The brief is written. Then comes the email with the attachments, and this is where a good brief quietly comes apart. A logo as a screenshot. A "brand guidelines" PDF that is a slide deck from 2019. A folder of photography nobody is allowed to use. Your designer opens each one, works out what it is, and sends back the email you were hoping to avoid: "Could you send the actual files?"
What to send is short. What to say about each thing is what saves the round trip. Here is the list, and the line for each.
Send the logo as vector, and say so
A logo exists for print and screen only as vector artwork: an SVG, an EPS, an AI or a PDF made from one. A PNG from the website is a picture of the logo, and it cannot be scaled, recoloured or printed at quality. If you are not sure what you have, say that, and say who made the logo, because your designer can ask them directly.
“Logo attached.”
“Logo attached as SVG and as the original AI file. Full colour and single colour versions. We also have a reverse for dark backgrounds; say if you need it.”
Say what the guidelines are and how old
Brand guidelines range from a sixty-page book to a slide with two colours on it. Both are useful, but your designer needs to know which one they are holding, and whether it is still followed. A guideline from a previous agency that nobody uses any more is a trap. A single page that is genuinely followed is gold.
“Brand guidelines attached.”
“Guidelines attached, from 2021. We still follow the colours and the typeface. Ignore the photography section; we stopped shooting that way. Typefaces are licensed for print and web, not for video.”
Which parts are alive, and what the licence covers. That last line saves a week on any motion job.
Send photography with its rights
Photography arrives in three states: shot for you and owned by you, licensed from a library for a particular use, or found on the internet. Say which. A designer cannot put a licensed image into a new brochure without knowing the licence covers it, and cannot put a found one anywhere. If you have nothing usable, say that too. It is a line in the estimate, and better in the brief than in week three.
“Some photos attached that we like.”
“Twelve product photos, shot for us in March, we own them. Two lifestyle shots licensed from a library for web only, not print. If you need lifestyle for the brochure, that is a shoot.”
Send the copy in the state it is in
If the words exist, send them as a document, not as a PDF of a layout. If they are a draft, say it is a draft and who is finishing it. If they do not exist, do not send a placeholder and hope; say who is writing them and when they will be final. Copy is the thing designers wait for most, and the wait is only a problem when nobody said it was coming.
“Copy attached (still being finalised).”
“Copy attached as a Word document. The home page and about page are final. The six service pages are drafts; Anna finishes them by 15 October. Design can start from the drafts.”
Give access instead of exports
For a website, the most useful attachment is not a file. It is access: to the current site's editor, to the analytics, to the domain. For a print job, it is the previous printer's contact. For a film, it is the footage in its original form, not a compressed version from a shared drive. Ask your designer what access they want before you start exporting things they will have to ask for again.
“Screenshots of the current site attached for reference.”
“You have editor access to the current Webflow site under your email, and read access to our analytics. The previous printer is Jesper at Nordisk Tryk; he has the dieline.”
When you do not know
You may not know whether the logo is vector, or what the photography licence says, or whether the guidelines are current. Send what you have and say what you are unsure about: "Not sure if this logo is vector. It came from the previous agency, Studio Vest; you are welcome to ask them." That costs you nothing and tells your designer exactly which phone call to make first. What costs a round is a confident attachment that turns out to be the wrong thing.
When you brief through HereBriefly, the brief asks what exists as a set of chips, and everything you do not tick is written into the document as something your designer will need to make or source. The attachments still come from you, but the list of what is missing does not have to.
