Logo brief template

A logo is a file set and a rulebook, not a picture. The questions an identity designer will ask, and where this site does and does not help.

Pick a brief to startAbout 90 seconds. No account.

A logo brief is the hardest brief to write well, because a logo is the one deliverable where the client's taste and the designer's craft collide most directly, and because a logo is almost never just a logo. It is a mark, a wordmark, a lock-up, a set of colour versions, a set of minimum sizes, and a rulebook for where it can and cannot go. A brief that asks for "a logo" and means all of that has under-briefed by a factor of ten.

What the logo has to do

A logo has a job before it has a look. It has to work at favicon size and on the side of a building. It has to survive one colour on a kraft bag and full colour on a screen. It has to sit next to partner marks without losing. The brief should list the places the logo will actually appear, because that list, more than any adjective, decides what kind of mark is possible.

What exists

Is this a new mark, a refinement of an existing one, or a wordmark for a name that is already fixed? Is there a colour palette already in use? A typeface already licensed? A brand the logo has to sit beside? A new logo for a company with twenty years of signage is a different job from a new logo for a company that does not exist yet.

Direction by recognition

Nobody can describe the logo they want. Everybody can recognise the ones they like and the ones they would never accept. Five marks you admire and two you would not want, with a reason attached to each, tell a designer more than a page of adjectives, and the contradictions between them are the most useful part.

Deliverables

A finished logo is a file set: vector masters, colour and single-colour versions, positive and reverse, a favicon, minimum sizes, clear space, and usually a short guide to using them. Say which of these you need. A logo without the guide is a logo that will be misused within a month.

Approvals

Logos attract opinions. The number of people who must approve, and what happens when they disagree, will decide how many rounds this takes more surely than anything in the design.

Where this site fits

HereBriefly does not yet have a logo or identity brief. The print and packaging brief covers applying an existing identity to a piece of work, which is the job that follows a logo project rather than the one that precedes it. If what you need is a new mark, the notes above are the questions a good identity designer will ask you; write your answers down before the first call, and start the brief below only when the identity exists and needs putting to work.

The questions in the print and packaging brief, and what goes wrong without them

  1. Scope
    What are you making?
    Packaging, editorial and signage share almost nothing. Naming which removes most of the tree.
  2. Scope
    What kind of packaging?only when it applies
    The container decides whether a dieline is needed, whether the artwork wraps, and whether a structural supplier must be involved before design starts. A missing dieline is the most common packaging delay there is.
  3. Scope
    Format and extentonly when it applies
    Page count decides the binding, and a count not divisible by four is a hard print constraint briefers routinely break.
  4. Craft
    How many are being made?
    Quantity decides the print method, and the print method decides whether spot colours and finishes make economic sense. The briefer almost never knows this and the printer always assumes it.
  5. Craft
    Finishes and colour
    Each finish is a separate vector file and an extra proof. Foil and emboss carry tooling costs that make short runs disproportionately expensive.
  6. Craft
    Regulatory content, and who prints itonly when it applies
    Missing regulatory content is the second most common cause of packaging reprints, after dielines. A named printer turns bleed, type sizes and colour profile from assumptions into facts.
  7. Craft
    Who is printing it?only when it applies
    A named printer turns bleed, minimum type size and colour profile from assumptions into facts.
  8. Look
    Pick what you like
    People are unreliable at describing taste and reliable at recognising it. Five picks say more than a paragraph of adjectives.
  9. Look
    Your picks pull two ways. Which is closer?only when it applies
    When the references contradict each other, the designer has to pick a side. Better that you do.
  10. Look
    What already exists?
    Raster logos cannot be printed at packaging quality, and this is discovered painfully late almost every time.
  11. Look
    Who is this for, and where will they see it?
    Where it is seen changes the design more than who buys it. Online product photography is almost never mentioned and changes everything.
  12. Practicalities
    Budget range
    A band is a signal about which kind of job is on the table, not a commitment. Without one the designer guesses.
  13. Practicalities
    Key date
    A date only means something next to the minimum production window. If they do not fit, better to know now.
  14. Practicalities
    Who signs it off?
    The number of approvers, with a named tiebreak, predicts revision rounds better than anything else in the brief.
  15. Practicalities
    The one thing that must not be got wrong
    Every project has one. It is rarely written down because it feels obvious to the person who knows it.
Answer them by tapping

Related