How to Write a Logo Design Brief (Free Template)

What should a logo design brief include?

A logo design brief should include the business, the audience, the difference, the feeling, the uses, the constraints and the decision process. Those seven parts give a designer everything needed to judge concepts against something other than taste. Leave one out and the designer fills the gap with guesses.

Most templates online are questionnaires: favorite colors, preferred fonts, logos you like. Those questions aren't useless, but they ask for answers before the thinking is done. We write briefs the way a copywriter would, starting with what the company has to say and only then how it should look. For where the brief sits in the overall process, see our logo design guide for startups.

1. The business in one sentence. What you do, for whom, and the result they get.
2. The audience. Who buys, who uses, and who else sees the logo (investors, hires, partners).
3. The difference. Why customers pick you over the alternatives, in their words if possible.
4. The feeling. Three words, each backed by a reason.
5. The uses. Every place the logo will appear, smallest first.
6. The constraints. Name, colors or assets to keep, things to avoid, deadlines, files needed.
7. The decision. Who approves, how feedback will be given and the budget.

What does a good logo brief template look like?

A good logo brief template asks each question in a way that forces a specific answer. The table below shows the questions we use, a weak answer we often see and a strong one. Copy the questions into a doc and answer them in plain sentences.

The strong answers are longer, but they're the ones a designer can act on. "Calm, because finance is stressful" points toward restraint, steady shapes and fewer colors. "Modern" points toward whatever the designer thinks modern means this year.

How do you write the positioning section of a logo brief?

Write the positioning section as if you were explaining the company to a smart stranger at a dinner table. Say what you do, who for, what you replace and why you're better, without jargon. If you can't do that in four sentences, the logo isn't the first problem to solve.

A useful structure, borrowed from positioning frameworks like April Dunford's: the alternative customers would use without you, the capability only you have, the value that capability creates, and the customers who care most about that value. Each one shapes the logo. A company replacing spreadsheets for controllers needs to look more trustworthy than the spreadsheet and less heavy than the enterprise suite. If your positioning still feels loose, our explainer on what branding is covers why it has to come before the visuals.

How do you describe logo style without vague adjectives?

Describe style through comparisons and exclusions instead of adjectives. Name brands, in any industry, whose feel is close to what you want, and say exactly what you like about each. Then list what you don't want to look like. Exclusions are often more useful than inspirations, because they rule out whole directions.

• Like: "Stripe's restraint in color" or "the confident weight of a particular wordmark", always with the reason.
• Unlike: the common look in your category you want to avoid, such as AI sparkles or fintech shields.
• Type preference: a wordmark, a symbol with a name, or open to both. Our guide to wordmark vs logomark vs combination mark helps you decide.
• Must keep: colors, letterforms or a symbol customers already know, if this is a redesign.
• Open questions: things you genuinely don't know yet, so the designer can explore them.

If you're redesigning, attach the current logo and say which parts customers recognize. Our guide to logo redesign explains how to audit those equities before you brief.

What uses and deliverables belong in a logo design brief?

List every place the logo will appear and the files you'll need at the end, so the designer designs for them from the start. Start with the smallest uses, because they're the hardest: favicon, app icon, social avatar, product sidebar. A mark designed only for a website header often fails all of those.

1. 1

   List digital uses

   Website nav, favicon, app icon, product UI, email signatures, social avatars and banners, slide templates.

2. 2

   List physical uses

   Business cards, swag, signage, packaging, event banners. Note any that print in one color.

3. 3

   List partner uses

   Integration directories, customer logo walls and press, where you don't control the background.

4. 4

   Specify the versions

   Primary lockup, stacked lockup, symbol only, reversed versions and one-color versions.

5. 5

   Specify the files

   Vector source files, SVG and PNG exports, and any print formats your vendors ask for. Ask who owns the source files.

Who should approve the logo brief?

One person should own the brief and the final decision, usually the CEO at an early-stage startup. Others can give input before the brief is finished, but once it's signed off, concepts get judged against the brief, not against each person's taste. That one rule prevents most of the endless revision loops we see.

Agree on the feedback process in the brief too: how many rounds, who gives input and how disagreements get settled. Our article on the logo design process explains how feedback rounds usually work, and how long logo design takes shows how approvals affect the schedule. If the logo is part of a wider identity, the brand design brief template covers color, type and voice as well.