How To Write A Creative Brief - Part 1
The ultimate litmus test for your entire strategic brand & marketing workflow
This is Part 1 in a 3-part series. Catch Part 2 + subscribe to get Part 3 direct to your inbox.
A creative brief [CB] doesn’t just guide designers. It keeps all stakeholders aligned, ensures final design meets project goals, and acts as a litmus test for your entire strategic brand & marketing workflow.
A well-crafted CB exposes the strategic acumen and creative thinking caliber of the marketer who writes it.
No pressure! 🤯 But think: mediocrity in, disaster out.
A half-baked CB doesn’t just invite disappointing design, it literally invites it.
I know a few designers who can ‘polish a turd’💩 (my favourite Australian expression of.all.time) but it’s an unfair expectation when it’s a Strategic Marketer’s responsibility to create a short & succinct CB that’s packed with enough insight & inspiration to unleash imagination and originality, and just the right constraint to keep it on-brand.
It's astounding that so many strategic marketers botch a CB so masterfully, when visual design forms an essential puzzle piece of virtually every brand & marketing initiative, (and essential to UX/UI), each one demanding design excellence to hit KPIs.
Whether you’re working on:
brand identity development (logos, colour schemes, typography)
website design or redesign
marketing campaigns (digital, print, social)
ad materials (billboards, print ads, digital ads)
social media visual assets
trade show assets
email marketing templates
& every conceivable brand & marketing initiative…
…. you need an exceptional CB.
What’s An Exceptional Creative Brief?!
I asked two brand design experts to share their insights from the intersection of brand strategy and design:
Trudie Avery – Branding Expert and the creative force behind #LogoLady, helping people & business craft powerful visual identities
Philip VanDusen – Brand Consultant and influential thought leader, engaging an audience of 300K+ through his industry-leading YouTube channel
I knew they’d have a pithy, no-holds-barred POV on common pitfalls and practical guidance for writing exceptional CBs. They did not disappoint.
Let’s go!
— 👉🏼 On Red Flags That Signal Half-Baked Strategy
Philip Van Dusen:
A brief that tries to make up for a half-baked positioning with volumes of pages. More is not more in a CB. Vague positioning, undefined target audience, and generic brand values (e.g., 'innovative' or 'disruptive' with no proof). If the brief lacks real customer insights or a clear problem to solve, it's not a strategy - it's wishful thinking.
Trudie Avery:
When the target market is men and women between 18 and 80. The tighter the niche, the more we can really personalise the brand and really make people feel understood - and people buy when they feel understood.
— 👉🏼 On Setting Designers Up for Creative Excellence
Philip Van Dusen:
Designers are visual, and have short attention spans. That's why I created a one-page creative brief in my agency days that includes visual brand analogs and directional mood boards, so the copy is short and tight and I provide a visual design 'spring board' so the designers aren't starting with an entirely blank canvas - but still leaving lots of room for creative exploration.
Trudie Avery:
The creative brief needs to be open but the parameters defined in terms of the values, the personality, the target market and the feelings you want to invoke with the brand. How do you want to make people feel, how does your ideal client need to feel about you?
— 👉🏼 On What Marketers Get Wrong About Designers
Philip Van Dusen:
Marketers think designers just want a list of deliverables and brand guidelines. Wrong. Designers use briefs to understand the why - the emotional core of the problem - so they can 'design into' that emotional need and create work that resonates. A brief that's just a to-do list kills creative magic.
Trudie Avery:
Marketers generally know what they don't like rather than what they do like and yet they very often come in with their own ideas. They really don't need to spoon feed designers with ideas for concepts because then designers feel more like a puppet on a string rather than free to do their best work.
— 👉🏼 On What Makes Their Blood Boil
Philip Van Dusen:
Briefs that are either a novel-length data dump or a one-liner like 'Make it pop.' Brand marketers need to respect the process and understand that designers are a different animal. Collaborate early, provide visual creative guardrails or analogs, clarify objectives, and give designers the right mix of insight and freedom.
Trudie Avery:
There is a golden space that lives between a brief that's too wide and a brief that's too narrow. I think the marketer should really concentrate on getting to the heart of the feel of the brand and the definition of the target market. The brand lives in that sweet spot, and it's there that the designer needs to create their magic!
Both Avery & VanDusen highlight what appears to be a fundamental CB-writing skill: providing clear strategic direction without stifling creative exploration. Too vague and designers lack direction; too prescriptive and you limit breakthrough possibilities.
8 Laws Of A Killer Creative Brief
Ok, we’ve gone from exceptional to killer, because every CB deserves to be exceptionally exceptional!
Let’s breakdown the insights of Avery & VanDusen into 8 fundamentals:
Define a tight, specific target audience/ niche
Be concise
Include visual brand analogs & directional mood boards as design spring boards, without being prescriptive
Include brand values, personality, & emotional objectives
Focus on the emotional core of the problem you're solving
Include how you want to make people feel
Balance strategic parameters with creative freedom
Enable collaboration with designers early in the process
The Ultimate Creative Brief Template
There’s no way I’m leaving you high & dry! In Part 2 I’ll give you the ultimate creative brief template and walk you through how to use it, step by step.
Subscribe to get Parts 2 + 3 delivered direct to your inbox as they roll out.
In the meantime, what would you add? What are the hallmarks of a killer creative brief in your POV?
Typos are my way of checking that you're paying attention, or proof that my brain moves faster than my fingers. (Jury's still out.)
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