Most clients approach a design brief as a formality — a short paragraph describing what they want, sent alongside a logo from a competitor they like.
Most designers would tell you that the brief is the most important document in the entire project. The quality of the brief determines the quality of the work more reliably than any other factor, including the designer's skill.
This guide explains what a useful brief actually contains — not from a client's perspective of "what's easy to write," but from a designer's perspective of "what do I actually need to do this work well."
What a Brief Is For
A brief has two purposes:
It gives the designer the information they need to work strategically. A logo is not decoration. It is a communication tool for a specific audience. Without knowing who that audience is, what the brand does, and what it wants to communicate, a designer is guessing. Guessing produces generic work.
It establishes the criteria for evaluating the work. At the end of the project, the question "is this a good logo?" needs to be answerable against something specific. "It's what we asked for" is specific. "It feels right" is not. A good brief defines what success looks like before the work starts.
The Essential Brief Components
1. Business Description (2–3 paragraphs)
Not the elevator pitch. The honest description.
- What the business actually does, in plain language
- Who the primary customers are — specifically (not "businesses" but "series A funded SaaS startups in B2B sales")
- What the business does differently from alternatives, if anything
- How old the business is and where it currently is in its lifecycle
Designers need to understand the business to design for it, not just for the aesthetic of the industry it's in.
2. Brand Personality (5–7 adjectives, with prioritisation)
What should someone feel when they see this brand?
The most useful personality descriptions are specific and contrasting: not just "professional" but "professional but approachable — more like a trusted advisor than a corporate institution." Not just "bold" but "bold and direct — no softening language, no corporate hedging."
Common mistakes:
- Too many descriptors. Ten adjectives describe almost every brand and constrain nothing.
- Generic descriptors. "Professional, trustworthy, modern" describes 90% of business brand briefs. These words signal nothing that helps differentiate the design.
- Aspirational-only descriptors. What you want to be versus what you currently are. Be honest about both.
3. Audience Description
Who is this logo for? (Not who does the business serve — who is the logo specifically trying to reach and communicate to.)
Useful audience information includes:
- Demographics (age range, gender if relevant, location)
- Professional context (industry, role, sophistication level)
- What they currently buy / who they currently trust in this space
- What their alternatives are
This information shapes every design decision — typeface choice, colour psychology, the level of visual complexity that's appropriate.
4. Competitors and Reference Brands
Competitors: Name 3–5 direct competitors. A designer who can see the competitive landscape can design something that is both appropriate to the category and distinct within it.
Positive references: 3–5 brands whose visual identity you admire — and, critically, what you admire specifically. "I like Apple's minimalism" is more useful than "I like Apple." "I like how Stripe uses dark backgrounds and precise typography for something that's typically a boring financial product" is more useful still.
Negative references: Equally important. 3–5 things that represent what you don't want. "We don't want to look like a typical SaaS startup with a wordmark in Inter and a blue gradient" is actionable information.
One common mistake: showing the designer a competitor's logo and saying "I want something like this." What you usually mean is "I want to be perceived the way this brand is perceived." The logo should be different from the competitor — but might share the same strategic territory.
5. Practical Requirements
What does the logo need to do technically? This section is often missing entirely from client briefs, and it produces problems at the end of the project.
Include:
- Primary use cases (website, app, print, packaging, signage, embroidery, merchandise — list all of them)
- Any size restrictions (will it appear on a business card? An embroidered patch? A mobile app icon at 16px?)
- Colour restrictions (single colour only? Limited to a specific palette for packaging reasons?)
- Style restrictions (company policy that requires or forbids certain aesthetics)
- Timeline and delivery requirements
For logos that will have specific production requirements — embroidery, screen printing, packaging — it's worth noting early. These affect design decisions. See AI logo embroidery requirements for what embroidery specifically needs.
6. What You Don't Like
This section is as valuable as the positive direction, and clients rarely complete it thoroughly.
Think about logos you've seen and disliked. What specifically bothered you about them? Choices about typeface, colour, style, complexity? The more specific you can be, the more it helps the designer avoid a direction that will produce a rejection.
"I don't like logos that use script fonts — they always feel feminine and we want to read as gender-neutral" is useful. "I don't like logos that are too busy" is not specific enough.
7. Budget and Scope
State your budget. Designers who know the budget design for it — scope, number of concepts, depth of exploration. A designer who doesn't know your budget either under-scopes (and disappoints) or over-scopes (and then asks for more money).
Include:
- Budget range
- Expected number of initial concepts
- Expected number of revision rounds
- What's included (just the mark? Mark + wordmark? Full colour guidelines?)
For a complete understanding of what different budget levels produce, see how much does logo design cost.
What to Avoid in a Brief
"I'll know it when I see it." This is not a brief. It's an invitation to a guessing game that wastes both parties' time.
Designing by committee. When the brief represents the averaged preferences of five different stakeholders with different opinions, the designer tries to satisfy an internally contradictory document. Assign one decision-maker.
Too many reference logos. Ten reference logos representing ten different aesthetics tell the designer nothing except that you like design. Curate to 3–5 with specific notes.
Describing the solution, not the problem. "I want a geometric sans-serif wordmark in navy and white" is a solution brief, not a strategy brief. It tells the designer what to make, not what problem to solve. Designers who receive strategy briefs produce better work than designers who receive solution briefs.
Using This Brief When Contacting Evoke Studio
When you contact us for a logo design project, include as much of the above as possible. The more complete your brief, the more accurate our scope and timeline, and the better the first round of concepts will be.
If you've generated an AI logo concept with Midjourney, DALL-E, or another tool and want it professionally produced, the brief process is different — see the complete AI branding workflow for that path.
Ready to start your logo project with a clear brief?
Share your brief with us and we'll scope the project, confirm timeline, and give you a clear deliverable set. No guessing, no wasted rounds.
A complete logo brief includes: a description of the business and its customers, brand personality descriptors, competitor and reference brand examples, practical requirements (where the logo will be used, at what sizes), what you specifically don't want, and your budget and timeline. The more specific each section is, the better the outcome.
Long enough to fully communicate the above — typically 1–2 pages. A one-paragraph brief is almost always too thin; a 20-page document with internal politics embedded in it is too complex. Aim for concise and specific over comprehensive and vague.
Yes — this is one of the most useful things you can provide. Show 3–5 direct competitors and note what they're doing visually. A designer who sees the competitive landscape can design something appropriate to the category and distinct within it, which is exactly what a good logo needs to be.
Start with function over style: what does the logo need to communicate, to whom, and in what contexts? The appropriate style follows from those answers. If you genuinely have no aesthetic preference, a designer with strategic experience will make recommendations — that's part of what you're paying for.
As much as is honest. If you have strong preferences — you want a serif typeface, you want dark colours, you want something that feels European and minimal — say so. If you don't have strong preferences, say that instead of giving vague direction that the designer then has to interpret. Honest uncertainty is more useful than fake specificity.
This is a common situation and almost always costs extra time and money. The clearest way to avoid it: be honest in the brief about your preferences and uncertainties, review the first round thoroughly before approving a direction, and get internal buy-in before committing to a path.