Design Brief: Your project blueprint

Rare and wonderful is the prospect who sends me a well-tuned design brief for a project. When I get a clearly written RFP, I am assured that the customer is focused, educated and results-driven.

What goes into a good design brief? Here goes:

Title
New business card and stationery for Smith & Jones Architects PA

Summary
Architectural firm needs new design for letterhead, with compliments slips, and business cards

Company Name:
Smith & Jones Architects PA

Description:
Smith & Jones Architects PA is an architectural engineering consultancy that specialises in luxury homes. We do not produce a large number of printed letters and so we will be printing letterhead and comp slips on demand on a high quality mid-range color laser. The design for the letterhead and comp must be such that it can be converted into an EMF and made a part of a standard Word template. We are after a contemporary design.

Wants

• Clean, contemporary design
• Template for Letterhead
• Template for "With Compliments" slip
• Template for Business Card

Do Not Want

• Any clip art images or stock photos
• Gradients or similar as they will not print well on our color laser

Other details on the design brief might include project time frame, deadlines, payment methods and even specific direction and requests for print shop instructions. A good design brief should be considered a project blueprint that will save me time, save the customer money and deliver a project tuned to the customer's specs.