Most logo projects that go wrong don’t go wrong at the design stage. They go wrong at the brief. The designer is told “something modern and clean, maybe blue,” produces exactly that, and everyone is disappointed without being able to say why. A clear logo brief is what stops that happening.
A good logo brief doesn’t tell the designer what to draw. It tells them what the logo needs to achieve, where it will be used and who it’s for. That gives them room to be creative and gives you a fair way to judge the results.
Here’s how to write a logo brief, section by section.
The context the designer needs
1. The business in plain English
Start with a short, honest description of the business: what you do, who for, how long you’ve been going and roughly how big you are. Include your one-sentence description if you have one. Avoid marketing language. The designer needs facts, not a brochure.
2. Why you need a logo now
Explain the trigger. New business? Outgrown the old one? Merging two brands? Moving upmarket? The reason shapes the whole approach. A new start-up and a 30-year-old firm refreshing its look need very different things.
If you’re replacing an existing logo, say what’s wrong with it and what, if anything, is worth keeping. Customers may recognise a colour or symbol even if you’re tired of it.
3. Audience and competitors
Describe your main customers and what they care about when choosing a supplier. Then list three to five competitors, with links. Say what you think of their branding. The point isn’t to copy anyone. It’s to show the designer where you need to stand apart.
4. Personality, not style
Give three to five words for how the brand should feel, and ideally a few it definitely shouldn’t. “Trustworthy, practical, warm, not corporate, not cutesy” is far more useful than “modern and clean,” which describes almost every logo made in the last decade.
If you have references you like, include them, but explain why you like each one. “I like how confident this feels” helps. A folder of screenshots with no comment doesn’t.
The practical constraints
5. Where the logo will live
This is the section people forget, and it matters more than almost anything else. List every place the logo will appear, especially the difficult ones:
- Website header and browser tab icon (tiny)
- Social media profile pictures (usually cropped to a circle)
- Vehicle livery, signage and shopfronts (large, seen at a distance)
- Embroidered workwear (fine detail disappears)
- Single-colour uses like stamps, engraving or fax-style documents
- Packaging, labels or products
- Dark and light backgrounds
A logo that looks lovely on a laptop but turns to mush on an embroidered polo shirt isn’t a good logo for a trades business.
Tell the designer where the logo has to work, not what it should look like. The practical constraints produce better ideas than a list of styles.
6. Practical requirements
- Any wording that must appear: full name, shortened name, strapline
- Whether you need a symbol, a wordmark or both
- Existing colours or fonts you must keep
- Deadlines, especially fixed ones like a launch or a signage install
- Budget, or at least a range. It helps the designer suggest a sensible scope.
- Who makes the final decision. Name them.
7. What you expect to receive
State up front what the project should deliver: file formats, colour versions, layout variations and ownership of the rights. We cover this in detail in a separate article, but at minimum you want vector master files, versions for print and screen, and written confirmation that copyright is transferred to you once paid.
Logo brief mistakes to avoid
- Designing it yourself in the brief. “A tree with a house inside it, in green” boxes the designer in before they start.
- Too many decision-makers. Logos by committee end up as the least objectionable option, not the best one. Agree who decides, and who is only consulted.
- Asking for dozens of concepts. More options usually means less thought in each. Two or three well-developed routes are easier to judge.
- Judging on personal taste. Go back to the brief every time. “Does this do the job we described?” is the right question, not “do I like purple?”
Ready to brief someone?
Keep the whole logo brief to two or three pages. If it’s much longer, the important points will get lost. If you’d like help pulling it together, our logo design process starts with a structured briefing session so nothing important gets missed, and it can grow into a full brand identity if you need more than a mark.
