Assignment

creative briefcreative brief

Who is the client?

Be specific. For example, if your client is Microsoft, for

what group within Microsoft are you working?

What is the product or service?

Describe the project.

Be clear about the nature and scope of the project. For

example, are you really working on an ad or are you

developing a campaign, or perhaps a piece that will

contribute to a larger effort?

Who is the target audience?

Be very specific. What is their gender? What is their age?

What is their economic level? In what occupations might

they work? In what activities might they participate? Give

as many demographics and psychographics as possible.

What is the objective of the project?

This is crucial. If you are not clear here you will not have a

successful project. This is the measure of how well you do

your job as a designer.

What is the key benefit or main message

that the piece must convey?

Again, being clear about this contributes to the success of

the finished product.

Describe your communication strategy.

How will you meet the objectives you’ve outlined. Will you

use copy, imagery, a combination of both? What type and

in what tone of voice? How will you measure whether or

not you’ve adequately conveyed the necessary message?

What is your competitive positioning?

Who are the competitors in this market? What differenti-

ates your product or service from all the rest? What other

factors may contribute to this project’s success?

List any supporting information.

List any mandatory requirements.

Consider whether this project must fit into a larger corpo-

rate image. Does it need to be consistent with an existing

brand? Must it include the logo? What information—ad-

dress, phone number, etc.—must be included.

All pieces in your portfolio must be ac-companied by a complete creative brief. The guidelines

below list all the informa-tion that should be included, but does not prescribe the format. Be

thorough but brief. Quantity of words and infor-mation is not as important as quality.