How to Develop a Strong Brief

How to develop a brief!

Hiya! Ever been stuck on a project because you have hit creative wall after wall? Well, you’ve come to a great niche corner of the internet. The following is a transcription of the above video!

Now, there are two main reasons why your ideas don’t ever seem to work out: either one, you haven’t fully fleshed out the idea to a functional level, or two, the idea is actually dumb. I’m joking… not really. But you know, you could actually brainstorm and make a dumb idea become a great one.

Understand the brief

Now, everyone is different in how they plan for ideas, but my personal technique is either a well-formatted document or a bunch of sticky notes taped to a wall that I can step back and look at.

Yeah, um, asking for a friend—what method do you use? Because I’m running out of sticky notes. I mean, asking for a friend.

So, the first step of developing your idea is to understand the brief of your idea—or, you know, make one. How do I put it? So, you want to build a house, right? Well, first you need a good foundation and understanding of where you’re going to put it, how you’re going to build it, all of those sorts of things. You can’t just build a house on top of a swamp, right? No, your house is going to get swallowed up by the mushy ground.

A detailed brief provides clarity on the deliverables—okay, like the end result. It helps in identifying the core requirements and constraints, enabling you to plan effectively, avoid backtracking, and double handling. Understanding the brief thoroughly ensures that a project stays on track, meets deadlines, and fulfills its intended purpose.

Should you Make a brief?

Yes, you definitely should always make a brief. Like I said before, it’s going to help keep you on track, especially if you’re working with other people or with a client. That way, everyone knows what the plan is, what the ideas are, and it just helps get the ball rolling for projects.

Questions to make a brief

Here are some of the questions you could be asking yourself to develop a strong brief. I’m sure this could apply to other places, but in graphic design, when you’re thinking about the location, you also want to think about what the weather might be like. Is it outdoors or indoors? Is the climate typically rainy? You want to think about the lighting—is it going to be harsh sunlight or dim indoor light? Because you don’t necessarily want to have a giant glossy banner in a dark room with a single spotlight on it, because that’s going to reflect so much light.

When you’re also talking about the audience, you’re not just talking about the target audience—you’re also talking about the people who are common traffic. And this traffic will change depending on the way in which you host it, for example, social media, online, on billboards, in buses and trains, things like that. Consider not just who your audience is, but where they’re coming from.

Determine keywords

Now, we get to the second half of designing the brief by determining the keywords or ideas. This is going to help us flesh out what’s actually going on. The sorts of questions you could be asking are: What do you want it to look like? Do you or your client or your team have a mood board to work towards? What do you want people to feel? What message or story do you want to tell? What sort of emotions will people feel when they look at it, wear it, interact with it?

In this step, you want to find describing words and as many terms as you possibly can that relate to your idea. Don’t forget to include what types of colors or shapes would accurately portray these ideas. For example, a cute bakery could include things like cute, soft, bouncy, round, fluffy, pastel, swirly, frosting—maybe include some specific influencers and artists in that area.

Develop your concept

Now, with those two initial parts of planning, we finally have a really good foundation for our brief, but there’s not much of a concept to go along with it. So, the next step is to develop that concept. Go out, find references that match or inspire those ideas and keywords. Not only do I want you to improve that mood board, I also want you to figure out the construction steps. How are other people doing it? How are your competitors doing it?

Walk away!

Next step: walk away. Walk away for two sleeps, at least. It is so, so important that you take a step away from your madness and allow your brain to simply rest. If you’re too close to a project, it’s all going to be way too fuzzy in your brain, and you’re not actually going to be able to produce quality outcomes. Your brain already knows all of the answers—you just gave it all of the pieces of the puzzle. Now, you just need to let it do its thing and put the pieces together.

keep refining

Great! So, you’re back from your time of rest. You know what I’m going to say next? Well, I’m going to tell you to revisit your brainstorm and redefine each point. Do you know why? It’s because quantity makes quality, and if you don’t cover all your bases, then your idea will be subpar at best. So, redefine each point by asking how you can achieve each thing. For example, how can I achieve the story or message I want to deliver? How can I achieve finishing the project with the requirements or restrictions in place? Blah blah blah blah blah.

Surely, by now, at this point in the process, you’re starting to question and doubt yourself—and that’s good! You want to doubt your idea and then prove it wrong by answering all these questions again, making sure that the payoff or outcome is actually positive. And if it isn’t positive, or what you desire it to be, ask yourself again: how can you achieve that?

how is your idea appealing

Right, so now you have a fantastic brainstorm and brief of your idea. But obviously, ideas are meant to be shared with other people, so we need to also consider them. You want to look at your ideas and ask yourself if it is appealing—by humor, quality, relatability, grandness, inspiration, or curiosity.

Let me just be clear: having one or all of these things isn’t going to make your idea good or bad. In fact, having only one could still kill your idea just as much as having all of them would. So, it’s important to not only find a balance but also find a way to incorporate those things. How can you make others care about it? Why should they care about it? How does it stand out? Is it memorable? Does it have a strong story behind the idea? Those are the things that are genuinely going to make your idea successful. Even if it’s a bad idea, as long as you can target those points, you’ll be fine. Don’t take my word for it, though.

ENDDD.

And hooray! You can now develop the outcome in full confidence that it will work. If you aren’t constantly checking in with your brainstorm or brief, you have way less of a chance of actually succeeding with your idea. And please, do not ever feel ashamed of having to come back to your brainstorm and starting again—it’s totally normal.

And once you’ve put your idea out into the world, there’s one more wise thing you need to remember: if you plant a seed, don’t dig it up to see if it’s grown. Give it a little more time or water, but don’t drown it.

Hope that helps. Bye!