Everyone involved in a project has an interest in making sure it runs well.
Let's get everyone on the same page with a design brief and project timeline.
A design brief is usually a one or two page document
clarifying the strategy for a creative project.
It documents the goals and scope and starts to put a plan in place.
Clients deliver briefs in various ways.
In a perfect world, the client is clear about their needs
and will provide a richly, informative brief.
Sometimes, designers need to produce a return brief pulling together the
information and conversations into one place for the client to review.
Regardless, the main objective of any brief is to get everyone on the same page.
It's an essential document for creative projects. So let's create one.
Let's start with a business report template like this.
Edit the document to contain project information.
Company information goes at the top.
Include the name of the client, key stakeholders, and contact details.
Below, enter the designer's name and other people involved in the project.
The next section of the brief explains the scope of the project.
The scope describes the deliverables required.
Short statements are better than long-winded descriptions.
Outline, format, size, and quantity of items needing to be created.
The scope also summarizes time frames and deadlines. This needs to be clear.
The next section describes the audience or target market.
What's their age range, race, and gender? How often do they buy or use their service?
The competition is another useful section.
This helps clarify the landscape so the designer can make savvy decisions about how to stand out.
Next, include information about tone, vibe or desired style.
Is the client high-end, helpful, funny, techy, or earthy?
Do they want to be bold and dominant or easily approachable?
Other important information might include details about the client's existing brand, references
and links to brand guidelines, as well as the provision of assets like logos is essential.
The client's budget is essential to explain the amount available to
pay for the designer's time and the deliverables.
Any foreseeable additional costs should also be noted here.
It will save unwelcome future surprises.
The brief will also discuss the ultimate goal of the creative work. Is it to sell more products,
gain awareness, or change the client's image?
A great brief will outline the goal and how the client will measure success.
The final area to include on the brief is a sign-off section for the client.
A brief must be agreed upon. It serves as a point of reference
and ensures the project stays on track.
Now, with that clear, the next step is the timeline.
Named after its originator Henry Gantt,
this chart shows the timeline of a project broken into different phases.
Importantly, it also shows the relationships between these phases.
From Canva's home page, search for Gantt Chart.
Along the top of the chart is the project time frame.
This might be divided into days, weeks, or months.
Down the left side are different phases. This might be design thinking
phases like research and discovery, ideation, prototyping, testing, production, and launch.
The bars show the length of each phase and how phases overlap.
If one phase relies on another, this is called a dependency.
Gantt Charts help us understand how projects get blocked when individual phases stall.
The beauty of this chart is it shows complex things in a simplified, visual way.
Gantt Charts remain fluid. Every project looks unique with different emphasis on each phase.
In this lesson, we've learned about making simple briefs and timelines.
Why? So everything is captured before the creative work starts.