Creative Brief

The process of hiring a web designer begins with establishing your needs and what is required to achieve them. Once the agency or individual performing this job has been selected, they need to be given a proper brief of your timelines and expectations. In return, a quote is received, and a decision needs to be made before work can begin.

Preparation

To begin, a document must be procured that outlines everything that your potential candidate would be required to fulfill, so that the end result of a brief will have a clear call-to-action for the designer (Burns, 2012, para. 3). These are the questions requiring answers before beginning to reach out to a creative service:

• When does this need to be done?

• How much money am I willing to spend?

• Am I seeking originality or to mimic an industry leader? If the latter, whom?

• What is the objective of this project? (Boyd,

• Who is the target of this messaging? (Johnstone, 2009, p. 5, para. 5)

• What is the main message?

Researching the Client

Knowing the answers to the aforementioned will make it possible to begin researching. Proceeding to the next step involves surfing to find the right candidate through answering the following questions, assuming the search is based off of Google:

• Is this agency or individual knowledgeable in graphic layout, text and navigation?

• Is this agency or individual aware of all SEO requirements and up-to-date on Google algorithms(Penguin, Panda & Hummingbird)?

• Is this agency or individual able to bring credibly references to the table?

• Is this agency or individual able to supply example work and show modernized design trends(flat-style, non-Flash)?

The Brief

Once the right candidate is validated through the above questions, proceed forward on timelines and expectations in the form of an agency brief, so the quoting process can begin. The brief given must fulfill all questions that the selected web designer may have along with clear objectives, concise writing,...