When a first draft misses badly, the designer usually isn’t the problem. Something the client knew and never wrote down is. A deadline tied to a trade show, a board member who hates green, a printer who has already quoted on a specific size. The designer guessed, guessed wrong, and now you’re two rounds in and nowhere near done.
A good brief doesn’t need to be long. One page is plenty for a flyer or a brochure. It just needs to answer the questions a designer would otherwise have to guess at. This is what to cover, in the order we’d want to read it.
1. What the thing is and what it has to do
Name the piece and its single job. “A DL flyer for letterboxes in Lennox Head that gets people to book a free gutter inspection” is a brief. “A flyer for our business” is a wish.
The job matters more than anything else on the page, because it decides what gets the most space. If the job is bookings, the phone number and the offer go big. If the job is to look credible at a conference stand, the logo and a strong photo carry it and the detail can be smaller.
If the piece has two jobs, pick the main one. Designs that try to do three things end up doing none of them well.
2. Who’s going to read it, and where
Describe the reader in plain terms: age range, what they already know about you, what they’re worried about. Then describe the moment they’ll see it. A menu read under warm cafe lighting, a pull-up banner seen from six metres across a hall, an annual report flicked through by a funder with ten minutes to spare. Each of those changes the type size, the contrast and how much text the design can carry.
3. The content, finished
This is the one that blows out timelines. Send final copy, not “we’ll tweak the words later”. When copy changes after layout, the design often has to be rebuilt around it, not just edited. A heading that grows from four words to eleven breaks the page.
If you’re not sure about the copy, say so in the brief and ask whether the designer can help with it. That’s a different job and should be priced as one.
Also list the images you have, where they came from and whether you have the rights to use them. “Photos are on my phone” is fine, as long as the designer knows before they plan a full-bleed cover around one.
4. The must-haves and the must-nots
This is where the hidden preferences go. Write them down even if they feel petty:
- Logo files and brand colours (send the actual files, not a screenshot)
- Required elements: licence number, ABN, funding body logos, QR code, disclaimers
- Things you or your boss will reject: a colour, a font, a style of photo, a competitor’s look
- Anything that must match an existing piece
If you have a style guide, attach it. If you don’t, a couple of past pieces you were happy with do much the same job.
5. Specs and production
Finished size, number of pages, print or digital (or both), quantity if you know it, and who’s printing it. If you’ve already got a printer, put the designer in touch with them early. Paper stock, folds and finishes all affect the artwork, and our guide to print-ready files, bleed and resolution explains why the printer’s spec sheet matters. For anything going online, say where: Instagram, a website banner, an email header. Each has its own sizes.
6. Examples you like, with reasons
Two or three examples are useful. Ten are a mood board, and mood boards with no notes can point in opposite directions. For each example, write one line on what you like about it: “the amount of white space”, “the photo fills the cover”, “it feels expensive but not stuffy”. Without the reason, the designer has to guess which part you meant.
Examples you don’t like are just as useful, with the same one-line reason.
7. Timing, budget and sign-off
Give the real deadline and what it hangs on. “Must be at the printer by 14 March for a 28 March event” lets the designer plan backwards. “ASAP” doesn’t.
Share the budget, or at least a range. It isn’t a trap. It tells the designer whether to propose two concepts or one, and whether custom illustration is on the table.
Then name the person who signs off. If three people need to approve it, list all three now, not at round two. Late approvers are the single biggest cause of rework we see. Our article on giving design feedback that helps covers how to collect those opinions into one clear set of changes.
A filled-in example
A one-page brief for a made-up business might look like this. Swap in your own details.
Piece: Tri-fold DL brochure for a new physio clinic in Alstonville.
Main job: Get GPs and existing patients to hand it to people who need post-surgery rehab. Secondary: explain what a first appointment involves.
Reader: People aged 50 and over, recently had knee or hip surgery, a bit anxious, often reading with a family member. Will see it at a GP reception desk or in our waiting room.
Content: Final copy attached (380 words). Six photos from our clinic shoot, which we own. Team headshots to come by 20 May.
Must include: Logo (files attached), address, phone, booking link as a QR code, Medicare and private health info line, our AHPRA-compliant wording as supplied.
Avoid: Stock photos of athletes. Anything that looks like a gym. Bright red.
Specs: DL tri-fold, 300 printed, our usual local printer (contact attached). Also a PDF for email.
Examples: Attached two clinic brochures. Like the first for its calm colours and big type. Like the second’s layout of the “what to expect” steps.
Deadline: Print-ready by 3 June. Clinic opens 17 June.
Budget: Up to $1,200 for design.
Sign-off: Practice owner (final), practice manager (copy accuracy).
That’s around 200 words, and it answers nearly every question a designer would ask on the first call.
How this changes for bigger jobs
For a logo or full brand, the brief shifts from specs to positioning: what you do, who you’re for, what makes you different, where the brand will appear and what your competitors look like. When we did the branding for North Coast Head Neck & Jaw Centre, that kind of thinking came before any sketching. For websites, there’s more to cover on structure and function, so we’ve written a separate guide on writing a web design brief.
Before you hit send
Read your brief as if you’d never heard of your business. If you’d need to ask a question to start, the answer belongs in the brief. Then check that it names the main job, the reader, the deadline and the person who signs off. Those four cover most of what goes wrong.
Some jobs are easier to talk through than write down. Our graphic design team can build the brief with you over a coffee or a call, starting from those four points. You can get in touch here.