Have you ever dealt with a frustrated client before? I know I have. There have been a few times where a client asks me to make them something pretty, I work for hours to make it for them only to see them say “But that doesn’t really do what we want it to.” I then proceed to hit my head against the wall very firmly. Yes, we have all dealt with this problem, hopefully nearer the start of our careers instead of later.

When you’re dealing with a design project, it’s vital to write a detailed list of expectations at the very beginning. There are two main reasons for this:

• Firstly, it ensures that you, as a business owner or in-house manager know exactly what you want to achieve from your project.
• Second, the brief acts as a point of reference for designers, giving them key points to focus on. This eliminates “back and forth” communication a lot of people find annoying.

This is called a Creative Brief.

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Yes, summer is now gone. It’s cold. Day’s of running around with your beloved camera are over. No more fun. I definitely feel this way sometimes, and I find it hard to get into the mood to go shooting and then I feel terrible because I am not taking pictures. Here are some quick ideas to help change all that!

Create a photo project for yourself – Pick a theme and only shoot only that theme for the day, week or month. (if you choose the color red, only shoot things that have red as their color, communicate red or is the focal point in some way….get creative!) Go for lots of Photowalks, keeping your theme in mind. Here are a few to spark your imagination. Colors, shapes, objects, motion, age, texture, character, reflections.

Go to the thrift store and buy a cheap film camera to experiment with – Ever shoot with film? Try it with a $3 camera and check out your results!

Join photo groups on Flickr, Facebook and the likes - You can showcase your work very easily here as well as learn a thing or two. Don’t look for levels of expertise. Instead, look for shared interests and experiences. Don’t stick with your own age group—the best clubs have a wonderful mix of young and mature individuals.

Enter photo contests – Local and online. Check your newspapers and camera shops for anything. Here in Calgary, Vistek, The Camera Store and Saneal all offer seasonal contests.

Take a photo course – Check out your local college or university for a once-per week class and expand your knowledge!

365 pictures – Take one photo every single day of the year. Or you can do 30 in one month.

Take your camera with you-everywhere – I find I find pictures everywhere I go….when I leave my camera at home. You can bring it, just choose a small lens. I love my Nikkor 35mm on my D40x. Or take a small camera with you instead.

There are lots of different preferences when it comes to text and how it is used. You may be familiar with how some of the tools are used because simple word processors may use them. Sometimes you want to justify the text to make the columns appear nicer and remove the raggedy edge (this is called the rag), and other times you want to edit the spaces in between the words, lines and even the letters. This is where InDesign stands out in comparison to other word processors.

Here are a couple tips on how to wrangle all that stray text for your next project.

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Today I am going to show you how to set up a new document in InDesign which will outline the steps I took to get a 7 panel accordion fold brochure. For those of you who do not know, an accordion fold is also called a “Z” fold because it zig zags in on itself. This is useful for large brochures with the need for either large surface area or multiple panels or pages in an interesting format. Brochures and maps are very common accordion folds.

A simple 3 panel accordion fold

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Writing a great creative brief for a creative project like a print ad, website, banner or brochure is demanding but ultimately rewarding. It is the number one thing you can do to help get quality and efficiency from a graphic designer. And really, the creative you get out in the end is only as good as the input supplied in the creative brief itself. Take a peek below for 9 quick tips to improve your results through a fantastic creative brief.

1. Realize that any designer you hire is a professional and must be treated as such.
2. Understand that designers are not mind-readers.
3. Before coming to a graphic designer, have your business model ready and your plan up to par. No design can save any business that is not well thought out.
4. Mentioning past campaigns that were successful (or unsuccessful) are always useful. Don’t forget to explain why!
5. Understand that it will not be free.
6. Communicate with the designer-do not dictate.
7. Don’t try and design for the designer. You hired them for a reason-their knowledge and talent.
8. A picture is worth a thousand words. Take a screen capture if you cannot put it in words.
9. Set expectations up front. This is the number one way to create a successful Creative Brief.

Here they are. Take it all in. This is what every Designer wants to say after they read your brief, hopefully it will be useful to you.