Bad briefs are just pants.

Nobody wants tighty whities. 

For all our sakes, brief properly. And wear decent underwear. 

You know the routine. You have an idea; an innovative brand, a key campaign or a straightforward asset request. 

You want a traffic-stopping social post, a leaflet that feels more like a keepsake than a promotional item, or a rebrand that makes it crystal clear that you genuinely do have better stuff to offer than your competitors. 

You’ve waded through the internet and landed on the website or social media profile of someone who looks like they’d get what you’re aiming for, or you work for an organisation that is lucky enough to have an in-house creative team. 

What now?

Creative team in the midst of discussing a business strategy

Get your briefs out. 

No, not that kind, please put your trousers back on, sir. This isn’t that kind of article.

Remember, all that good stuff you know about your business goals, wider plan or ingenious idea are often totally new bits of information for the creative you’re bringing in. Often, creatives only get to be part of a conversation when it’s time to ‘promote’ something, so they’ve rarely been part of the planning for the thing itself. It’s time to put on your big boy pants and start sharing that juicy info early on (I’m so sorry, this metaphor has really taken a turn for the worse). That’s what leads to good projects becoming great. 

Oh, and if you’re working with an in-house creative team, you’re not escaping this pants metaphor either. Don’t sell your idea short (there’s a shorts/trouser pun there somewhere, but stop it, today we’re focussing on pants) and bring them in too late. Get them up to speed on what they’re working towards and ensure the expectations are laid bare early on. (Like you, right now. Sat there in your pants. Pure freedom). 

This isn’t a pleasant sentence, but we’ve put it in a real big pt size ‘cause it’s important: Get your briefs out early on and cover your key points (Please. Sorry).

Whether working with an in-house team, a design studio or a freelancer, the easiest starting point is the same for all; assume they know nothing about you. Imagine you’re trying to impress them on a third date, tell them all about your big aspirations, your long term goals and tell them their hair looks nice. Remember, they’re keen to impress you too, they’ll probably be able to advise you on campaigns, find connections between what you’re already doing and what you want to do and ask about your childhood. There’s no pressure to answer them on this.

Start with your basic idea; what is it you’re aiming to produce? Are you after a complete brand package, a one-off design, a series of social assets for an existing product or a motion graphics piece for a promotional campaign?

At the end of the day, it’s you that spends all day in your briefs. Make them good ones. Outlining your expected end results, for yourself first, really helps you to understand what you’re after and the workload that may be needed.

Secondly, define your audience. Who is the messaging for? Do they already know you? What are the key things that define them? Their age or their income? Their location or their interests? Thinking this through will help when it comes to refining your request and deciding on platforms and content options.

Next, consider your timescale. Do you already have a deadline, or an estimated launch date? Lead time is important, so if you’re asking for big stuff then leave big space for big ideas (and big pants. Sorry, we haven’t mentioned briefs in a while and didn’t want you to lose interest. We know it’s what you’re here for, and we like to deliver).

Finally, if you’ve been inspired, jealous or just plain goo-goo eyed over an existing brand or style that you’re trying to be all cool about, it’ll really help a creative if you can let them in on it. Research and development time will be vastly cut down if you let them know who you’re currently keen on, and it’ll save them sending through things with names like ‘final FINAL final version.pdf’.

Creative team working on a marketing strategy

The above is all to say that creatives are here to solve problems. Not your poor choice of underwear. Nobody can fix that but you. But we are here to find solutions in marketing, communications and design situations which need a little bit of guidance and bright thinking. Get a creative onboard early on and you’ll find a broader range of promotional options, a different way of seeing business opportunities and perhaps, a few inappropriate references to pants. 

In-house teams are your friend. Find out how you can work better with them, map out how their timescales work and learn the true cost of your projects. Be unafraid to bring them in early on things, creatives often mull things over, and the sooner you can get that process started the better. 

Sit in your briefs. Really though, spend some time in them. It’ll help you understand a project, refine it and consider it yourself before it makes an entrance into the real world. If you can’t stand your briefs the chances are that nobody else will like them either. (Again, we’re talking about creative briefs. Please put your trousers back on, we won’t tell you again). 

Good creatives are here to get you the best results, whatever that looks like in practice. It might be that a project ends up as a completely different (beautiful) beast, or that your route to a new audience is about addressing more of your content and platforms than you originally thought. But, whatever the outcome, if you brief a good creative well, they’ll be working towards helping you to achieve your goals. 

Written by StaffDesignCo.