Answering a design brief
A brief sets a purpose, an audience and limits. Good design solves that problem — being pretty is not enough.
Part of your national curriculum
- Developing ideas: Use a range of techniques and media, including painting, to develop and refine their ideas
Lesson overview
What you'll learn in this lesson
Respond to a design brief
Key learning points
- • Unpack the brief
- • Research with intent
This lesson at a glance
- 25 minutes
- 9 parts to scroll through
- 3 quick checks
- Marked quiz at the end
- Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses
Words to know
Scroll down — the lesson carries on below
Watch & discover
Part 1 of 9
Watch first
Answering a design brief
An English teaching video on this topic from ArtJohn. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.
In a nutshell
Respond to a design brief
Explore the idea
Part 2 of 9
Learn
Unpack the brief
Identify purpose, audience, format and constraints. Write them as a checklist you can test your outcome against later.
Explore the idea
Part 3 of 9
Learn
Research with intent
Gather existing examples, note what works, and record sources. Mood boards should lead to decisions, not just look attractive.
Quick check
Part 4 of 9
Quick check
A design brief always sets…
Quick check
Part 5 of 9
Quick check
Research is useful when it…
Quick check
Part 6 of 9
Quick check
Constraints in a brief are…
Challenge round
Part 7 of 9
Game · Sort it
Which of these are true?
Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.
True
Not true
Mastery quiz
Part 8 of 9
Marked quiz
End of lesson quiz: Answering a design brief
3 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.
1. A design brief always sets…
2. Research is useful when it…
3. Constraints in a brief are…
Lesson round-up
Part 9 of 9
Lesson round-up
Ready when you are
Quiz score
Not sat
Games
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Points this lesson
0
Best run
0 in a row
Luna: 0 out of 3 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?
Ask LunaDo the work
Your written work for this lesson
This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.
Reading a portrait
Artists make choices before they make marks. A sitter placed high in the frame looks powerful; the same sitter low in the frame looks small. Light falling from one side sculpts a face into shadow and bone; flat light makes it open and plain.
Objects do work too. A book says learning, a dog says loyalty, a wilting flower says time passing. Viewers in the past read these signs as easily as we read a logo.
When you look at a portrait, ask three questions: where is the light coming from, what has the artist put in the sitter's hands, and where am I standing — above, below, or level with them?
Written for Good Learning Co.
Reading questions
- Choose a portrait and answer the article's three questions about it.
- Explain how you would light a portrait to make someone look kind.
- Plan your own portrait, listing two objects you would include and what each one says.
Sketchbook page
DiagramMake your own piece, then photograph it for your sketchbook page.
1 finished piece
Annotation
WritingWrite around your work: what you tried, what worked, what you would change.
6 sentences
Saved as you type.
Part 1 of 9 · Watch & discover
How this is going
- Not looked at yet
Use a range of techniques and media, including painting, to develop and refine their ideas