How to Brief a Graphic Designer: What They Actually Need to Know

Graphic designer working on a laptop at Lime Design Studio

5 min read

If you're about to work with a graphic designer, you might assume you need to turn up with a detailed brief explaining exactly what you want.

You don't.

You might already know that you need a brochure, a new set of sales materials or a refreshed brand. Equally, you might simply know that something isn't working as well as it should and you're not sure what the answer is yet.

Both are perfectly good places to start.

A useful design brief isn't about telling a designer how to design something. It's about giving them enough information to understand your business, what you're trying to achieve and who you're trying to communicate with.

The better they understand those things, the better equipped they are to find the right design solution.

So what does a graphic designer actually need to know?

1. What Are You Trying to Achieve?

This is probably the most important part of any design brief.

Rather than starting with what you want designed, start with why you need it.

For example, you might want to:

introduce a new product or service
make a complicated offering easier to understand
present your business more professionally
give your sales team better materials
attract a particular type of customer
improve something that no longer represents the business accurately
encourage people to take a particular action

These objectives could lead to very different design decisions, which is why understanding the reason behind the project is so important.

It can also help to think about what you want to be different as a result. Perhaps you want your sales team to feel more confident using the materials, customers to understand a complicated service more easily or the way your business presents itself to better reflect where it is today.

You may already know exactly what you need, or deciding what needs to be created may be part of the conversation. Either way, explaining what you're trying to achieve gives your designer a much stronger starting point.

2. Who Is It for?

Knowing the audience helps a designer make appropriate decisions about everything from the amount of information included to the visual style, imagery and hierarchy.

"We need a brochure" tells us what we're producing.

"We need a brochure that our sales team can use when speaking to engineering managers who are comparing us with several other suppliers" tells us considerably more.

You don't necessarily need detailed customer personas or pages of audience research. Useful information might simply include who the material is aimed at, what they are likely to care about, what they already know and what you want them to understand.

If there are several audiences, that's useful to know too.

3. What Isn't Working at the Moment?

A new design project doesn't always start because something is objectively "bad".

Perhaps the business has changed, a product range has grown or the existing brochure is difficult to update. Different teams might be creating their own materials, or your current presentation may no longer support the way your sales team sells.

If you're replacing or improving something that already exists, show it to your designer and explain why you're changing it.

There may be elements worth retaining as well as things that need improving.

Understanding the problem is often just as useful as knowing what you like.

4. What Does the Audience Need to Know?

Design and content need to work together.

Before design begins, it helps to understand what information needs to be communicated and which parts matter most.

That doesn't necessarily mean every word of copy has to be finished before you speak to a designer. It does mean the designer needs a realistic idea of what the finished piece needs to contain.

A four-page brochure designed around a small amount of introductory copy is a very different project from a document that needs to accommodate detailed product specifications, case studies, accreditations and technical information.

If some content is still being developed, say so. That can be planned for.

5. Where and How Will the Design be Used?

This is one of the practical parts of a brief that can easily be overlooked.

Something designed for a printed brochure has different requirements from a LinkedIn graphic, exhibition stand, presentation or document that customers will mainly view as a PDF.

It helps to tell your designer where the finished work will appear, how it will be distributed and whether it needs to work in more than one format.

For print projects, quantities, sizes, finishes and distribution can also influence design decisions.

If you're not sure about the technical specifications, you don't necessarily need to work them out yourself. Explain how you intend to use the finished piece and ask your designer what they recommend.

6. What Existing Brand Assets Need to Be Considered?

If you have brand guidelines, logo files, fonts, colour specifications, photography or existing templates, make them available at the beginning of the project where possible.

Your designer can then understand the framework they're working within.

This is particularly important if several suppliers or internal teams work with your brand.

If you don't have formal brand guidelines, that doesn't mean the project can't proceed. Share whatever you do have and explain how your brand is currently being used.

7. Are There Any Fixed Requirements or Limitations?

There is a difference between being unnecessarily prescriptive and telling your designer about genuine constraints.

If something has to be included, say so.

That might be regulatory wording, a partner logo, specific product information, an existing format, accessibility requirements, mandatory brand elements or a particular print specification.

The earlier your designer knows about these requirements, the easier it is to take them into account.

Discovering late in the project that an additional page of information or six partner logos need to be accommodated can have a significant impact on a design that was created without them.

8. What Do You Like and Dislike?

Examples can be useful but they work best when you explain why you've chosen them.

Showing a designer three brochures and saying "I like these" leaves plenty of room for interpretation.

Do you like the photography? The amount of white space? The way the information is organised? The tone? The typography? The fact that it feels technical, premium, approachable or established?

The same applies to things you don't like.

You don't need to use design terminology. Simply explaining your reaction gives the designer useful context.

Examples should help communicate a direction rather than become something the designer is expected to copy.

9. Who Needs to Be Involved in the Decision?

It helps to establish this early.

If several people need to approve the work, your designer needs to know. Where possible, it's helpful for the people involved to agree the objective and key requirements before design begins.

That doesn't mean everyone needs to be involved in every conversation.

It does mean that bringing a new decision-maker into a project near the end can introduce requirements or opinions that weren't part of the original brief.

Agreeing who will provide feedback, who will collate it and who has final approval can make the process much clearer for everyone.

10. What's the Timescale?

If there is a fixed deadline, share it at the beginning.

More importantly, explain why it is fixed.

"We need it by 14 November because we're exhibiting on 20 November" is much more useful than "ASAP".

The final deadline isn't the only date that matters. A project may also need time for content, initial concepts, feedback, amends, approval, artwork and production.

Your designer can help work backwards from the date you actually need the finished item.

11. What About Budget?

Budget is worth discussing early if you have one in mind.

During an initial conversation, a designer may ask whether you have a budget in mind for the project. This helps establish whether what you're hoping to achieve and the available budget are likely to align.

If you do have a budget, sharing it can also help with prioritisation. You may have several things you'd like to achieve but not necessarily the budget to tackle everything at once. In that situation, your designer can help you look at what's most important, what needs to happen first and whether other elements could be phased.

If you don't know what your budget should be, that's fine too. The designer can establish the scope of the work and provide a proposal based on what's required.

If the proposal is more than you were expecting to spend, it's worth having a conversation about it. Once the designer understands the budget you're working with, you can look at the scope together, decide what's most important and see whether the work can be prioritised or approached differently.

12. What Doesn't Your Designer Need You to Decide?

You don't necessarily need to decide:

exactly what the layout should look like
which typeface should be used
where every photograph should go
the final format or number of pages
precisely how information should be structured
what the creative concept should be

There will be projects where some of these things are already determined, particularly when you're working within an established brand or template. Where they aren't, they're decisions your designer can help you make.

Some can also affect cost. The number of pages in a brochure, for example, can influence both design and print costs, so your designer can talk through the options and help you find an appropriate solution for the content, purpose and budget.

Giving a designer a very prescriptive visual brief can sometimes limit the options before they've had the opportunity to explore them. If you explain what you're trying to achieve, who you're trying to communicate with and any practical requirements or constraints, you're giving them the information they need to consider the best way to approach it.

13. A Good Brief Doesn't Have to Be a Long Document

A useful design brief isn't measured by how many pages it contains.

For a straightforward project, a conversation or a concise written summary may be enough. A more complex branding, packaging or multi-part project is likely to need considerably more detail.

What matters is that the designer understands what you're trying to achieve, who you're communicating with, what they need to know, how the finished design will be used and any practical requirements or constraints that need to be considered.

If you've covered those things, you already have the foundations of a useful brief.

14. You Don't Need to Work It All Out Before You Make Contact

A design brief doesn't need to be complete before the first conversation.

Part of a designer's job is to ask questions, identify any gaps and help turn what you know about your business and what you're trying to achieve into a clear brief.

You don't need to arrive with the design solution. Working that out together is part of the process.