Design brief template.

A design brief is what you hand a designer before they open a file. It covers one piece of work, like a landing page, a campaign visual, packaging or a logo refresh. It says what that piece has to do, who will see it and the exact sizes it needs to come out in.

It sits one step below a creative brief. The creative brief sets the message for a whole campaign. The design brief turns it into one piece, with the brand files, formats and references the designer needs to get it right the first time. This template has eight fields, a filled-in example on page three and a checklist on page four.

What is in it

Field	What goes in it	The usual mistake
1. The job	The piece, where it lives, new or an update	“Some new visuals”
2. The problem	What is wrong or new, and what has to stay	Forgetting to say what must not change
3. Who will see it	The viewer, the screen or surface, the seconds they give it	Designing on a big monitor for a phone
4. The one thing	The single takeaway and the next step	Three messages in one banner
5. Must-haves and assets	What has to appear, and the real files	A logo copied from the website
6. Formats and sizes	Every output with its dimensions and file type	Sizes added after a concept is approved
7. References	Work to look like, and work to avoid	Only examples you like
8. Timeline and approvers	Review dates and one final yes	A deadline with no owner

How to fill it in

• The job. Name the piece and where it lives. “Pricing page hero” is one job. “Refresh the website” is several, so split it.
• The problem. Say what is broken or new. On a refresh, also say what has to stay, or you may get a new logo you never asked for.
• Who will see it. Picture the moment. A banner seen for two seconds on a phone needs bigger type and fewer words than a page someone reads at a desk.
• The one thing. One sentence. If it needs an “and”, one of the ideas belongs in another piece.
• Must-haves and assets. Send vector logos, font files and exact color codes with the brief. Chasing them later slows everything down.
• Formats and sizes. List every output before design starts. A new shape means another layout, so the designer needs all of them up front.
• References. Add work you dislike as well as work you like, with one line on why for each.
• Timeline and approvers. Put the feedback dates in, and name the one person whose yes is final.

Sizes are part of the design

Formats sound like admin, but they shape the work. Google’s guide to responsive display ads asks for images in three shapes: horizontal at 1.91:1 (1200 x 628 pixels recommended), square at 1:1 (1200 x 1200) and vertical at 9:16 (900 x 1600). A layout built for the wide banner rarely survives being squeezed into the tall one.

So fill in field 6 before the first concept, and ask to see each idea in the hardest format first. If it works small and tall, the other sizes tend to follow.

Next steps

Our walkthrough of the graphic design process covers what happens after the brief, step by step. Planning a bigger change? Read our guide to refreshing a brand before you brief the logo. And if you’d like a design team that already knows your brand to take it from here, that’s the work we do at Moonb.