Designers tend to be visual. They like to talk through and discuss a problem, not read about it in a report. One way of bringing your brief to life is to prepare a mood board to support your design brief. This is simply a succinct collection of photos, colours, typography, words, patterns and tone that reflects what’s in your mind’s eye. 

It’s interesting to assemble patterns of semiotics and cultural language in your sector so that if your strategy is to be a disruptor, you almost want to see the landscape so you can do the absolute opposite. And of course, this is a useful exercise to pull together a visual snapshot of what your competitors’ brands are up to. Use tools like Pinterest, Evernote and Milanote to make this easy and sharable. A word of caution though. Mood boards are useful but they aren’t ‘the solution’. Without exception, the greatest work is produced when you guide designers from a marketing / consumer’s perspective – to share the problem without giving away the answer.