A brief is not a shopping list. It is a shared understanding of what you want to change, who you want to reach, and what a useful outcome would look like. The clearer those things are, the more room there is to make something unexpected.
Start with the change, not the deliverable.
“We need a new website” tells us what you want to make. It does not tell us why. Are people struggling to understand your offer? Does the site attract the wrong enquiries? Has the business moved on while its identity stayed behind?
Name the problem in everyday language. Then describe what you would like to happen instead. That gives the project a direction and helps everyone judge ideas against something more useful than personal taste.
Bring examples. Explain the feeling.
References are useful when they begin a conversation. A restaurant menu, a book cover or a shop window can tell us as much as another website. Tell us what caught your attention: the confidence, the warmth, the rhythm or the unexpected detail.
Bring things you do not like, too. The reason behind a preference often matters more than the preference itself. We are looking for a point of view, rather than a collection of things to imitate.
Be honest about the practical bits.
Budget, timing and who makes the final decision belong in the first conversation. They help us shape a project that can actually happen, and they save everyone from designing around assumptions.
A strong brief does not need to be long. One page with a clear ambition, a real audience and a few useful boundaries is often enough to get moving. The rest comes from asking good questions together.
Leave room for the answer to surprise you.Back to the journal
