Designing a logo for a brand is a massive undertaking that involves many different aspects, steps, and research. That’s why a logo design brief is a godsend for designers.

As the client, providing a detailed logo design brief is the best thing you can do to help designers understand what you want to achieve with your new logo. It will not only make their job easier but also ensure the logo design comes out just the way you expect it to be.

So, before you get in touch with a design agency or contact freelancers, create an effective logo design brief to get all the information in order. Don’t worry, creating a design brief is quite simple. Here’s how it’s done.

What is a Logo Design Brief?

(Starbucks style guide)

A design brief is a document the client provides to the designers with instructions and information about a design project. Whether it’s for designing a brand identity, brochure, logo, or even an ad campaign, a design brief plays an important role in helping the designers understand the client’s perspective of the project.

When it comes to creating a logo design brief, your goal is to provide as much information as possible to explain what the logo should look like. It usually includes everything from the company history to the brand’s message, style guide, and the budget for the project.

You can make the design brief as detailed as you like. Or you can keep it simple and let the designers take control of the project. It could be a 20-page document or a 10-slide PowerPoint presentation. It will depend on how you approach the project.

Key Elements of a Logo Design Brief

It doesn’t matter how big the logo design brief is, as long as you make sure to hit all these key points in the document.

1. Brand Overview

Start the logo design brief by introducing your business and the brand. This section should cover the history of the company, its products, its mission, values, and everything in between.

This will help the designers understand where the company is headed, market trends, and create a logo that showcases the core values of the brand.

2. Objectives and Goals

What do you plan to achieve with the new logo design? Are you trying to establish a new look for your company? Are you trying to refresh the look of the brand? Or are you trying to target a new audience?

Having clear goals and objectives is important to create an understanding of what the logo should look like. And it will go a long way to help the designers come up with the right ideas for the logo.

3. Target Audience and Competitors

Understanding the target audience is crucial for creating the perfect logo design. Designing a logo for a brand that makes products for teenagers is different from designing a logo for a multinational corporation.

Provide designers with a detailed and clear image of what your target audience consists of. Help them realize how to add the right elements that not only stay consistent with your brand’s message but are also culturally appropriate.

4. Style Guide

If your brand has a style guide, make sure to include it with your logo design brief. The style guide contains all the visual details of your brand, like the brand colors, font, shapes, icons, and other elements you use across your brand designs.

The style guide allows designers to create a logo that’s consistent with all the other visual elements of your brand, especially when you already have a well-established image to maintain.

5. Budget and Timeline

If you have a budget for the logo design project, make sure to outline it in the brief. In most cases, you will have to go back and forth to negotiate the budget with the designers. So make sure to add some wiggle room here.

Setting a clear deadline is also important, especially if you plan to launch your business or rebrand on a schedule. Mention that in the logo design brief and add some space for the reviews too.

How to Write an Effective Logo Design Brief

(Hulu brand guidelines)

Divide the document into 5 sections (or more if necessary) to cover all the key points we discussed earlier. You can make it a one-page document or a multi-page brochure, it depends on how detailed you want the brief to be.

Provide visuals and examples if necessary but it’s best to leave that part to the designers.

When writing the logo design brief, you should try to look at the project from the designer’s perspective. While it’s important to include specifics, you should also leave room for the designer’s creative ideas.

You can also use a logo design brief generator to find inspiration. These generators are used to help designers come up with challenges for practice. But, you can use them to come up with an outline to build upon.

Logo Design Brief Templates and Examples

These are a few great design brief templates you can use as examples to see how to craft a great-looking logo design brief document. You can download these templates to use in your project as well.

One Page Logo Design Brief Template

This template is perfect for creating a simple, one-page logo design brief for your project. It has a well-organized design with sections to cover all important parts of the brief. You can easily customize it using Adobe Illustrator.

Design Brief Document Template

This design brief template includes 4 different page designs, each featuring beautifully designed layouts for outlining all your design brief details in one place. It even has a page for a brand style guide. It comes in InDesign format.

Logo Design Project Brief Template

You can customize this template using both MS Word and Adobe InDesign. It features two page layouts where you can detail your logo design brief. The template is suitable for both clients and freelancers as well.

Professional Design Brief Template

If you want to create a more detailed design brief for your project, this template is perfect for the job. It includes 8 different pages with plenty of space to cover all aspects of your brand and the logo design requirements. It’s available in InDesign and Photoshop PSD formats.

Basic Logo Design Brief Template

Another simple one-page logo design brief template with a multipurpose design. It has a very basic form-like layout that you can easily fill in to create your logo design brief. The template can be customized using Adobe InDesign.

Check out our best project proposal templates collection to find more templates and inspiration.

In Conclusion

In some cases, the client may ask the designer to create the logo design brief for them. Many small businesses and new companies often don’t have a deeper understanding of what they want to achieve with a logo design. So it’s okay to ask the designer to provide a brief explaining what the project will involve.

If you’re a designer working on a design brief, the information in this guide is completely transferable to your perspective too. Follow our outline and use a template to put together a quick design brief for your logo design project. Even the biggest corporate brands do it that way.