How to get all the info you need from your client: The Perfect Design Brief
Friday, August 14, 2009
Any one who has been in the design industry for sometime must have experienced a situation where the client tells you that the design you have provided was not what he was looking for. Then the client gives you examples of work he likes and asks you to make something similar. Well there could be two explanations to this situation, either you did not get a design brief from the client or the client never bothered to answer the questions in the brief properly. After reading through this article you will have the solution to both these problems.
What exactly is a design brief?
Here is the definition of the term Design Brief from Wikipedia
"A design brief is a comprehensive written document for a design project developed in concert by a person representing the business need for design and the designer."
This is strictly applicable in the case of corporate clients, established businesses etc but what about small scale businesses like a book shop or a restaurant? They don't have the expertise to prepare a detailed document like a Design Brief. Well, that’s where you the designer kicks in. Instead of just asking the client to prepare a design brief by themselves you provide them with a design questionnaire which they will fill and hand over to you. This system has several advantages, the most important being the fact that each designer is unique and looks for the answers to some specific questions in addition to the generic ones. Some questions are formed out of the personal experiences of the designer through the years. Well let's now get to the business end of things.
A Sample Design Questionnaire
I) Generic Questions
Under this category are questions that any design questionnaire should contain.
Name : John Doe
Email :
Business Name : John Doe Constructions
Phone :
Website :
1. Please enter the name of your company exactly as you would like it to appear in your logo. (e.g. 'Fiat')
2. Do you have a tagline. If yes please enter it exactly as you want to see it here (e.g. 'invent')
3. What is your core business? (e.g. 'Car manufacturer')
4. Please describe your products or services: (e.g. 'luxury cars, spare parts')
5. Do you already have an identity or logo design?
If yes, why are you making a change? (e.g. Our company has grown in stature over the years and are now looking to expand our services in to Asia and now we need an identity that indicates our global appeal)
6. What mediums do you plan to use your logo on? (e.g. 'Business Cards, Building signage, trucks, website')
7. Do you have a preferred color scheme? (e.g. We would like to have blue, red in our logo. No light colors like yellow. )
8. Please attach examples of logos that you like with reasons.
Now these are the bare minimum questions any design brief should contain. I hope you have noticed that all the questions are in fact complete sentences. This sort of urges the client to give detailed answers to your questions. For example asking the client 'Preferred Colour scheme' and 'Do you have any preferred colour scheme?' are two different things. The former gives a feeling to the client that you are in a rush and need quick, short answers but the latter sort of urges the client to frame his answer in a proper manner with as much details as needed. Providing example answers along side your question also helps the client to answer the questionnaire quickly and ensures that the client will not get stuck in between wondering how to answer a question.
In addition to these extra questions you should ask the client the following questions as well.
9. What is your target market: Who are your customers? Is your products/services aimed at a particular sex / age / income range ?(e.g. ' Our customers are 25 or higher, and they prefer to pay some extra money to get a luxury car')
The above question is relevant due to the fact that in addition to your and the client's taste you should also appeal to the target market of the client. This is very important as the target market should be able to relate to the logo for it to click. This is where you should let the client know that their personal interests and tastes should take the back seat and those of the target audience should be put forward.
10.Would you like a symbol or a logotype?
Some people think that a symbol is an essential part of a logo. Well not always some world famous brands like Coca-Cola, Virgin etc do not have any distinct symbols in their logo, they are just logotypes. They make use of unique logotypes.
11.Which of the following characteristics describe the image you want to project? (e.g. ' Modern, Traditional, Familiar etc..')
I think the importance of the question is self explanatory.
12.What kind of font would you prefer to be used in your logo (light, modern, heavy)
This is another question which designers often ignore. Most of them offer a multitude of font variations and asks the client to pick their favourite one which is a huge waste of time and could be avoided with this simple question.
13.Define your company in 1 sentence
The answer to this tells us what a company feels about itself and the logo that you design should also convey the same.
I am sure that even the most seasoned of designers might have come around a situation where the client sometimes backtracks from the design brief and tells you that we should try something different. The reason for such backtracking could be attributed to the client not paying enough attention while answering the design questionnaire. It is very difficult to avoid such situations but there is a way out of it. You should arrange a meeting with the client after they have handed you the Design brief to discuss the contents of the brief. It should preferably be a face to face meeting but if you are on 2 different sides of the globe you should at least ring him up. I strongly discourage the use of IM's because you will get tired of typing soon and the whole point of the meeting will be sabotaged. Talk to your client about the brief. Make sure that you have understood each and every one of the client's responses in the brief. Go to this meeting prepared and may be buy your client a coffee.
Closing Tips
1. Limit the number of questions to a maximum of 15.
2. Ask questions in a polite manner.
3. Make the client feel that we are in it together.
4. Give suggestions. If the client asks you to do something which you don't feel right as a designer, let him know that. Try to convince him that the decision will back fire instead of just doing everything the client says. Give reasons.
5. Keep in constant touch with the client. Get his mobile number so that you can stay in touch easily but do not bug him with mid-night telephone calls.
Labels: client-designer relation, design brief, design questionnaire
