How to write a design brief

This guide will show you how to write one, what goes into a great design brief, and why every creative project needs one.

What is a design brief?

An effective brief captures the key information about your project, including the design problem, objectives, target audience, scope of the project, your project’s key performance indicators (KPIs) and more. It acts as a shared reference point between the client and the design agency and helps to ensure that everyone is on the same page about the creative project. It can also be used as a benchmark for project sign-off on the final design.

Many design decisions are based on the specifications of the brief. It talks in depth about the design problem so that everyone involved can understand how best to meet the project objectives. For this reason, a good design brief can help transform your good ideas into great ones and give your project a much stronger chance of success.

The importance of writing a creative brief

Briefs are the cornerstone of the design process. From web design to product design, design briefs have proven useful in a wide range of design fields. They’re your roadmap to communicate your vision and design decisions to the design team, whether you’re simply considering a new logo design or embarking on a full rebrand. In short, design briefs guide your project’s workflow from conception to completion.

By writing a design brief, you’re giving all the stakeholders involved in the project a clear framework on which to base their decisions. It serves as a vital project management tool to bring your design agency and stakeholders onto the same page. Without a design brief, designers and other creative teams will have to rely on phone calls or emails to communicate crucial aspects of the project, and potential scope creep can impact the overall budget and deadline.

A brief will ensure the agency handling your project understands everything upfront about your business, from the project focus and design needs to your brand guidelines.

Here are some tips for writing an effective design brief to get you started.

How do you start writing a design brief?

Knowing what to include in a design brief can be hard, as no two briefs are alike. But, as a starting point, you should aim to include as much information as possible that would help the design team meet your project needs and objectives.

You should consider and include:

1. A project overview

Every project is unique, so you need a comprehensive overview that will bring the design team up to speed on your business. They may already be familiar with some of this information if they are an in-house design team, but it never hurts to make sure everyone is aligned.

Your project overview should outline the:

• scope of the project
• your objectives
• your project timeline
• any relevant previous design work
• your known successes and failures
• past case studies
• key contact information
• project budget

You may also want to think about which metrics you’d like to measure to gauge the success of your design project at this point, too, and you can consider including research, images, or mood boards as points of reference for your design concepts.

2. Project objectives

The next thing to include in your brief is the project objectives. Project objectives help to understand what results you are looking for and clarify the wider purpose of the project in the context of your business’s overall performance.

For example:

• Are you looking to increase brand awareness?
• Are you looking to gain new customers, retain existing ones, or venture into a different market?
• What are your expected outcomes for the business performance, including any KPIs you’d like to achieve?

Apart from conveying your project goals, it’s best to provide more information about the reasons why your business isn’t achieving its objectives in its current state. The design team can refer back to the brief from the start right through to the end of the project to ensure they align with the project goals and are better placed to tackle the design problem.

3. Existing challenges your business faces

Every business faces challenges, some of which a new design approach or a rebrand can fix. Your challenges may include things like:

• Not making enough sales despite aggressive marketing campaigns.
• Not connecting with the target audience or seeing your expected conversions despite a strong social media presence.
• Lack of customer loyalty as evidenced by significant sales or social media subscription fluctuations.

The designers need to understand the root of the problem before they embark on the project. This will help them make better design decisions and will also help narrow down the design requirements.

4. Your target market

The goal of every design project is to appeal to the target audience and get them to take action. Therefore, you need to define who your ideal customer is, their demographics, behaviours and any preferences. These are often called personas and are an important guiding force for businesses of all kinds. Really get to know them, and consider if there are any fonts, colours, styles, phrases or tones that would appeal to them.

This is a great opportunity to carry out some competitor analysis not only to inform where you might be able to find new opportunities to grow your business and serve a niche you’re not capitalising on, but to inspire your design ideas, too.

5. Your unique selling point

Marketers do this all the time: they focus on a product’s unique selling point (USP). What many people don’t know is that design is as important in depicting the USP as marketing is.

6. Benefits of using the product

Knowing what makes your product valuable to the target market is important, especially as the design team will need to tailor the design to convince and retain first-time users of the brand, product or service.

A new product or service will likely have several features and benefits that the target audience will enjoy if they decide to purchase it. Make sure you highlight the benefits of your product or service so they want to try it out and consider how the design elements you ask for can get this messaging across.

7. Project-specific information

There are a lot of intricacies that every design project needs to address from a unique angle. Include a detailed description with product-specific information that captures what makes the design work unique and makes it easier to tailor the work to each product.

8. Project deliverables

Project deliverables are the individual items you want to be produced as a result of a process. For example, within a branding project, this could be an eCommerce website design, a brochure, product launch material, marketing materials, or a redesign of packaging. The list is practically endless.

The most important question is: ‘What deliverables do I expect at the end of the project or at each milestone?’ Be specific—and realistic—about your timescales here, too.

9. Set the tone

In any creative project, from graphic design to copywriting, tone is essential. Provide an adjective list describing how you want your brand or your client to be perceived. These words define the overall personality that should be conveyed. Keeping this section in mind often will help you ensure that your work aligns with those traits and meets your client’s expectations.

10. Edit and edit again

You have all of your information ready, but you still may be asking: How can I ensure my design brief is clear and effective?

Well, make sure to look over your creative brief once you’ve completed all the sections. A creative brief should be kept as simple as possible. The first few times you write one, you may include too much information or unnecessary detail.

To streamline your design brief, ask yourself these questions as you read each section:

• Does it make sense?
• Is it relevant to the section’s primary objective?
• How straightforward and simple is it?

Edit down your brief so that anyone can understand it and successfully deliver your project.

How to structure a design brief for a successful project outcome

There are plenty of free templates available online that you can use as a springboard to create your own and tailor to your business’s unique needs.

A great structure to start with can look like this:

About the company

We’re an online language learning platform. Our audience is mainly younger learners aged 16 to 25.

Project goals

We need to improve our user dashboards to retain learners on our site and bring our interface in line with those of competitors.

Deliverables

1. Two examples of new user dashboards
2. Final designs

Creative direction

The dashboards should be bright and engaging, while remaining in line with our brand guidelines.

Schedule

Examples due by the end of July 2026.

Final designs due by the end of September 2026.

How can I ensure my design brief is clear and effective?

Keep your design brief concise, specific, and easy to follow. Don’t bombard key stakeholders with walls of text. Give them bite-sized, actionable information they can translate into direct next steps.

Focus only on the relevant information: project goals, audience insights, design requirements, and success metrics. Avoid vague descriptive language like “make it modern” without explaining exactly what you think modern means for your brand, and so on.

Include examples, references, and clear deliverables, so designers understand the expectations right away. And finally, taking a step back from your brief and putting it aside for a couple of days can make it much easier to edit later. Coming back to each draft with a clear head is what will get it where you need it to be.

What should a design brief look like?

A strong design brief should be clear, structured and easy to scan. It might include sections for the project overview, objectives, audience, challenges, deliverables, budget, timeline, references and success measures.

Need help with a design brief template?

A design brief is a tool that communicates your vision and project goals to the design team. It will give your project a clearer path towards measurable success and stronger results.

If you need help creating a brief or bringing a new project to life, get in touch to discuss how we can help. A well-written design brief will help your business grow organically and sustainably. We’ve got the know-how to provide you with a brief that does exactly that—or help you create your own.