image choice or layout tweaks, but the overall direction is fixed. Now, let's take a look at a brief that falls somewhere in the middle, not fully open, but not strictly closed, either. This example is a flexi brief, a fictional brief for a coffee chain called Roster Coffee. The brief is to create a series of in store posters to promote seasonal drinks and new offers. From the design overview section, some key highlights. Design a series of five to ten promotional posters for use in store and online. Open to exploring different compositions, photography styles, messaging approaches, and typographic layouts as long as they stay on brand. Already has established guidelines, including typefaces, color palettes and logo usage. The timeline is four weeks for concept to final delivery. This is a great example of a flexi brief. On a job like this, you wouldn't be creating an identity from scratch, but you'd be building on top of current guidelines. There is scope for fresh ideas, and it has moderate direction. On this job, there is room to be creative within a defined structure. This brief example sits comfortably between open and closed, blending direction with opportunity. So why does this matter? Well, understanding whether a brief is open, closed or somewhere in between helps you set expectations and figure out what kind of work you actually enjoy doing. Some designers thrive on starting from a blank slate. Others prefer refining and improving existing systems within a set structure. Knowing where you sit on that scale can help you choose the right projects and clients and ultimately shape the kind of designer you want to be. And this isn't just theory, either. In job interviews or when speaking with potential clients, you can ask a simple but powerful question. Do you work with open briefs, closed briefs, or a mix? That answer alone can tell you a lot about the creative scope of the role and whether it aligns with how you would like to work. When I'm speaking with recruiters or reviewing new contract opportunities, I'll always mention that I prefer open briefs. That clarity upfront saves everyone time and ensures a better fit from the start. Over the course of your career, you're likely to work across all types of briefs. Some will be fully open, giving you total freedom to invent and define the creative direction. Others will be closed, where the role is to execute within strict brand systems using existing assets and templates, and many will land in the flexible middle, where you're designing with brand guidelines, but still have freedom to shape layouts, campaigns, and messaging in your own way. Understanding where a project sits on that spectrum helps you choose the kind of work you enjoy the most, manage your time and creative process more effectively. Avoid frustration when expectations aren't clearly defined, play to your strengths and lean into the work you prefer to do. In the end, it's all about knowing what you're walking into and using that awareness to your advantage. So the kind of brief you work with doesn't just shape the project. I shapes your role as a designer. The more you understand that, the more intentional you can be with the work you choose, the clients you say yes to and the direction you want your design career to go. When I'm speaking with recruiters or reviewing new contract opportunities, I'll always mention that I prefer open briefs. That clarity upfront saves everyone time and ensures a better fit from the start. So let me know in the discussion section, which type of design bref do you prefer to work on open, closed or flexi. In the next class, we look at what to do when a client doesn't give you a brief at all and how you can build one yourself using a set of professional design resources. So see you in the next video. 7. How to Create Your Own Design Brief: Free Templates Included: So what do you do when a client doesn't give you a graphic design brief? Maybe someone's reached out, asking you to take on a job. You've had a quick chat, maybe exchanged a few emails, but there's no real direction. Just a couple of loose ideas and a vague goal. And now you're expected to start designing. Now, you could wing it, but let's be honest, that's risky because without a clear brief, you're flying blind, and that can lead to confusion, wasted time, and work that misses the mark. What if you had a better way forward? What if you had your own set of tools to build a professional design brief yourself, quickly, clearly, and confidently, no matter what type of project you have? Well, in this class, I'm going to show you exactly how to do that. I'll walk you through how to acquire all the key information and then create your own graphic design brief from scratch using my custom in design and Illustrator templates. So whether you're working in house, freelancing or just starting out, this episode will give you everything you need to get your projects off the ground with clarity and purpose. Let's dive in. So before starting any new design project, it's ideal to have a well thought out brief. A brief gives structure to your work, defines the goals and makes sure everyone's on the same page from the start. Typically, before starting a design project, you'll be issued a design brief, but that doesn't always happen. Might just get a call, a couple of bullet points, or a very loose idea. Some clients prefer to discuss everything in person or over the phone. Many don't fully understand what a brief is or how important it can be. Whatever the situation, you'll want to build a solid design brief before starting any project, and it's totally possible to create your own using a simple process. If a brief isn't handed to you, your first job is to gather the information yourself. Now, there are many ways you can go about doing this. You can get information via a video or phone call, an in person meeting, an email exchange, or a client questionnaire. Over the years, I found that using a client questionnaire is one of the best ways to collect the information you need. You can go through this face to face over a phone call or simply send it to them to fill in in their own time. This gives you a clear structure to articulate what you need, so you can collect information in a variety of ways, from a simple text document to more interactive online tools. Some great online platforms include Google Docs and Google Forms. Here you can create a Google Doc, share it with your client, and they can simply fill in the details. Alternatively, you could consider online form Builders such as Tally, Jot Form or typeform. These allow you to create custom online forms that you can share via a link. Whether it's a simple text doc, a Google Doc or an online form, the client can fill in their answers directly into each field. And once they send it back to you or hit Submit, you'll receive all the responses in a structured format. So let's look at using a project questionnaire. To make things really easy, I've created a simple Google Doc questionnaire template that contains all the key questions with instructions you can use to build your own design brief. If you want to view this in more detail, you can get access from the class PDF that comes with this class. Download the class PDF from the project section with it open, navigate to the Design resource section where you can click on Design briefs, click on Design Brief Questionnaire, and from here, you will see a few options. This instance, click the first link to view the Google Doc questionnaire, which you can open and observe. This document is fully structured with sections for you and your client to fill out with helpful instructions under each question to guide the process. This document has been prepared to help you gather the right information and ensure nothing gets missed. Here you can copy it into your own Google Doc, save it as a template, download it as a word file, or adapt it however you like, for your own workflow. This resource is here as a blueprint to save you time and give you a solid foundation when a brief isn't provided, so you can move forward with clarity, confidence, and professionalism. In my experience, going through this with a client is best, but most clients are happy to take a few minutes to complete it if they're prepared to do it in their own time. Now, alternatively, if you prefer a more interactive and user friendly way to collect information, I've also included some online Form Builder options you can explore. Here's an example of a Google form I have prepared previously, which mirrors the same structure as the Google Doc I just showed. If I scroll down here, you can see how it's all structured where I have created all the key sections a client can simply fill in. Next is an example of a tally form I have created previously. This is much like the Google form, but with a different layout experience. If I scroll down here, you can see how it's all structured with all the key sections a client can fill in. So instead of sending a static document that your client has to download or edit manually using an online form, you simply send them a link. They can open it right in their browser, fill it out step by step, and submit their answers, all without needing to log in or download anything. It's a clean, intuitive process that can save you time and make things easier for your client. If you'd like to check out these forms, navigate back to the class PDF, and this time, click on the Google Form and tally Links to open and Explore. Also, check the video description for some links to view. So whether you prefer to use a text based template or create your own digital form, both options are available for you to use, adapt, and share. So whatever approach works best for you, once you've gathered your info, it's time to build the actual brief. Next, you can simply take the information and drop it into a design brief template. If you navigate back to the class PDF, this time in the Design Brief resource section, click Design Brief Templates. Here you will find templates built in in Design and templates built in Illustrator. By clicking on either of these folders, you will download a zip folder. In each folder, you will see all the templates I have created previously. Now, if you're using InDesign, you can begin by opening up the InDesign brief ID ML file, where you will see all the brief templates on offer. These range from simple to more complex. So depending on how you want to prepare and print your design brief, some are single sheets and some are double sided, outlined in a booklet format. So here you have a variety of layouts. However, I have set them all up in a similar way so you can work with each one the same. By holding Alt on the keyboard, you can double click on the design brief and it will open in its own document. Each brief template is spread over a few pages, allowing for large amounts of content with clear defined sections that reflect the questionnaire. By pressing W, you can see that each section includes tethered text frames. As text is added into the frames, it will continue into the next frame. As text flows across the columns, keep in mind that ifever you want to force text into the next column, you can come to type, insert break character, and click Column break, instead of having to tweak the column height manually. By clicking on the text frames, up in the paragraph panel, you can toggle the number of columns to customize your layout. However, keep in mind in some of the templates, text flows inside tables. So you'll have to toggle the frame size there. Fill the check box fields, simply select the boxes stroke, then use the swap fill and stroke tool to fill them. Now, every template uses Google fonts, which are free to use. So if you want to use these templates as they are, navigate back to the class PDF and get the fonts from the design resource section. To customize the typography, go to Window Styles Paragraph Styles. Without anything selected, simply double click into the Paragraph Styles, and you can edit them to change the fonts, weights, and stars across the entire document by editing the presets. Also check out the character style, as there is one in there to apply a bold weight to your type, as not to alter the paragraph style. And if you want to change the colors, double click on the swatches and update all your choices. So the layout is structured using text frames with simple paragraph styling that makes it easy to paste in your client's answers and change your style. In the templates, I have included fictional text, so you can see how it works across the text frames, which you can simply select and replace with your own content. Now, if you prefer Illustrator or don't have access to InDesign, Illustrator versions are also available. You'll find the same sections just laid out separately across the pages. They won't be as flexible, so you'll have to do some manual work to adjust the layouts as you add text. Like in InDesign, you can edit fonts and styles by going to Window type paragraph styles. Double click the style to change the fonts and apply your own look. So once you have taken all the information from your questionnaire and filled in your brief templates, you can export it as a PDF. Make sure you're happy with the level of detail you need for the project and then share it with your client for review. This gives a client a chance to confirm the direction or suggest changes. Once approved, you've then got a solid reference to work from. So to recap on how to go from nothing to a solid brief, first, use a project questionnaire to gather information from your client. Then use the brief template to structure that into a clean professional format. Once complete, review and finalize to make sure you're happy with the details, send it back for client sign off or any small adjustments, and then print it off and start the design process with clarity. So remember, you don't have to wait for a brief. You can create one. And when you do, you take control of the process, which means fewer revisions, better communication, and better design outcomes. So grab the templates, try them out and start your next project with confidence. I hope this helps you take charge of your creative process. So that's how you can create a design brief for real projects using a questionnaire. But what if you're looking to challenge yourself with a fictional brief? Maybe you're just starting out in graphic design and want to explore the creative process, but you don't have a real client to work with. A great way to practice is by creating your own fictional design brief. In the next video, I'll show you how to create one from scratch quickly and easily, so you can start building design projects for your portfolio. See you in the next video. 8. Create your Own Fictional Design Brief : When it comes to real world design work, being able to develop a clear, structured brief is one of the most valuable skills you can have. It sets you up for success before you even begin designing. If you have a real client or a live project you're working on and you need assistance, building a design brief, perfect. Use the templates I provided earlier in this series to help gather and structure all the information you need to build a proper professional brief. However, if you don't have a real client right now and you want to practice, don't worry, you can create a fictional brief. And to do this is easy. Here, we can leverage the power of AI to generate a fictional design brief in minutes. So if you want to make a fictional brief, you can undertake four key steps. Step one, define your company or product context. Step two, customize a full brief prompt. Step three, generate a full design brief, and step four, prepare and export. So let's begin with step one. Define your company or product context. Here, I have a Google Doc containing a pre written prompt to help you generate a fictional company or product you could use for a design brief to view and use this prom you can get access from the class PDF that comes with this class. Download the class PDF from the project section, with it open, navigate to the design resource section where you can click on Design Briefs. Click on Design Brief AI Prompt, and from here you will see a few options. In this instance, click the first link to view the company and product Contexts Google Doc. So the first step is to think about the four criteria for the project context that I have here at the top in pink. Think about a name for a fictional company, what the fictional company or business does, what do you want the design brief to be for, and what design work is required. Currently, you can see the fictional descriptions I have placed in pink so you can get an idea of what you can create for your example. So here you can do one of two things. You can either create your own fictional company or product, or you can use this prompt. If you want to use AI to generate it fast, simply copy and paste the entire prompt into ChachiBTPcess, and it will return a response for each part. Easy. Step two, customize the full brief prompt. So next, I have another document, but this time with a thorough pre written prompt that you can use to generate a full detailed fictional brief in seconds, which you can again paste directly into Chat EBT. This prompt touches on all the key criteria you would need for a detailed brief with instructions on what is required for each part. If you navigate back to the class PDF, this time, click on the next Google Doc for the full design brief prompt. Initially, I'd recommend copying the text from this doc and pasting it into your own document where you can customize the details. At the top, you can see the project context in pink, which currently contains my example. Now it's just a case of removing my example and replacing it with yours. So either type in your own criteria for each section in pink or copy the result that you generated for your company or product context and replace mine. And then you'll have your full brief prompt ready. Step three, generate a full design brief. Once you've made your edits to the full brief prompt, copy and paste the entire prompt into Chat GBT. Again, process, and it will return a full response for each section. This should help speed up your entire process to generate information for your fictional brief. Step four, prepare and export. With your generated result, it's just a case of exporting it as a PDF directly from Chat GBT, or take the results and drop them into one of the in design or Illustrator design brief templates included in the class PDF as demonstrated in the previous video. You can adjust the layout, tot the type, and customize the look and feel. Whichever option you choose. Once you're done, you'll have a complete fictional design brief ready to print that you can learn from. Easy. This is a great way to save time and simulate the initial process of setting up a design brief and getting comfortable working with the structure. Once you have a fictional brief, you can even take it a step further and respond to your own brief with a full design project for your portfolio. So if you follow the steps and you've created your own design brief, be sure to share your brief in the project section of this class. I'd love to see what you have come up with. This is also a great way for others to learn to get inspired and see different approaches to the same process. Let's see what your ideal design brief would be. 9. Closing: So that's the Graphic design brief. In this class, we've explored why it's such a crucial part of the design process, how to recognize the difference between open, flexy and closed briefs and what to do when a client doesn't provide one. Most importantly, you've now got a method and a set of tools to build your own briefs from scratch, so you can bring clarity to any project you take on. Remember, the design brief isn't just paperwork. It's the foundation that supports every creative decision you will make. A strong brief sets up a strong process, and a strong process leads to great results. I really hope you've enjoyed this class and that the resources, templates, and insights I've shared will become a useful part of your own design toolkit. If you want to keep growing your skills, check out more of my classes here on Skillshare and make sure to follow my profile so you don't miss any future releases. Thanks again for joining me and until next time, unleash your creativity, and I'll see you in the next class.