Thursday, January 14, 2010

Let's be Brief


The importance of a quality briefing document should never be underestimated when it comes to the graphic design of, say, a company logo or website. How else do you expect your graphic designer to come up with something that accurately articulates your brand... from a chat across a table?

A solid brief provides a consistent and sound basis from which everyone can refer to that both aids the designer and acts as a quality control. It means there can be no disputes when the end result isn't quite what you expected. Simply, was it in the brief? Quality briefs need to cover a range of topics from specifications, resolutions, purposes and contexts.

Briefs also give graphic designers the opportunity to get a feel for your brand. So often, people can describe what their business does but fall down when it comes to thinking about how that translates into a unique and engaging brand character.

So why do so many businesses look to shortcut their way through, risking projects by missing out on a brief or doing it themselves? Because we can all speak a language (unlike, say, the language used to programme the back-end of a website), people think that, even if the outcome is slightly worse, it's worth the initial cost saving to do-it-yourself! It's a mentality that screams: “Save Now, Pay Later.” From press releases, to website and brochure copy, right through to logo briefs, it happens right across the marketing spectrum. This short-sightedness can, long-term, cost thousands of Euros in lost business, all for the sake of a couple of hundred to start with.

There is a bright side of course. Thanks to the DIY phenomena, those businesses who turn to professionals to write and design for them will have an even greater competitive advantage than they should, all thanks to their neighbours who wanted to do it themselves!