How to brief a design agency (with a checklist)
What to put in a design brief so an agency can quote accurately and start fast: goals, audience, sizes, assets, budget and approvals, plus a free checklist.
Founder & Creative Director
Key takeaways
- A brief exists to get an accurate quote and a fast start. One or two pages is enough.
- List every deliverable with its real size and placement; most budget surprises are sizes added late.
- Share a budget range and name one decision-maker. Both save more time than any mood board.
What a brief is for
A design brief has two jobs: to let an agency quote accurately, and to let the work start without a week of questions. Everything in it should serve one of those. It is not a pitch document and it does not need to be polished; one or two plain pages beat a beautiful deck that leaves out the sizes.
With us, the brief is where the first stage of our process begins: we learn the business, the audience and the constraints, and turn them into a written scope with fixed stages and a clear price. The better the brief, the shorter that step. Knowing how to brief a design agency well is mostly knowing which eight things to write down.
The eight things every brief needs
None of these takes long to write. Each one removes a question the agency would otherwise have to ask.
1. The business in two sentences
What you sell, to whom, and what makes you different. If it takes a paragraph, the agency will spend the first call shortening it for you.
2. The problem and the goal
Describe what is not working and what should change if the project succeeds: more sign-ups from a landing page, a channel intro that looks established, one sale that runs across every product category. A goal you could measure beats a goal you can only describe.
3. The audience
Who will see the work, where, and in what frame of mind. A parent scrolling a feed at night, a procurement manager comparing three vendors and a gamer about to skip a pre-roll ad need very different design.
4. Every deliverable, with its real size
This is where most budget surprises come from. “Some banners” is not a deliverable; “the same promotion at 3840×800, 1440×490, 1440×240 and 600×140” is. That was the list for BabyStore’s brand-partner banners, and because each size was re-composed rather than cropped, every one was real design work, the kind of thing a quote needs to know from the start. Apps are the same: Lucrum CRM’s store screenshots came in three separate sizes for phones and iPad.
If you don’t know the sizes, say where the work will run and ask the agency to list them. Our guide to animated banner ad sizes covers the common ones, and for retail campaigns our e-commerce and social creative page shows what a full set usually includes.
5. What already exists
Attach the brand assets: the logo as a vector file (AI, EPS, SVG or PDF), fonts, color values, guidelines, photography and product screens. A logo sent as a small JPEG has to be rebuilt before anything else can happen. If you have no guidelines, say so; that is useful information, and brand identity work can start there.
6. References, with reasons
Three examples you like and one you don’t, each with a sentence on why. “Modern and clean” means something different to everyone; “we like how this one uses a single accent color and lots of space” is a direction.
7. Constraints
The deadline and what drives it, the budget range, technical limits (a Shopify theme, an ad network’s file-size cap, an app store’s screenshot rules) and anything regulated. Healthcare, finance and alcohol all carry rules about what creative can say, and that kind of constraint is far cheaper to know before design than after.
8. Who decides
Name the person who approves each stage. Feedback that arrives from five people separately, after each has seen a different version, is one of the most common reasons projects run late. One decision-maker who gathers everyone else’s comments keeps the schedule.
Share a budget range
It feels like a negotiating risk. It is the opposite: without a range, an agency has to guess the scale of the solution, and you get either an inflated proposal or an underbuilt one. A range lets them tell you what is realistic, and what to cut, on the first call.
If you have no idea what things cost, start from published numbers. Ours are on the pricing page, and we have written up what moves the price of a custom website, logo animation and an explainer video.
Mistakes that cost time
Every one of these is easy to avoid once you know to look for it:
- Describing the look only in adjectives. Send references instead.
- Adding sizes after the design is approved. Each one is new layout work.
- Sending the logo as a screenshot. Find the original vector file.
- Leaving the goal implicit. The agency will optimize for what it thinks you want.
- Hiding the real reason for the deadline. A product launch and a trade show allow different trade-offs.
- Collecting feedback in separate emails. Consolidate it into one list per round.
The design brief checklist
Download it, copy it, or use it as the outline of your email. If you can tick every line, an agency can quote from it.
Design brief checklist
- The business in two sentences: what you sell, to whom, and why you
- The problem, and what should change if the project works
- How you will measure success, if you can
- The audience: who sees it, where, and in what context
- Every deliverable, with its size, format and placement
- Where each piece will run: website, ad network, social platform, app store, print
- Brand assets attached: vector logo, fonts, colors, guidelines
- Existing photography, product shots or app screens
- Three references you like and one you don’t, with reasons
- Copy: supplied by you, or written by the agency?
- The deadline, and what drives it
- A budget range
- Technical limits: platform, theme, file-size caps, store rules
- Legal or regulatory limits on what the creative can say
- One named decision-maker, and who else gives feedback
- What you need to own at the end: source files, project files, code
What happens after you send it
With us, a brief is followed by a free call about the business, the audience and the deadline, and then a written scope with fixed stages and a clear price. If anything in the brief is unclear, that call is where it gets settled, not halfway through the project.
You don’t need a finished brief to start. Tell us the problem and we will help shape the rest: send a project brief or book a free 20-minute call. If you already know which service you need, the services overview lists what each one includes.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a design brief be?
One to two pages. Long enough to cover the checklist above, short enough that everyone involved actually reads it.
What if I don’t know exactly what I need?
Describe the problem and the goal, and say that you are unsure of the deliverables. Working out the right ones is part of the agency’s job, and the first call exists for exactly that.
Should I include a budget in the brief?
Yes, as a range. It lets the agency propose something realistic instead of guessing, and it is the fastest way to find out whether you are a fit.
Do I need a brief before booking a call?
No. A call can produce the brief. But sending even a rough version first, with the goal, the deliverables and the deadline, makes the call far more useful.
The Dawnwire Agency Deck
Our process, what each service includes, how we price and hand over, and a selection of real client work, in one free deck.