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Most problems with creative work, the design that missed the point, the video that needed three rounds of amends, the photography that didn’t feel right, trace back to the brief. Not to the supplier’s skills, not to the budget, not to the timeline. The brief.
The brief is where you’re supposed to tell a supplier everything they need to know to do the work. In practice, most briefs are vague, incomplete, or written on the fly during a phone call. Suppliers quote for the work they think you want, which is often different from the work you actually need.
Write the brief before you speak to anyone
The discipline of writing a brief before your first conversation with a supplier is most of the value. The act of writing forces clarity. If you can’t explain what you want in a document, you can’t explain it in a meeting either, you’ll just talk for longer and come away with less agreement.
A written brief also gives the supplier something to respond to. They can come back to you with questions, flag where something is unclear, or point out where your expectations might not match your budget. That conversation is much more productive when everyone has had time to read the same document beforehand.
What a good brief covers
A brief should give a supplier enough information to quote accurately and start work without a list of follow-up questions. At minimum, that means:
- Background: what the organisation does and why this project matters
- Objectives: what the work is supposed to achieve
- Audience: who it’s for, and what you know about them
- Deliverables: exactly what you need, in what format
- Tone: what the work should feel like (and, usefully, what it shouldn’t)
- Timeline: key dates, including any fixed deadlines
- Budget: or at least a range (suppliers need this to give you useful options)
- Approval process: who signs off, and how many rounds of amends are included
The sections on timeline and approval process are the ones most often left out. Forgetting to mention a two-week leave period halfway through a project, or that sign-off needs to go through three people, are very avoidable problems.
Shorter is usually better
A good brief is not a comprehensive document. It’s the minimum information a supplier needs to do good work. Delete anything that doesn’t directly help them. A shorter brief is almost always a better brief, and a supplier who feels trusted to make professional decisions within a clear framework will generally do better work than one who is micromanaged on paper before the project even starts.
A template to work from
The creative brief template covers all the sections above in a format that works for briefing designers, videographers, photographers, and agencies. Comes as an editable Word document and a PDF reference version. Delete any sections that don’t apply to your project.
Creative Brief Template
Editable Word document and PDF reference version.