Please read over the following material. There will be a short quiz in Brightspace that covers this material. Please remember to check Brightspace several times a week (at least)!
The Creative Process
One of the first things we will be covering for this course is The Creative Process. The Creative Process is made up of the following:
- The Creative Brief
- Research
- Ideation
- Creation
Let’s start with the 1st on the list! The Creative Brief. What is Creative Brief?
Creative Brief – A creative brief is a document that serves as a road map for a creative project. It can be a formal document that is comprehensive, usually for larger more in-depth projects or can be as simple as a basic outline. A creative brief can be implemented by the designer OR the client. A good designer will use one in the discovery phase of a project to gain insight and to establish parameters of the project. The creative brief allows you to check your progress against scheduling benchmarks. A good brief will also tell you when you are getting off track—either over budget, or off strategy—and reel you back in to being in line with the projects’ objectives.
Things that are usually included in a Creative Brief (not all creative briefs are exactly alike but a majority of Creative Briefs include most of the following):
Client Background
Who is your client and what products and services do they offer? What are their strengths and weaknesses? What are their values, and what is their current mission and vision? Knowing who your client is should allow you to use the most fitting format, tone, and approach that would represent your client the best.
Project Description
What is the project? Be specific. Is it a poster for a specific event or is it a campaign that includes multiple materials (newspaper ad, poster, billboard and facebook ad)? If so summarize what the project is and then get detailed on the different components of the project. Will photography be provided or will you have to organize a photoshoot. Will the client provide final, edited copy or will there be a need to hire a writer? What platform will it be delivered on? Is it print, web, digital magazine? All of the above? The more detailed you get and break everything down, the less chance there will be surprises along the way. If you are as detailed and clear as possible, your project will run more smoothly.
Project Objectives
What is the purpose of this project? Is it meant to inform? Is it meant to sell something? Is it meant to create brand awareness? What action do you want people to take? Find out exactly what it is you want to achieve with your project. This is a good time to find out if the client is trying to achieve too many things with one project, thus rendering it ineffective. It’s best to narrow down to something specific. Doing so will help to manage expectations on both sides.
Target Audience
Who will be seeing this project and whom do you want to take action? This is important to know this because you want to make sure that your design and content strategy appeal to whom you are trying to reach. Surely the design and strategy will be different for 20-somethings vs. 60-somethings. From this information you can begin to develop ideas for a content/design strategy that will be effective in getting your target audience to behave the way you want them to.
Competition
It is important to know if your client has significant competition in the same space. Who are they? How are they different from your product or service? Are they better? Worse? Why? Knowing about your competitors will enable your designer to more effectively differentiate you from them.
Tone/Voice
What is the overall personality of the company? Not only is tone reflected in design, but also in copy writing. In fact, these two should work together seamlessly. The tone of the copy should match the design tone for maximum effectiveness. Its important to get this right as you don’t want to misrepresent the clients’ best interests.
Criteria for Success
It is important to find out what criteria the client will use to deem the project a success. Is it more email sign-ups? Is it to get people talking on social media? Make sure the criteria for success and the project objectives are aligned, and if at all possible, measurable.
Design Preferences
What type of design elements appeal to the client. Do those preferences align with their mission or voice? What colors do the client prefer or dislike? Make sure they have a reasoning that is based on strategy. In the end, a portion of design is subjective and if you simply cannot have a color or specific element in your design, that’s fine. Just make sure that you design for the success of the project. Remember, you are creating for your target audience, and not for yourself or your peers. Also, have your client identify a brand or a product or two they like and have them explain why. How do those bands or products make them feel? This will help the designer create something that will appeal to the client as well as their audience. It may also be helpful to figure out what the client dislikes and why – so that you know what to avoid as well.
Managing Expectations
What does your client expect your project to do for their business? If your client supplies a laundry list of unreasonable outcomes, then its time to reel them in to reality. Explain to them what to expect out of the project. This will help keep the scope of the project manageable, and keep both parties happy. It is also import for the client to understand that a single project can and should achieve a focused one or 2 objectives. This will allow the concept to be more focused and successful. If you try to do too many things with one piece, then the success will be diminished, as the message will be diluted. Make sure the client is aware that one project (a brand identity for instance) will not solve all the needs of a business. For example, a business can be very successful yet still have a horrible and ineffective brand identity. Alternatively, a company that is failing and on the verge of bankruptcy can have a great brand identity. It is merely one portion of the marketing/branding machine.
Company Future
Where does the client see their business in 5 or 10 years? Will they ever consider selling their company? Will they expand their services? It is important to see what the long term intentions are of a company in order to prepare for those changes down the road. For example if your plan is to sell your company down the road, you might not want the company name to be YOUR name as that will have no value to the prospective buyer and you would have wasted time and money on building brand equity in a name that will be useless to someone else.
Word Bank
This allows the client to list or select a few keywords that best describes their company and values. This is very important to help guide the tone of voice and design. If the client was a conservative financial services company, you probably wouldn’t want to design something that was more edgy or “punk rock.” That may seem obvious, but all to often I see designers and business owners alike designing in a style that isn’t suitable for their business.
Additional Input
A place to gather any other comments or concerns. Also a place for a client to supply examples of what they like. Maybe the way a navigation menu works on a specific site, or how an annual report was produced using specialty papers and printing techniques—anything that will help with the process that doesn’t fall into the other categories. It could be positive press you had, or maybe a specific set of data—perhaps from a survey you administered. Include a brand or style guidelines if it is available. Include initial ideas that can be used as brainstorm starters. Provide the designer a list of assets that can be utilized for the project (photography, logos, existing collateral, etc.)
Budget
I cannot stress how important it is to know what your budget is. A project’s trajectory will more often than not be determined by budget. For example, you don’t want to end up going down a design rabbit hole only to find out you cannot afford production. Having concrete numbers to work with will allow your designer to utilize resources based on budgetary restrictions. Knowing what your budget is as a client will also show your seriousness about your intentions.
Timeline/Schedule
Compile a detailed listing of project deliverables, when they are due, and who is responsible for each. It’s good to break it down into manageable milestones to keep the project moving along. Timelines always change so update as necessary. DELIVERY Both client and designer must be crystal clear on what the exact deliverables are—again to avoid surprises towards the end of the project. An example would be a designer designing a website for a client and assumptions are made that the client will secure the development when the client assumed the designer would do the development. This is a pretty severe breakdown in communication, but I use this to illustrate the importance of managing expectations on both sides, no matter how trivial.
Videos
Please watch the videos below. He does a great job explaining what a Creative Brief is and how they look. He refers to a Creative Brief as a Graphic Design Brief – it means the same thing. Depending on where you work these briefs can vary slightly in content and structure.
Research
Most design does not start until some research is done. You may be provided with the information that you need by the client or team that you are working with but it is also possible that you will have to collect this information on your own.
Before starting a project for a client you will need to be familiar with their brand and it’s values. Also, the look and feel of their advertisements. It is important to know what colors they use and also their use of typography and imagery.
A good way to go about researching a client is to search online for their website, facebook, or even ask the client for examples of newsprint ads etc. If they do not have anything established – it will be up to you to figure out the best way to visually represent the client and their business.
It is good to start a folder in your documents labeled with the clients name and place a folder with in that labeled research. This is where you can save jpgs and even scan in newsprint ads if necessary.
Ideation
Now that you have done the Research phase it is time to move onto the Ideation phase. Begin with a mind map to collect your thoughts. Don’t worry if it does not make sense! You can even have a simple list of words – some of the words might describe feelings that a client is meant to inspire in a person. Or it may be a color. It can be abstract. You will refine these ideas further. Just remember to try to be as creative as you can during this process. There are no bad ideas during this phase.
After creating a quick mind map or list the next step is to create a mood board or collage of ideas. Collect examples of design from the web, magazines, books or fabric. Use these materials and examples to create a collage on poster board or cardboard that will help you establish the direction you would like to take your design in. Obviously, you can use these collages for inspiration but remember that these ideas should still fit within the look & feel that your client has established (if they already have a look established).
Not every designer does this for every project but if you have a particularly challenging or large project this will be a valuable exercise for you.
Oftentimes, I create a folder inside the clients folder that is labeled “Ideas” or “Inspiration” and I pull examples off of Google images and store them inside this folder. If I want to take it a step further I put all of the examples I collected on one page and print that off. So that all of the imagery is on one sheet of paper and can be easily viewed and referenced when I begin the production or design stage.
Mood Board Examples:
Production
This is the final stage of the Creative Process. This is the phase where you use software to create your design and final product for your client! In this stage you take all of your research and ideas and turn it into artwork – either to be printed or used in a digital space.
This stage requires the marriage of many skills. Mainly software knowledge and also design knowledge. It takes time and practice to learn all of these skills but if you work at it you will gradually improve and become more comfortable. It is almost inevitable that you make some mistakes in the beginning but just like anything else in life – practice makes perfect!
Graphic Design 231 