How to brief a designer so the first version is the right one

A good design brief answers three questions: what is this for, what does it say, and what should it feel like. Write those down before anything else and most of the back-and-forth disappears. The rest of this article is how to write each one, and the template I give every client.

I work one request at a time and each one comes back in 48 hours, so a brief that misses something costs a full round. That is why I am strict about it.

The three things every brief needs

1. The goal, and what “great” looks like. Not “a new landing page” but “a landing page for the launch on the 12th, where a founder who has never heard of us understands what we do in ten seconds and books a demo.” A goal written as a behaviour (books a demo, picks a plan without hesitating) gives the designer something to test the work against. A goal written as a taste (“make it modern”) gives them nothing.

2. The copy. The real words, or at least a structured draft. Design is built around words: the length of a headline decides the size of the type, the number of benefits decides the layout. A page designed around lorem ipsum gets redesigned the day the real text arrives. A rough draft is fine. An empty section is not.

3. References, with a reason for each. Two or three links or screenshots, and one line on why. “linear.app, for how confident and fluff-free it is” is a reference. A link alone is a guess the designer has to make for you.

Nice to have

• Assets: logo, photos, brand files. If you need an image sourced or made, describe it.
• Brand: colours, fonts and tone, if you have them.
• Format: where it lives (a Framer page, an app screen, a PDF) and any sizes.

Leave these out and a good designer will ask or propose. Leave out the first three and they can only guess.

A template you can copy

There are three filled-in briefs from real projects in my operating system: a brand identity, a website page and an iOS app flow.

The mistakes that cost a week

• No copy. The single biggest cause of a second round. If you don’t have the words yet, draft them with an AI assistant first, then edit them in your own voice. I keep a prompt for that.
• Three directions instead of one. Asking for “a few options” spreads the work thin. Ask for one strong direction and react to it.
• Adding to a brief once work has started. A new idea mid-request is a new request. Put it in the queue and it gets full attention.
• Feedback as a drip. One message with one numbered list closes a round. Notes sent through the day restart the work each time. More on that in how to give feedback.

Why this works

A clear brief turns design decisions into layout decisions. When the goal, the words and the references are on the table, the designer stops guessing what you want and spends the time making it good. In practice, that is the difference between one round of revisions and three.

Keep reading

• Design subscription vs agency vs freelancer: which one a founder should pick