Process
The brief is the first design decision
Written by
Anna Reyes
Published
Reading time
4 min
The first image in the brief
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Every project we take on starts with a page of plain text. It has no logo on it and no color. It is the one-page brief, and we treat it as the first piece of design in the job.
A client usually arrives with a request: a new logo, a new site, new boxes. The request is a good place to start, but it is rarely the whole problem. The brief is where we find the rest, write it down and agree on it before anyone opens a sketchbook.
Why we keep it to one page
We tried longer briefs. Ten pages with personas, mood words and a grid of competitors. Nobody read them after week one, us included. A brief only works if people check their work against it, so it has to be short enough to pin on a wall.
One page also forces choices. If a client lists nine goals, we ask which three will still matter in a year. The other six go into a notes file. They are not lost, but they do not steer the work.
What goes on the page
The problem, in one or two sentences, in the client’s own words.
Who the work is for, and what they should do after they see it.
What must stay: names, colors or habits people already know.
What we will make, with sizes and counts.
The budget, the dates and the one person who decides.
How we will know it worked, three months after launch.
Version three of the Kestrel brief. The first two still said ‘new logo’ in the problem line.
How we write it with you
The brief comes out of a half-day session, at our studio on Jay Street or at your office. We keep it to four hours with one break. We ask for three people from the client side: the person who decides, someone who talks to customers every week, and someone new to the company.
The new person matters most. They still see the place the way a stranger does, and they often say the most useful thing in the room.
The questions we ask
What made you call us this month and not last year?
Where do people get confused or give up today?
What do you never want to look like?
If this works, what changes on a normal Tuesday?
Who else has to say yes before we print?
We type while we talk, on a big screen everyone can see. By the end of the session there is a rough page. I rewrite it that evening in plain words and send it the next morning. The client has two days to mark it up. Then we meet for 30 minutes, fix the last lines, and both sides sign it.
Why we ask for a signature
A signed brief gives both sides something to point at. When a new idea turns up in week four, we hold it against the page. If it fits, we add it. If it does not, we price it as a change or save it for the next job. That one habit has saved more projects than any presentation we ever gave.
What a good brief changed on Kestrel
Kestrel, an architecture practice in Minneapolis, first wrote to us about a new logo. They had just moved into a 1904 grain store with five floors and a single side door. The old mark felt too small for the new building, they said.
In the session, Laura Bennett, a founding partner, mentioned that couriers called every day to ask where the door was. Gallery visitors walked into the studio by mistake. New clients walked straight past the building. Everyone laughed, and then the room went quiet. That was the real problem.
We came in to talk about a logo. We left with one sentence about our front door, and it was the right sentence.
Laura Bennett, founding partner, Kestrel
The problem line became: People cannot find our door, or the gallery once they are inside. The list of things to make changed with it. It grew from a logo and stationery to a logo, stationery and signs for five floors. The budget went up by about a third, and Kestrel agreed because the brief showed them why.
The door sign and the website. Both came from one line in the brief.
The arrow that became the logo came straight from that line, and it now leads people through all five floors. You can see the whole Kestrel project on our work page. The calls about the door have almost stopped.
Before your own first session
You do not need to prepare much. A few small things make the session faster and the brief sharper.
Bring two things you like and one you dislike, from any field.
Write down the last three questions customers asked you.
Know your budget range, even a rough one.
Name the one person who will sign the brief.
When you are ready, send us a short note. We reply within one working day and can usually hold a session within two weeks.
Studio notes, once a month. Work in progress, books we like, no sales pitches.
