College projects often allow a lot of room for interpretation and can be very open which is good but they can lack the substance of ‘live’ work matt mcarthur
After seeing the above comment from Matt McArthur from my post about an HND in Graphic Design it got me thinking. When I was at college I had no real idea of what live design briefs were like or the budget or time allowed. I think if I had, myself and fellow students would have found it a real eye opener.
I wondered if it would be of interest to any graphic design students if I posted up a few of my old design briefs (with clients names etc changed) with a guide to how long I would expect to spend on them?
Often briefs are are very vague and a writen brief is a luxury, usually, I just take notes from a verbal design brief.
If anyone would be interested in this drop me a comment below and I will start to dig out a few old briefs and write them up for you as soon as I get time. If any other designers have old briefs (no rude comments please) they are prepared to share email me – mail @ graphicdesignblog.co.uk (remove spaces) and I will post with your link.
Anu suggestions for the type of “real design briefs” you would like to see are welcomed in the comments below.
Update: You can now find sample design briefs here
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14 Comments
I’d love to see some! We always complain when the profs don’t give us a detailed brief, and they say that it’s not going to get any better in the real world lol.
I am afraid its true live briefs are often very vague. I will post some briefs as soon as a get a minute.
Hehe – looks like I’ve triggered something there! Would be interesting to see for sure.
Hi Matt,
You have, hope you don’t mind?
Tara
Not at all – I’m very intruiged!
Hi,
Would love any copies of briefs you have, I have just started a small design biz with my mate, and we struggle on the brief side of things, as expected hehe.
Cheers
HI Brett
I will see what I can sort out in the next few of weeks, but in the mean time if you check my design resources section I have listed a website which has several samle briefs. Also on my design resources pages you will find downloadable job sheets, sample invoice, design brief sheet and a freelance rates calculator which you may find useful.
Hi I have just read your article, I have just been set a project at university to find a brief online. I was wondering if you could send a few my way, I’m mostly interested in product design, packaging design and 3d design. Thank you, Katie Egan
Hi Katie
I am absolutely frantic at the moment trying to sort things out for an exhibition I am doing next week. Please can you drop me an email (via contact form) in a week or so to remind me and I will see what I can sort out for you. In the mean time take a look at this post which has a link to some briefs.
im in my first year or graphic design and have just been given our briefs for the second semester, which is find/create your own brief, so it would be really useful to see some examples.
cheers
Hello,
Amateur here! I think I might be in the wrong area to post here but is it OK to ask a question? It’s about Templates again! My son’s friend’s boss would like a web site for his company. I have the idea and have come across a template that would suit as it’s similar to what I want. I will need to tweak the code a little and obviously other parts including the CSS but is it OK to use templates? I understand the coding and everything but should I use it?
Thank you as always,
Best wishes
Graeme
Hi Graeme, I think its ok to use it as long as you give credit to the original creator – ie. template by XXX customised by (your name)
Thanks Tara,
I was wondering what you and the others thought about the boxed web sites that you can buy from the store? My son’s friend has asked me to re-design his bosses company web site for him and when I asked for the URL and hosting details he gave me this box. I would rather re-design using the regular way.
Thank you as always,
Best wishes
Graeme
HI Graeme, I’m sorry but I don’t have any experience with boxed websites. Most of my work is design for print and the web design I have done I have always just bought hosting from hostgator and used wordpress.
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