Studio · Studio note
How to write a design brief a studio can actually use
A useful brief is shorter than most founders expect. The six answers we need before we design anything, what you can leave out, and why it keeps the price flat.
Most founders treat the brief as homework that stands between them and the design. Fair enough. Knowing how to write a design brief still saves more time than any shortcut later, because every hour a designer spends guessing what you meant is an hour taken from the design itself. A useful brief is also much shorter than people expect.
Ours is a form you fill in when you choose a package, before you pay. It takes about five minutes. Below is what it asks, why each question is there and how to answer it well. Facts about our process come from our How we work page and our Terms of Service. The rest is the studio's view.
How to write a design brief in six answers
Who you are
Your business name, your industry and how many locations you run. One plain sentence about what you sell helps more than a mission statement. A café with one branch and a clinic group with six need different things from a logo.
Where you're starting
Starting from scratch, keeping a logo that needs a refresh, or evolving a full brand. Say which. If you can't decide between a refresh and a rebrand, this guide helps you choose before you brief anyone.
Three words
The form lets you pick up to three personality traits from eight, such as Minimalist, Warm & Friendly or Bold & Energetic. We think the limit earns its keep. A brand that is luxurious, playful, corporate and earthy all at once is mostly confused.
Who it's for
The age range of the people you want to reach. Add a line on where they meet you. A brand for 18 to 24 year olds scrolling on their phones and one for procurement managers reading a PDF will rarely share a typeface.
Colour direction
Warm, cool, earthy, monochrome, vibrant, or no preference. Pick a direction and let the hex codes wait. If a colour is off limits, perhaps because a competitor already owns it, say so here.
References
Links to brands, websites or designs you admire, from any industry. Add one line on what you like about each. A note such as "the calm spacing" tells us far more than the link on its own.
What you can leave out
Some briefs arrive with forty mood board images, a competitor list as long as a phone bill and three pages of company history. We read all of it. Very little of it changes the design. The things that do are usually one line long. The name, the audience, the three words, the colour you refuse to use.
Do
- Say what the business sells in one sentence.
- Name the colour you won't use, and why.
- Add a line explaining each reference.
- Mention any date you can't move, such as an opening day.
Don't
- Paste a forty-image mood board with no notes.
- Ask for "modern but timeless" and stop there.
- Send another company's logo as the thing to copy.
- Leave out the Arabic name because the English one was easier to type.
What the discovery call adds
The form gets the facts down. The free 25-minute discovery call is where we ask the follow-up questions, usually the ones that begin with "when you say minimal, do you mean...". You pick a slot for it in the same form. Text and photography come from you unless a package says otherwise, so the call is also where we check what content you already have ready.
Why a clear brief protects your price
Our packages are flat-rate and paid in full upfront, which only works when the scope is clear on day one. We explain the thinking in why our prices are on the website. Our identity packages include two revision rounds. In our experience, a vague brief spends those rounds finding out what it should have said. Work beyond the package, such as an extra round, is quoted separately and paid before it begins, as section 4 of our Terms sets out.
One more practical note. If we're waiting on your feedback or materials and hear nothing for 30 consecutive days, the project closes, and reopening it may carry an extra fee. A complete brief means fewer of those waits.
Questions people ask
What should a design brief include?
Who you are and what you sell, where you're starting from, up to three personality words, your audience, a colour direction and a few references with a note on each. Add any deadline that can't move.
How long should a design brief be?
Short enough to read in a few minutes. Ours takes about five minutes to fill in. Precision matters more than length, so one exact line beats a page of general ambition.
Do I still need a brief if I have a discovery call booked?
Yes. The call works best when we've read your answers first, so the 25 minutes go on the questions a form can't settle.
Six answers, five minutes. Then the guessing stops.
The Brandtastic team
Written by Brandtastic Design Studio.