How to brief

Five short pieces on what a designer actually needs, written from the receiving end of a lot of briefs.

How much detail a designer actually needsLess than you fear and more than you give. The five things every brief must state, and the ten it should leave to the designer.Why "make it pop" costs you moneyAdjectives in a brief are undecided decisions. Each one becomes a revision round. Here is how to replace them.What a designer assumes when you do not tell themA brief with gaps is not incomplete; it is complete with someone else's answers. What gets filled in by default, and what it costs.Briefing a packaging project without knowing printYou do not need to know what flexo is. You need to know four things and let the specification follow from them.How many video versions you actually need for a campaignOne film is never one file. The arithmetic of placements, ratios and languages, and how to do it before the quote instead of after.