Myth buster

  • 1
    You should look for the least costly ways to advertise.

    You should not look for low cost marketing. What you want is effective marketing. Marketing that at least breaks even, and at best puts money into your business right away.

  • 2
    You should be concerned about your image.

    I’m not saying your marketing should be offensive, but it should be outrageous. It should be fun; it should grab attention, and set you apart from your competition. So relax and focus on the results your marketing delivers, and not get so caught up with your image.

  • 3
    You should get your name “out there”.

    The only goal of your marketing is to deliver more sales. And a good direct response marketing piece should do this on the first go round.

Testimonials

We use Hairy Goat Design for a number of things and the latest project that they did for us was our website
World of Mosaics
First impressions count – and Hairy Goat’s inaugural campaign for me was first-rate. The team was challenged with a tough brief but
Richard Chew
Our charity receipe books were delivered on time and are selling like hot cakes so far! They’re brilliant.
The Samaritans
The feedback we are getting from everyone, including our printer, is fantastic so I just wanted to say a big thank you
The Samaritans

The design brief

How do you get the design you want? The perfect design you envision in your head?… The design brief is the answer.

An effective design brief is the single most critical factor in ensuring that your project is successful. A good design brief will help us to ensure that we can provide you with a high quality design that meets all your needs. With our following tips, we aim to help you to write an effective design brief that will be both beneficial to you as the client and to us as your designer.

How To Write An Effective Design Brief

If you answer these questions below in an ordered and detailed fashion, your design brief will be 90% done… the other 10% will come from further questions from our designer or account handler after you submit your brief. Have fun answering the questions and remember, provide as much detail as possible!

What does your business do?

What does your company / organisation do? What is your company’s history?

What are your goals, and why?

  • What is the overall goal of the new design project?
  • What are you trying to communicate and why?
  • Are you trying to sell more products or get awareness of your product / service?
  • How do you differ from your competitors?
  • Do you want to completely reinvent yourself or are you simply updating your promotional material?

Who is the target market?

What are your target market’s demographics & phychographics? ie. the age, gender, income, tastes, views, attitudes, employment, geography, lifestyle of those you want to reach.

What copy (text) and pictures are needed?

The copy and pictures used in a design are as crucial as the design itself and you should clearly state who is going to be providing the copy and pictures if needed. You may also need a professional copywriter or photographer – we can help you with these.

What are the specifications?

  • What size is the design going to be?
  • Where is it going to be printed / used? The web, business cards, stationery, on your car?
  • What other information should our designers know in regards to specifications?

Have you got a benchmark in mind?

  • Can you provide us with some examples of what you consider to be effective or relevant design, even if it is from your main competitors? Please include any links to websites and/or design references.
  • Tell us what not to do, and styles that you don’t like or don’t wish to see in your design. This will give our designers an idea of what to avoid.

What Is Your Budget?

  • Providing a budget prevents our designers from wasting valuable time and resources when trying to maximise your budget.
  • Providing the budget upfront also allows us to know if the project is going to be worthwhile to complete.

What is the time scale / deadline?

  • Give us a detailed schedule of the project and set a realistic deadline for the completion of the work. You should take into account the various stages of the design project such as consultation, concept development, production and delivery.
  • Rushing design jobs helps no one and mistakes can be made if a complex job is pushed through without time to review. However, there are times when a rush job is needed, and in these cases you should be honest and upfront about it.

As with anything, it’s good to get all expectations set out and in the open right from the outset. A full design brief will avoid misunderstandings further down the project schedule. If you have any further questions don’t hesitate to email us for help.