As promised, after various discussions about writing 'design briefs', here is the brief for my new label, 'Lucent Dark'.
You will notice how brief the brief is! Colse Leung runs his own design company. I pay him a monthly retainer and this means that he is at my beck and call (ha!) whenever there's a project that needs his design skills. Because of the way I work, there's always a backlog of projects, especially when we talk about the 'World of Owl' series.
He has also designed the website for the novels. https://www.worldofowl.co.uk/
This project, for Lucent Dark, was an additional piece of work. After the last couple of years of working together, we have developed a shorthand relationship, so that I don't need to over-elaborate with the various briefs I've written for him.
It pays not to cloud the focus with long texts, but to boil down the essence of the design you'd like. It's acorns and not the full-grown tree. Here below, is the brief I wrote for him. I will also include the photo, that is cited in the text.
In the comments below, I will add the images of Colse's designs and that I will use going forward, to promote the novels and backstories for the World of Owl Series, so that you can see the whole scope of the process. What goes on between the brief to the finished design is a to-and-fro of ideas and the search for a design which encapsulates, embodies the inspiration from the brief. I hope this helps.
Lucent Dark: Design Brief for Colse Creative
Lucent Dark is to be my ‘trading as’ publishing company for all the side projects with the World of 0w1 series.
Lucent Dark is a chapter in David Hinton’s amazing book on Tu Fu called, ‘Awakened Cosmos’.
In this case he is writing about the poem, ‘Full Moon’ and his description, (see photo), evokes quite an image of the creative and spiritual process.
“To cut a pattern from a cloth, to make a form appear.”
Lucent Dark then, will be publishing patterns (language) from a cloth; the dark world or night sky of our reality.
Hinton goes on to write: “Here lies the explanation for how...the moon emerges into existence for the first time...” (from its embryonic source).
With this in mind, Lucent Dark will pierce the darkness in the cloth of the night sky, so that light can shine through.
Tu Fu isn’t speaking as such, of a new full moon in an astronomical cycle, but an existential event; a totally new and never before seen event of a Full Moon; born, brought forth from the pictograms of his poetry.
Geoff Hall
Here's one version:
and then the one I chose...
I should point out that after this brief is posted to the designer, a conversation ensues. He asks for images to be sent, that somehow exemplify in some way, the feel or look, I am wanting.
He will then send me some ideas, and I choose the direction that the design should go. From there, a bit of tweaking follows, till we arrive at the final product: a cover design, logo or poster.
What you should look for in your relationship with any designer, is a creative conversation, and not just a blind reliance on their skills.
The brief is an opener, to that dialogue, which as I’ve noted above, should be free from waffle or too much detail.
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Very interesting, Geoff. I like your design.
L. Tom Deaver thank you Tom. I think when you find a designer who ‘gets it’ and ‘gets you’ then they are gold dust.
I never have to force it and I’ve learned from him that he has a better eye for things than me, and so I’ll generally go wherever he leads, but of course I have the final say.
I’ll be interested to see what he comes up with for my latest project, “Breathe”, which may prove to be a more abstract and difficult concept, but I know his work is never a literal translation of the concept I’ve penned for him in the design brief.