BREAKFAST CLUB: KEEPING IT BRIEF

Your client comes to you with a brief containing all the usual suspects: “Make it premium!”; “Make it innovative!”; “Make it the same… but different from my other product…!”

Join Sarah Williams, Creative Partner, Beardwood&Co, to discuss navigating the treacherous path of the written brief. In this first breakfast club of the season, learn how to dissect a client’s brief and uncover the real strategic needs behind vague language, and translate that into a tight & relevant design exploratory— helping to guide your clients toward design results of which you can both be proud.

Sarah Williams is Creative Partner at Beardwood&Co, a team of strategists driven by creative potential and designers inspired by human insights. As a design adventurer for over a decade, she’s created gotta-have-it packaging for Bath & Body Works, developed a global brand for Westin Hotels around irresistible wellness, told the authentic punk rock story of legendary CBGB’s, and channelled her inner-scientist to deliver Pfizer’s next blockbuster brand.

Sarah began her career in branding at Landor developing a new national airline brand, Song, and repositioning Blackberry for a mass market. Sarah also conducted major branding projects for the NYC Olympic Bid, Burger King and Clairol. She joined Beardwood&Co as Creative Director to build an energized studio environment where designers could thrive on cross-pollination of ideas and diverse projects. Sarah was named to Graphic Design USA’s People to Watch for 2011, and her work has been featured in Print Magazine, the New York Times, and several fashion and beauty publications. In addition, she writes about emerging artisans and designers for the The Scout.