while studying design We usually practice with real and fictitious brands, which are presented to us with broad and concise briefings. In this way we get used to working with the different possibilities that can be presented to us in our daily work, once our student life is over. Sometimes we are offered very messy briefingsThey are extensive, use unclear official language and tend to elaborate more on the strengths of the brand than on the weaknesses. In others, briefings only take up half a page.
But when we go out to the market, looking for commissions and new projects, now far from the welcoming arms of the university, the reality is very different. I suppose it will depend on the place where you are going to develop your professional activity, but at least in Spain the kind of client who will knock the most at your door will be the one who does not know not even what a briefing is. What do we do in these cases?
We must teach how to do a good design briefing
Let's put a very common situation. The client has decided to start a small business: he has spent months adapting the premises, talking with suppliers, promoting the imminent opening in the local media ... And he has left the subject of design for the end. He comes to you in a hurry, saying that he needs "just" a logo and some business cards for your new business.
At that moment you are not aware of what that means but, my friend, that is and will be your only briefing. You will ask him for more information: what the business is about, what is its objective, its philosophy, its target audience ... And it will cut you quickly saying that it is not something that important, that it is not a mega company. Before your stupor face, he will try to convince you to do the job by saying that "it is something much easier, just a logo and some cards."
What are you doing?
This will be your question. What do I do with this? The client is clear that he is not used to dealing with other designers, so he is completely unaware of the usefulness of the briefing. He's in a hurry, lots of things to do - so he won't understand the need to write one for you. Because what he understands is that you, if you really are a good, skilled and creative designer, you should be able to make logos like hotcakes.
I repeat, what do you do?
- A) Educate the customer, stopping to make him see the importance of a few lines of text. Admitting that you will not be able to have what you ask for within 3 days, because without a briefing it is a completely impossible deadline; and therefore quitting a job.
- B) Accept what it says the client, doing a job that you know will be shitty and will be determined solely by their aesthetic tastes.
I'd like to know what you would do, so feel free to comment in the comment section just below this post. In the next article, I will talk about how to try teach the client to write a good briefing.
I happen to write from the office (of a design company where I currently work). Some time ago I worked independently in graphic design and by then I could "afford" A: Educating the client; But for this moment the «reception girls» receive all the works saying «Yes, yes sir, it will be ready with your requirements for the time you ask»… (-_-).
Greetings from Colombia
And how do you manage to develop the project without the necessary information? It is true that today there is a lot of fear of losing the client, but both parties must know that educating when necessary is essential to have good projects in our portfolio (and a day to day much more bearable and without so many headaches) .
There is another third alternative.
The briefing is a very important element to guarantee a good strategy and a good creative work. Clear guidelines are essential for effective and efficient work.
Indeed, sometimes the briefings are great and the client clearly exposes his company, its products, competition and objectives; but there are others who remain in an oral comment. And they will not go from there. In these cases, it is essential that the agency carry out a counterbriefing: that they prepare a document that reflects what they believe they have understood they have to do, raise the necessary doubts and send it to the client. In this way, we are not asking you to write any large document, but we will have your confirmation and / or expansion of the necessary information to be able to carry out a quality work that meets the needs and expectations of the client.
Greetings,
flat media
Don't you think that, especially from the agencies / studios, the client is "overprotected" with these measures? The ideal would be to do a counterbriefing from a briefing (in writing) and the feelings that the client has transmitted to you in a meeting. Wouldn't it be a lot easier for the designer?
I think I would tell you that without a good briefing it would be like buying a product without seeing the expiration date and its components
So you share option A), that of stopping to talk to the client and educating him to convince him of what the briefing is and what it is for… Do you think the designer wastes time doing this?
In answering you (Lúa), I think you lose to win. :)
The truth is, I think we are spoiling the client :(
Well, after almost ten years I have learned to work hand in hand with the client from the first moment. Even knowing that I can be heavy for him. The first thing I do is hold a meeting with the client. We get to know each other, we talk about the project, about how we can help him, about what we are going to demand of him and what he can demand of us, the weather, the vacations ... the fact is that in that first meeting you get an idea of the type of client in front of you. And normally there are 2 types, the one who is going to be actively involved in the project and is willing to work, and the one who you know that you will be the one who will take the reins of the matter. In this second case, sometimes, we even end up as one of the staff of your business for a time, sometimes beyond the duration of the project. Where we are even sometimes asked our point of view on matters not related to communication or design.
Going back to the brief. Except for very rare cases, we are the ones who help you to build the brief through the completion of questionnaires that you must answer and that help us to get the information we need. Normally these documents are alive during the project, that is, we "enlarge" the brief as we progress through the project. As we all know there are clients of all kinds, and it is obvious that the commitment requirement cannot be the same for everyone, so there are cases in which we know that we are only going to have one opportunity to ask. In that case we have to think twice about the question before launching it, because if we are wrong, then the strategy will be to take the reins of the matter unilaterally :), close our eyes and pray what we know.
To finish, I think that most of the time, the "real" brief has to be built with the client as one more phase of the project.
I like: I want to think that in this way you achieve great complicity with your clients and hence the quality of Piedrapapeltijera Estudio's work;)
Good afternoon, first of all thank you for the experiences shared on this website. On Thursday I will have my first meeting with a first possible client and I am a bit nervous, I have just finished my studies and in this first interview I think I will have to do the brief. myself. The company still doesn't have a logo, a website, or a corporate image, so I think they want an all-in-one. Could you give me some advice? Thanks in advance
The first thing I would tell you is to be sure of what you are talking about, and to try to get all the necessary information to have a good briefing from which to start. You can read in this post interesting procedures of other designers when dealing or negotiating with the client. Perhaps this other post in which we talk about how to create a graphic design budget. Any questions you have, raise them and we will try to give you a hand. Good luck!
Well, what we usually do is have an initial meeting, so that you can tell us what you need, and especially what you hope to achieve. And from there, we get information, sometimes with a corkscrew, to be able to model what they are asking us, that many times, everything by the way, they themselves do not know.
The truth is that it is a job, which is normally not paid, for the hours that are invested in it.
All the best
David