A brief is the foundation of any branding project. The more precisely and honestly you fill it out at the start, the fewer revisions and misunderstandings you'll deal with later — and the faster you'll land on a brand that truly reflects your business, rather than a designer's guesswork about it.
Here's what I ask clients to prepare before we start working together.
1. A short description of your business — in your own words
What you do, for whom, and what makes you different from competitors. You don't need polished marketing copy — a few honest, natural sentences are enough. As a designer, understanding the substance matters more to me than reading a polished pitch.
2. Who your client is
Age, lifestyle, where these people spend time online, what matters to them when choosing a product or service like yours. A logo for a teen clothing brand and a logo for a law firm are built on entirely different logic — and that difference starts with understanding the audience.
3. Examples of what you like (and don't)
This is probably the most useful part of a brief. Gather 3-5 logos, brands, or even just photos that resonate with how you see your brand — not necessarily from your industry. And separately, 1-2 examples of what you definitely don't want to see. Negative examples often narrow the search faster than positive ones.
The best brief isn't the one where the client knows exactly what logo they want. It's the one where the client honestly shows what they're drawn to and what puts them off.
4. Must-have elements and constraints
Is there anything the logo absolutely must include (say, a symbol already associated with your brand) or, conversely, something to avoid (a color already claimed by a competitor)? Better to name these boundaries upfront than discover them after the third round of concepts.
5. Where the brand will be used
Logo on a storefront sign, on social media, on packaging, on a website, on staff uniforms — each channel has its own requirements (minimum size, legibility on dark/light backgrounds, vertical and horizontal versions). If the designer knows all future uses in advance, it's baked into the concept from the start rather than bolted on afterward.
6. Budget and timeline
Designers aren't mind readers. An honestly stated budget range and a real deadline immediately rule out unworkable scenarios and let a designer propose a collaboration format that actually fits your constraints — instead of a good plan falling apart midway through because of mismatched expectations.
Common client mistakes at the brief stage
- "Just make something beautiful, I trust your taste" — nice to hear, but without direction it increases revision rounds rather than speeding things up
- References that are too vague or too contradictory — 10 logos in 10 different styles make finding a direction harder than 3 consistent examples
- Leaving out the budget — leads to a first concept proposal that may not match cost expectations at all
- No feedback loop with everyone who has final say — if the final decision rests with someone who wasn't part of the brief, approving the result drags on
What you get from a solid brief
A sharper, more accurate first round of concepts — meaning fewer misses, fewer revisions, and a faster path to a final logo or brand that genuinely fits your business.
Ready to start a project? Send me a few lines about your business and I'll send over a short brief form to kick things off.