How to Write a Design Brief: Examples and Free Templates

In short, a design brief is a roadmap for success. Just as you can’t build a house without blueprints, you can’t execute a great design project without a well-reasoned design brief. When you don’t have one, your design projects may experience scope creep, with changes constantly derailing agreed-upon design details, resulting in the scope shrinking or expanding at the whim of stakeholders. 

A design brief not only defines the scope of a design project, but it also helps keep everyone in agreement and the project on track. It’s an agreed-upon, vital contract that guides both clients and designers from initial ideation all the way to a strong, viable end-product. 

Your design project’s success rests primarily on the degree to which you use a design brief effectively. It should serve as a record of ideas and their implementation, as well as a contract between designer, client, and other invested parties.

A design brief creates a living record of ideas, options, and choices for a design-centric project. It allows clients and designers to work closely together, from initial brainstorming sessions to project execution. Designers can use it as a mood board to capture a client’s initial ideas, and then flesh out the details and logistics for execution. 

Additionally, the design brief serves as a way to record the details about any changes or obstacles the project experiences. From there, you can continue toward project completion; the brief serves as an understanding between clients and designers. This keeps all parties on the same page — and drastic midproject changes in check — as the design brief assures designers and clients that ideas must be realistic according to time, budget, or other constraints. 

In short, a design brief offers assurance. It not only provides reassurance that a design project will succeed, but also serves as insurance — in case of a roadblock, you can review, alter, and then set back the design brief on target for eventual launch.

This simple design brief template allows designers and clients to work side by side in order to collect the design’s requirements in one place. Start with client-specific details, and then enter details pertaining to the project, objective, target audience, style and tone, message, deliverables, format, schedule, and budget. This uniquely customizable design brief template is a living, breathing contract between client and designers — from initial ideas to launch — and is an excellent solution for keeping design specifics in a single location.

Download Simple Design Brief Template

Excel | Word

A logo is a graphical symbol for a company — the company’s visual identity. Logos are challenging to design because a lot rides on them. This design brief for logo design provides designers with all the required details to create a successful company logo, including information about the business, desired design style, audience, usage (signage, business cards, etc.), emblems, mascots, colors, and other visual considerations.

Download Design Brief for Logo Design Template

Word | Google Docs

Good graphic design is effective visual communication, but great graphic design solves problems through the successful use of design elements. Use this customizable design brief for graphic design to create a mood board that helps you capture details for your project. Whether you need to consider client-specific details or audience, or to drill down into the particulars of typography and illustrations, this design brief for graphic design captures design details for a graphically rich project, and it provides space to include client and project details, objective, creative design elements, target audience, and more.

Download Graphic Design Creative Brief Template

Excel | Word | Google Docs | Smartsheet

To learn more about the creative brief process and to find additional resources, read “How to Write a Creative Brief.”

When it comes to interior design, you want your client to feel as comfortable as possible in their desired environment. Use this design brief for clients and designers alike. Take your client’s initial ideas about designing a space’s interior, and then provide them with suggestions and improvements on their ideas, as well as solutions to any interior design-related challenges. This interior design brief provides space to capture client and project information, lifestyle details, style preferences, measurements, floor sketches, and more.

Download Design Brief for Interior Design

Word | Google Docs

Although the subject matter will determine the specifics of a design brief, the following components are crucial to ensure adherence to typical design plans, as agreed upon by designer and client: 

• Project Name/Title: Enter the name or title of the design brief (either how you or the client refer to it). 
• Client Details: Include all of your client’s contact information (name, phone number, email, etc.), as well as their business, what they do, what they sell, and so on. 
• Project Details: Enter all relevant project summary, research sources, scope, findings, and research details. 
• Objective: Provide details of the client’s goals, desired outcomes, and measurable objectives. 
• Creative/Design Elements: Record all of your client’s desired design elements. (This is a perfect opportunity for moodboarding to determine what they like design-wise and why they like it, as well as to inspect existing design models for what they’re looking for.) 
• Target Audience: State the target audience for the design project. 
• Attitude: Describe the project’s tone. Does the client’s brand have a personality? What is the attitude that the client wants to convey with this design project? 
• Competitive Analysis: Capture any competitive-analysis details. Who — or what — is the design project’s competition? 
• Image Requirements: List the media that the client wants for the design project (graphics, photography, multimedia, etc.).
• Schedule: Define the projected timeline for the design project. What are the important dates and deadlines? 
• Budget: Provide details of the client’s budget, including monetary amounts (or another medium of exchange), financial sources, or notes on additional financial projections.