Stage 2 Design Practical Teaching and Learning Strategies

Writing a Design Brief

What is a brief?
A Design Brief is the starting point of the Design Process – without it there is nothing to work from. Design is about coming to the most appropriate solution to a problem – that means the end result must correlate to the brief put forward by your client or from your own hypothetical proposal.

The purpose of a brief
A Design Brief really outlines the problem, giving a statement of what needs to be done. It is what designer uses before they commence a ‘job’. It is here that the Requirements, Restrictions and Considerations are put forward for the designer to them implement into the Design Process.

The Importance of writing a clear brief
The purpose of the brief is to outline what needs to be done, if your brief is vague and lacks clarity you will be increasing the difficulty and amount of work needed at the conceptual stage. If you don’t outline certain restrictions etc, your work could become ‘too big’, resulting in wasted time and energy.

How to use the brief within the design process
When you come to a final design, this result/solution should be a direct outcome from your brief. It should act as a checklist that you keep going through throughout the entire process, especially at the TESTING stage where you need to make sure you have met the set brief.

The Brief can be altered on the way through, (sometimes people change their minds about what they want to do in a