Week 1 Workshop: The design brief

The first workshop — you leave with one page describing a language that does not exist yet, and at least one fixed constraint to design around

25 February 2027

Before the session#

Watch The Fellowship of the Ring. Bring one page. It does not need to be good and it will not be marked, but it has to exist on paper before you arrive. Students who plan to write it during the session generally do not write it.

In the session#

Twenty minutes on the four questions, working alone. Then pairs: you read your partner’s brief aloud while they listen, which is a quick way to notice what you have not yet decided. The last half hour is for constraints. We go round the room, each of you names one thing your speakers physically cannot do, and the rest of us look for ways around it.

Bring the constraint you find most awkward. It is usually the most useful one.

Afterwards#

Your brief is the reference point for every later decision. When you cannot decide whether your language should mark plurals in week three, the brief is where you look, and if it does not answer, the brief is not finished.

Revise it and post it before Monday. You will be handed it again in week twelve.