Tuesday 4 and Thursday 6 November, 3-4:30PM GMT

The creative brief is the bridge between the business challenge and your creative team. As the foundation of great work, a well-crafted brief will clarify objectives, inspire ideas and align everyone around a shared purpose. It’s a key part of setting a project up for success.

This two-part online course will transform how you approach, write and use creative briefs to drive more effective outcomes and build stronger relationships. In the first session, we’ll look at what makes a creative brief effective, how to decode specific needs and distil the insights into a clear creative challenge for your team – one that aligns thinking and builds the foundation of great work. Then in session two we’ll turn to the process: using those insights to enable you to to brief your creative team well, give constructive creative feedback, and keep the brief alive throughout the project. You’ll leave with renewed confidence and a practical framework that will ensure the best work is delivered from every brief.

This online workshop covers

  • The creative brief

    What it is, why it matters and how to make it work harder.

  • Listening and questioning

    Uncovering the real business problem and defining the creative challenge.

  • Sparking imaginations

    Turning insight into inspiration to guide creativity.

  • Decoding

    Translating business language into something your team can act on.

  • Aligning

    Creating a framework to keep thinking and execution on track.

  • Feedback

    Using the brief to guide the work and shape productive conversations.

You will gain

  • The confidence to build and steer creative briefs that lead to great work.

  • A more strategic mindset around how to ask the right questions to draw out clearer, more inspiring direction from your client input.

  • Practical tools that will keep everyone aligned, from your first conversation through to final delivery.

  • Stronger creative relationships, built on shared understanding.

Meet your trainer

Jonathan Kirk

Jonathan is the founder of Up to the Light. The consultancy advises a significant proportion of the UK’s top 100 design agencies across a wide range of issues concerned with business growth and improvement. As the leading supplier of client surveys to the UK design industry, their insight into the client/agency relationship is unrivalled. For the last 10 years Up to the Light has published the influential ‘What Clients Think’ report. This year’s report is based on 675 client interviews conducted on behalf of design agencies and is a revealing snapshot of the client/agency relationship. As well as advising agencies, Up to the Light is also a brand consultancy that provides brand positioning and strategy for clients. So many consultants become theorists and teachers, slightly removed from reality, but Jonathan is continually involved at the sharp end presenting, pitching and delivering high profile strategic work for brands. This is of huge benefit to his clients. He is a regular conference speaker and trade press contributor and is a founder member of the DBA’s Experts Register.

Pricing options

DBA members receive a discount off the standard price. To talk to us about joining the DBA, email [email protected]. Prices include VAT. If you're buying from outside the UK please email [email protected].

Feedback for DBA Online Learning

The DBA courses are truly exceptional. Packed with invaluable wisdom and fresh perspectives, they never fail to deliver insights that leave a lasting impression.

Communications & Marketing Manager, This Is Embrace

The DBA courses are always brilliant. So informative, with very practical tips and ideas that I can go away and put into action straight away.

Head Of Marketing, Episode Two