Leading designers explore the role of the brief in interesting new film

In the design world, the brief plays many different roles – ubiquitous, all-important, loathed, misunderstood; it can be a starting point, a back-up and a battleground. And yet we don’t often hear that much about the brief and its place in the creative industry – enter design strategy firm Bassett & Partners. Posing the question “if every project starts with a brief, why aren’t there more projects that end up with exceptional results?” the San Francisco-based company have tried to rectify this imbalance with their interesting short film Briefly.

Aiming to inform and re-educate people about the brief, the company have spoken to some of the big wigs of the creative world including Frank Gehry, Maira Kalman, Yves Béhar and David Rockwell, to find out what a brief should do, should be and how they interpret them within their disciplines.

It’s fascinating to see how different the interviewees’ approaches are; in fact Yves Behar completely eschews the idea of briefs, seeing these relationships as “partnerships” instead. It’s a rare opportunity to hear experts talk about their practical experiences on a one-to-one basis, so set aside half an hour and soak up the wisdom.