How to write a brief that gets results

These questions are harder to answer than 'what logo do you want' — which is precisely why they are useful. If you can answer them clearly, you have a brief. If you cannot, you are not ready to commission work yet.

Show us what you are competing against. Not to copy it — to understand the visual territory you are operating in and identify where you can differentiate. 'Our competitors look like this' is more useful than 'we want something clean and modern,' which describes nothing, because everyone wants something clean and modern.

Briefs that include tight timelines with no explanation of why put the project under artificial pressure from the start. If there is a genuine deadline — a product launch, an event, a regulatory submission — say so. If the timeline is an assumption rather than a constraint, question it before the project begins. Urgency without necessity costs quality.

The best briefs we receive are two pages long. Business context, audience, definition of success, and what has not worked previously. They do not specify typefaces, reference images, or colour preferences — because that is our work, and specifying it in the brief ensures the brief is describing a solution rather than a problem.