Design Brief for The Carrot

Date: 2026-03-13 Source: https://chatgpt.com/share/69b35385-bfcc-8006-8784-9ced96bd2759

User

Original custom instructions no longer available

User

All right, you're going to help me come up with a design brief for a project?

Here's the information I got: Benson High, Omaha. Located here in Omaha, Nebraska. I'm a member of their advisory board. They have multiple advisory boards. This one in particular is the Design and Construction Academy. The design, graphic design students put out a (I'm not sure if it's quarterly or yearly) printed magazine called The Carrot.

The Carrot is, I'm pretty sure, distributed around the Benson area. It's also going to be made available at businesses for pickup. I believe they have an old-school newspaper dispenser machine that's going to be placed somewhere in the neighborhood so patrons of the neighborhood and businesses, et cetera, can get it.

The Carrot's designed, written, and produced by the students at Benson High.

Before The Carrot goes into production, the students and staff and some of the Community members, like myself, who are on the advisory board, reach out to businesses in the Benson area. There's lots of bars and restaurants, etc. To ask if they would like to advertise in The Carrot

I'm unsure on this, but I'm pretty sure that the advertising cost goes to cover the cost of printing.

What I would like to do is put together a simple one-page site with a conversion or contact form. So that their QR code on the PDF as someone to link to. Also, there's something to share. On social media platforms like Facebook, they could add a link to their Instagram, etc.

The biggest opportunity I can see is that, for one, we're not telling anyone what's the value of them advertising. We're not telling them how many people might see it. We're not really explaining the value at all. So I'm trying to put together a bigger scope so that we can do a good job presenting this information on the one-pager to get people interested. You can go ahead and look at the PDF I attached. Maybe you can do some research on essentially how magazines or newspapers usually handle this, but also noting this is completely different because this is a non-profit and there's an element of fun around it. That's all the information I think I have for now. The contact form also, we'd like it to allow the user to select what ad size they're interested in. Or just have questions.

We're probably just gonna build this in Vercel using React and TypeScript to do it quickly. Questions you have to help me build out a brief and/or eventually a PRD for this project

Assistant

I looked through the PDF. The current pitch basically says:

What you already spotted is correct: the flyer explains what it is, but it barely explains why a business should care. That’s the gap your page can solve.

Below is a structured way to think about the design brief, followed by the questions you need answered before writing a PRD.

Design Brief – “Advertise in The Carrot”

Project

Landing page to promote advertising opportunities in The Carrot, a student-produced Benson neighborhood magazine/business directory.

The page will act as the primary conversion destination for QR codes, social media links, and outreach emails sent to Benson businesses.

Objectives

  1. Explain the value of advertising - Local exposure - Supporting Benson students - Community goodwill

  2. Drive ad reservations - Contact form with ad size selection

  3. Provide a shareable link - QR code destination - Social media landing page

  4. Make it easier for advisory board / staff - One place to send interested businesses

Audience

Primary audience:

Secondary audience:

Core Message

Advertising in The Carrot is a simple way to:

Value Proposition (This is the missing piece)

Businesses aren’t buying ads just for reach.

They’re buying:

Community alignment

Possible framing:

Support Local Students Your ad helps Benson students design, write, and publish a real magazine.

Reach the Benson Community Distributed throughout Benson businesses and neighborhood locations.

Be Part of Benson Culture The Carrot celebrates the local businesses that make Benson unique.

Proposed Page Structure

1. Hero

Advertise in The Carrot

Student-designed Benson business directory.

CTA: Reserve your ad

2. What Is The Carrot

Short explanation.

Example framing:

The Carrot is a student-produced magazine created by graphic design students at Benson High School.
It highlights Benson businesses and showcases the next generation of designers.

3. Why Advertise

3–4 bullets

Support local students
Reach the Benson community
Promote your business locally
Be part of a neighborhood publication

4. Distribution

This is the section you currently don’t have.

Example:

Distributed at:

If you can add estimated circulation, even better.

5. Ad Options

Display ad sizes.

Logo — $100
¼ page — $250
½ page — $500
Full page — $1000 fileciteturn0file0

Include spec diagram from page 2.

6. Timeline

Ad deadline — April 1
Publication release — May 1 fileciteturn0file0

7. About the Students

Important emotional hook.

Example:

The Carrot is designed and produced entirely by students in the Benson High Design and Construction Academy.

8. Call to Action

Reserve your space

Form fields:

Name
Business name
Email
Phone
Ad size dropdown
Upload logo/artwork (optional)
Questions / message

Technical Scope

Stack (as you mentioned)

React
TypeScript
Vercel deploy

Simple static page.

Possible integrations:

Conversion Goal

Primary conversion:

Submit advertising inquiry form.

Secondary:

Contact email.

Design Direction

Tone should feel:

Community focused
Student creativity
Neighborhood pride

Not corporate.

Metrics of Success

Number of ad inquiries
Number of ads sold
Ad fill rate for the issue

Questions That Will Improve the Brief

You’ll want answers to these before building anything.

Distribution

  1. How many copies are printed?
  2. Where exactly are they distributed?
  3. Is there a street dispenser already?

Audience

  1. Who reads The Carrot?
  2. Is it just Benson visitors or citywide?

Publication

  1. Is this yearly or quarterly?
  2. How many pages is the magazine?

Ads

  1. How many ads are available?
  2. Are ads first-come or curated?

Creative

  1. Do businesses provide artwork or do students design ads?

This could actually be a huge selling point.

Payment

  1. How do advertisers pay?

Stripe
Invoice
Check

Form Workflow

  1. Does the form send leads to:

One Strategic Idea

Your page should lean into this:

“Support Benson students while promoting your business.”

That’s the hook.

Not CPM. Not reach. Not impressions.

Community.

Optional Add-Ons (Future)

These would make it even stronger.

If you want, I can also give you the actual one-page wireframe layout (the exact sections in order) so you can jump straight into building it in React. That would take about two minutes to outline and will save you a bunch of thinking later.

User

Go ahead and give me a wireframe. It's probably going to be terrible, but at least I want to see what you come up with.

Assistant

Low-fidelity layout. Nothing fancy—just structure so you can build it fast.

Wireframe – “Advertise in The Carrot”

----------------------------------------------------
NAV
----------------------------------------------------
Benson High Design & Construction Academy
The Carrot

----------------------------------------------------
HERO
----------------------------------------------------
[Headline]

Advertise in The Carrot

Student-designed Benson business directory

[Short paragraph]

Support Benson High graphic design students while
promoting your business to the Benson community.

[CTA BUTTON]
Reserve Your Ad

[Magazine cover image]

----------------------------------------------------
WHAT IS THE CARROT
----------------------------------------------------
[Two column layout]

LEFT

The Carrot is a printed magazine created by graphic
design students at Benson High School.

It highlights Benson businesses and showcases
student work in design, writing, and publishing.

RIGHT

[Photo of magazine]
[Photo of students working]
(optional)

----------------------------------------------------
WHY ADVERTISE
----------------------------------------------------

[3 or 4 cards]

Support Local Students  
Your ad helps fund printing and gives students
real-world publishing experience.

Reach the Benson Community  
Distributed throughout Benson businesses and
neighborhood pickup locations.

Promote Your Business Locally  
Get in front of customers already visiting Benson.

Be Part of Benson Culture  
Join a neighborhood publication celebrating the
people and businesses that make Benson unique.

----------------------------------------------------
DISTRIBUTION
----------------------------------------------------

[Map / simple graphic]

Copies distributed at:

• Benson restaurants & bars
• Local shops
• Neighborhood pickup locations
• Street newspaper dispenser
• Community spaces

(If known)
Estimated circulation: XXXX copies

----------------------------------------------------
AD OPTIONS
----------------------------------------------------

[Grid]

---------------------------------
LOGO LISTING
$100
---------------------------------

---------------------------------
¼ PAGE
$250
---------------------------------

---------------------------------
½ PAGE
$500
---------------------------------

---------------------------------
FULL PAGE
$1000
---------------------------------

[Ad spec diagram]
(show dimensions from PDF)

----------------------------------------------------
TIMELINE
----------------------------------------------------

Ad Reservation Deadline  
April 1

Magazine Available  
May 1

----------------------------------------------------
ABOUT THE STUDENTS
----------------------------------------------------

The Carrot is produced by students in the Benson
High Design and Construction Academy.

Students lead the design, writing, and layout of
the publication as part of their real-world design
education.

----------------------------------------------------
RESERVE YOUR AD
----------------------------------------------------

[FORM]

Name
Business Name
Email
Phone

Ad Size
▼
Logo Only
¼ Page
½ Page
Full Page
Just have questions

Message

[SUBMIT BUTTON]

----------------------------------------------------
FOOTER
----------------------------------------------------

Benson High School  
Design & Construction Academy

Questions?
annie@bffomaha.org

Notes (practical build stuff)

Keep it simple

You can literally build this in:

/app/page.tsx
/components/sections/*

Sections:

Hero
AboutCarrot
WhyAdvertise
Distribution
AdOptions
Timeline
AboutStudents
ContactForm

Form handling

Simplest:

Vercel server action
→ email Annie
→ optional Google Sheet

QR code destination

Just point it to:

thecarrot.bensonhigh.org

or

advertise.thecarrotbenson.com

If you want the page to convert better

Add one thing above the hero CTA:

“Only X ad spots available”

Magazines sell better when it feels limited.

If you want, I can also show you a much better structure magazines actually use to sell ads (it’s slightly different than this and converts better for local businesses).

User

I mean, I thought you meant a visual wireframe.

Assistant

{"size":"1792x1024","n":1}

User

It looks like the bottom part cut off. Can you make sure that there's a full-size image?

Assistant

{"referenced_image_ids":["b6dcbb05-1583-437f-92af-ec45796704af"],"size":"1024x1792"}