Page 66 - Duct Tape Marketing

Wake Up the Senses with an Image to Match Your Message

includes the “guardian of all things strategic” hat. You can never give
this hat to someone else!

The area of graphic design is one of those “leave it to somebody
creative” areas that can be disastrous for the brand without proper
collaboration. Experience with plenty of designers over the years tells
me that the good ones know this as well and your “I want something
that pops” or “I’ll know it when I see it” direction will effectively hob-
ble them from giving you something that will provide the result your
brand needs.

Design firms have long used something called a creative brief to
help frame the needs of a design project and easily communicate to
a designer the elements that need to be considered when doing the
research and creation of a logo or other design element.

I developed my own creative brief over the years to use as a bit
of a process to get closer to the best possible design for a given situ-
ation. While it’s not foolproof, I’ve encountered plenty of designers
who asked if they could get a copy. You can find examples of creative
briefs at Scribd (www.Scribd.com).

The idea is to communicate everything a designer might need
to know in your terms. This doesn’t mean there won’t be additional
considerations, but complete your brief and you’ll be miles ahead.

The following elements should be given thought, documented,
and discussed with your designer. (If they already know what you
need, please fire them!)

Describe What and Why
Describe what you think you need and why you need it. Don’t be

afraid to listen to suggestions for what else you may need, but get the
baseline down.

Example: We need a logo for our annual conference. We need it to
tie in with our existing design elements, but also to be able to stand

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