How to Brief a Branding Agency Without Wasting Anyone's Time

The brief is the most important document in a branding project. Not the final logo. Not the guidelines. The brief. A good brief produces better work in less time. A bad brief produces revisions, misaligned expectations, and a final result that nobody is quite happy with. Here is how to write one that works.

Start with the business problem, not the design request ¶

The most common mistake in a brief is leading with the deliverable: 'We need a new logo.' That tells us nothing useful. What we need to know is why. Are you launching a new product? Entering a new market? Trying to attract a different kind of customer? The design request is the answer to a business problem. Tell us the problem first.

Be specific about your audience ¶

Not 'everyone who needs our service.' Not 'adults aged 25-45.' Who specifically is the person you most want to reach? What do they already believe about your category? What are they suspicious of? The more specific you are, the more useful the work will be. If you do not know the answer, say so. That is useful information too.

Tell us what you are afraid of ¶

This is the question on our brief form that clients find most surprising, and it is consistently the most useful. Are you afraid of looking too corporate? Too small? Too similar to a competitor? Too different from what your existing customers expect? Fear is a legitimate creative constraint. It tells us where the edges are.

What to include and what to leave out ¶

Include: your timeline, your budget range, the names of three competitors you respect (and why), three brands outside your category that you find visually interesting (and why). Leave out: specific design directions unless you have a strong reason. 'I want it to look like Airbnb' is not a brief. It is a reference, and references belong in a separate mood board, not in the brief itself.

We send our own brief form to every new client before we start a project. If you would like a copy, you can download it free from our site. It is the same form we use for every project, including the ones we are most proud of.