Creative design briefing form
This brief is your first step to planning your creative design. Planning is the most important step of the process and will save you and the Graphic Design Studio hours of wasted effort. The questions in the brief provide a framework for you to properly consider the problem you are trying to solve, its context and your initial ideas for a solution. Following completion of the brief and submission to the Studio (), we will get in touch with you to talk through your specific requirements.
Your name:______
Department/Service:______
Contact info:______
Contextual planning
Requirement:
What do you require? This could include a brochure, poster, web pages, e-comms, advertising, exhibition stand, photography, etc. Based on the information you provide, we may suggest a different approach.
Purpose:
Why do you want this? What problem is it intended to solve and what are your objectives? How will you evaluate its effectiveness?
Target audience:
Who is your audience? Please be specific. For instance, rather than saying ‘current students’, segment more carefully than this. You may be trying to reach undergraduate students who are also parents. Is there more than one potential audience i.e. are there cross-promotional opportunities?
Positioning:
What is the current perceived or actual positioning within your competitive marketplace, if applicable? What market intelligence do you have? Do you have examples of what your competitors are doing or any examples for benchmarking?
Benefits and proposition:
What key benefit are you trying to sell and why is this important to your audience? Are there any other secondary benefits you wish to get across? What are you offering (your proposition)? How will the features benefit the audience?
Response:
What kind of response are you looking for and how will you measure this? What is your ‘call to action’ i.e. the action you want your target audience to take? Do you want them to contact you, to visit your web page, to register for an event, to email you or something else? Always include a call to action.
Strategic fit:
How does this brief fit into wider marketing strategies and plans? How does it fit with UWE strategies and priorities? How will your finished product fit with the brand ‘better together’?
Other activity:
Does it form part of a campaign i.e. is there anything else you or someone else is doing to promote this? Could it or should it? Do you plan any follow up? Where other relevant work already exists, please give us the graphic design job no (this is the reference number found on the bottom right of all jobs) so that we can locate the necessary files.
Any other information:
Is there anything else we need to know?
Job brief
Distribution:
How will your target audience receive this? In person, by mail, how else? How many copies will you need? How frequently will it need to be updated or is it a one off?
Content:
Please provide content which is as complete as possible with this brief i.e. written, copy-edited, proof-read and approved. Ensure you use the UWE style guidelines when writing up the content. You will find there here under the ‘text’ tab. Please give an indication of copy hierarchy i.e. which headings are most important and key to the central message. This will help the designer decide on style for headings and sub headings. Provide the text in MS Word format or graphs in MS Excel.
Images:
Please give us an idea of the type of images we should be using. If you have any appropriate images, and there are no copyright restrictions, please provide these to us. Any images supplied should be high resolution files (300dpi) and vector files for any logos (.eps or .ai).
Deadlines:
What is the deadline for receipt of the finished product? Bear in mind that, depending on the nature of the job, Printing and Stationery will require around two weeks to print once the design and proofing stages are complete. Please plan a realistic timeline for the job and ensure you schedule in enough time for feedback from decision-makers throughout the process. Use the following as a broad guide:
- Copy writing – variable
- Design – at least 2 weeks depending on the project
- Proofing and amends – variable
- Printing – 2 weeks
- Delivery - 1 day
For larger jobs, the schedule will need to be negotiated and agreed by all concerned.
Budget:
Whose budget will this come from and have you discussed and agreed the work with the budget holder? Depending on the budget, the cost for both design and print may be picked up by M+C under OUA.
Any other specific requirements:
Materials, special size or shape, folds and perforations, binding, finish, no of pages, etc. Please ensure these are fully explored and discussed with the designer and with Printing and Stationary as these will have an effect on the cost of the job. Please beware that UWE has signed up to a Carbon Neutral Scheme which could affect your choice of paper.
Signed:______
Date:______
Signed budget holder:______
Budget code:______