How to write a creative brief and work with designers

Thom Isom is a freelance Graphic Designer with over 10 years experience working with arts, heritage and cultural organisations throughout the UK. He’s created identities for touring exhibitions, designed websites for internationally renowned museums and produced publications for galleries up and down the country. Here he shares some guidance on how to write a creative brief and work with a designer.

Museums are special places, full of character, history and stories. Capturing the personality of a museum and sharing it with the public can be a difficult thing. The first interaction the public have with a museum isn’t the venue, it’s the marketing and design material that is advertising or telling a story about the space or the exhibits.

This could be anything; a poster promoting an upcoming exhibition, a social media post advertising a workshop, or an email newsletter calling out to volunteers.

Whatever it is, it’s needs to echo the identity of the space. But how do you as a museum translate your message into a piece of design? To help, here are seven tips to include in your creative brief to designers.

The creative brief is what you’ll share with a designer or illustrator to help them produce what you need. Nobody knows your museum better than you, the history of the collections, the stories behind each artwork and the identity of the space.

When writing your brief, you should share this background, assume the designer knows nothing about your museum – the more you can give them the more it’ll help them translate it into a piece of design that can capture the personality of your venue.

Most museums have a logo, fonts and colours they like to use, you can refer to these are your design elements. If you aren’t sure what fonts and colours may work best, share some words that capture the creative tone you want to display in the design.

I most recently worked with the World Museum in Liverpool on the identity of a new exhibition for Artificial Intelligence. They wanted to produce an identity that was futuristic without being cliched – their creative tone included the words; stimulating, provocative, contemporary and impactful. Emotive words that work as a great starting point for a designer to experiment with.

Who are you talking to? Let the designer know who your audience is. Consider the exact age groups, demographics and be sure to be inclusive – the design must be as accessible as possible.

What format is the design required in? Do you need a poster designed to set dimensions or an advert to fit a certain space on a website
– give clear and precise measurements. If you aren’t sure what you need, analyse how your visitors engage with your museum and
exhibitions. Where do they spend their time? Are they on or offline? Are they likely to pick up a flyer or watch a video? Try and answer all these questions to help you define a format.

Allow yourself as much time as possible when producing any design – if you need help with production or printing make these enquiries at the start and then work backwards to produce your timeline.

Finally, be open and honest with your budget, if you’ve a set amount to work with, let the designer know. If you’re unsure of costs, write
your brief and send it to a few designers and find a quote that fits.

Visit Thom Isom’s website and get in touch with him here>>

Seven most important things to include in your creative brief:

1. Background
2. Design elements
3. Creative tone
4. Audience
5. Format
6. Timeline
7. Budget