New On-line Design Brief...

The design brief is one of the essential parts of the design process. Starting a project without one is a bit like building a house without a blueprint. Although it may be possible to do, you may finish the house and then realize that you should have put the front door somewhere else!

So, what is a design brief?

A design brief is a document outlining the business objectives and design strategies for a project. It gets the design wheels rolling and helps us to think strategically about design solutions. It also encourages the client (you) to process and clarify what you need from a project, who the target audience is, and who the key stake-holders are.

How does a design brief relate to a marketing plan?

You could think of a marketing plan as the set of rules that direct your marketing activities. The marketing plan is simply a way to focus on one or more marketing objectives.

A successful design brief will inevitably be informed by your marketing plan. For example, if one of the objectives in your marketing plan is to target a specific age-group, this should be stated in your design brief. We can then use this information to propose design ideas that are coherent with your marketing plan.

Open Day - A BIG Thankyou!

We are now only a day or so away from the Open Day. It has been a huge task to complete all of the necessary work required, both from a marketing perspective as well an academic one, but yet again we have risen to the challenge superbly.

The Open Day guide looks great, so well done to Anna Long for co-ordinating all of the content, and to me (Stuart Grant!) for the design, artwork and for arranging the print. There was a huge influx of briefs to us, from banner stands and wrap-around displays, to course leaflets, posters and flyers...and also a lot of new and updated web content too.

Not forgetting

A BIG thank you to all of the academic staff who supplied their written briefs in time and to our design and web teams, admirably led by Marc Kneebone (who also designed lots of the printed material) and Neil Martin on web.

We have many heroes in proof reading, editing and printing, but it's been a fantastic team effort in general. The event itself on Saturday will see many of our team doing their bit to provide potential students with a great experience of the University.


All the best for the BIG day!


Stuart