How to brief a design agency (with a template)

A good design brief explains the problem, not the solution: what the business needs to change, who the work is for, what is fixed, what success looks like, the budget range, the deadline and who makes the final call. It fits on two pages. Anything longer is usually hiding the fact that the problem hasn’t been agreed yet.

What goes into a brief depends on what you’re buying. A brand brief leans on positioning, audience and competitors. A product brief leans on users, the current flow and the technical constraints. A website brief leans on who the site has to convince and what they need to do next. The template below covers all three, and you can delete the lines that don’t apply.

1. What should a design brief include?

Every useful brief answers the same handful of questions. Write each answer in plain language, the way you would explain it to a new hire on their first day.

The problem, in one paragraph

Say what is wrong or what is changing. “Enterprise buyers think we’re a startup toy” is a problem. “We need a new logo” is a solution, and it closes off options before anyone has looked. If you can’t write the problem in a paragraph, that is useful information: it means the first piece of work is agreeing on it.

Who it is for

Name the people who will use the work and the people who decide whether to buy. For technical companies these are often different people: the engineer who evaluates the product, the executive who signs, the investor who reads the deck, the candidate deciding whether to join. Say which one matters most this time.

What is fixed and what is open

List the constraints honestly. The name is staying. The colour is already on every trade-show stand. The product is built on a particular framework. The launch is tied to a raise. Agencies work best when they know where the walls are, and worst when they find them halfway through.

What success looks like

Describe the change you expect to see, not the deliverable. Sales calls stop opening with an explanation of what you do. Sign-ups get past the second screen. The team can describe the company in one line. Where you already track a number that should move, include it.

2. What should you leave out of a brief?

• The design itself. Sketches, mood boards and “something like this” anchor the work before any research has happened, so share them separately and label them as references.
• Every opinion in the building. Collect them before you write, then put down the decision rather than the debate.
• A deliverables list copied from a previous project. Say what you need to achieve and let the agency propose what it takes.
• Jargon nobody outside the company uses. If your brief needs a glossary, so will your customers.
• A budget you don’t mean. More on that below.

3. Should you tell an agency your budget?

Yes. A budget is a constraint like any other, and hiding it wastes everyone’s time. Without one, agencies guess, and their proposals end up describing three different projects at three different prices, which makes them impossible to compare.

A range is fine. So is “we don’t know what this should cost, help us understand”. What doesn’t help is a number set low to see who blinks. You get a proposal designed to hit the number rather than the problem, and the gap shows up later as compromises nobody chose.

For reference, Refract projects start at A$15k and scale to A$100k+, depending on what you need. We fix the scope and agree the price before work starts, so a clear range in the brief lets us tell you early what it covers and what it doesn’t.

A brief that hides the budget gets a proposal that guesses it.

4. A design brief template you can copy

Copy this into a document, answer each line in a few sentences, and delete anything that doesn’t apply. Ten answers is enough for an agency to ask the right questions back.

Part one: the problem

1. About us: what the company does, in one line, and who it sells to.
2. The problem: what is wrong or changing, and why now.
3. The audience: who the work is for, and which of them matters most.
4. What exists: the brand, product, site and any research you already have, with links.
5. The alternatives: who buyers compare you with, and who they choose instead.

Part two: the practicalities

1. Constraints: what is fixed, including technical, legal and brand limits.
2. Success: the change you expect to see, and any measure you already track.
3. Budget: a range, or an honest note that you need guidance.
4. Timing: the date that matters, and what it is tied to.
5. People: the decision-maker, the day-to-day contact and who else must be consulted.

5. What happens after you send the brief?

A good agency should come back with questions, and some of them should be uncomfortable. If a proposal arrives without any, the agency has either understood your business perfectly from two pages or is planning to design to the brief as written. The second is more common.

Treat the brief as the start of the research rather than a substitute for it. At Refract, we don’t build on a brief. We build on research. Before designing anything, we pull apart what you already have: the button nobody presses, the promise the brand makes three times, the step where people give up. The brief tells us where to look. What your customers and your product show us tells us what to do.

So expect the brief to change. Research often moves the problem. A team asking for a new identity can discover the real issue is that nobody can say what makes them different in one line, which is a positioning problem first and a design problem second. A brief that survives contact with research unchanged was either very good or not tested hard enough.

6. How to brief Refract

Refract is a creative lab for hire, working between Sydney and New York, with companies from pre-seed to the S&P 100. We do the product, the brand and the growth, start to finish, as one team: the people who design it are the people who build it.

You don’t need a polished brief to start. Send us the problem paragraph, the budget range and the date that matters through the contact page, and we’ll suggest where to begin. Usually that is one of three entry points. A positioning sprint, for a team that can’t say what makes them different in one line. A product sprint, for one problem that needs a working prototype in front of real users. A growth audit, for when you need to know how people find you, what they read when they land and where they leave.

Each one ends with a plan you own, whether or not we do the rest. Our founders hold equity in a set of ventures and our team does the work on them. If something doesn’t hold up in our own businesses, we won’t sell it to you.

7. Questions

How long should a design brief be?

One to two pages is enough for most projects. If it runs longer, the problem usually hasn’t been agreed internally, and the brief is carrying the debate instead of the decision.

Should a design brief include visual references?

Share references separately and label them as references, not requirements. Placed inside the brief, they tend to fix the answer before anyone has researched the problem.

What if we don’t know our budget yet?

Say so, and ask the agency to explain what different levels of investment would get you. An honest “we need guidance” is more useful to an agency than an invented number.

Who should write the design brief?

The person who will make the final decision, or someone who can speak for them. A brief written by committee reads like one, and the agency can’t tell which line to trust.

Should we send the same brief to several agencies?

Yes, if you want proposals you can compare. Include the budget range so every agency is pricing the same scope, then judge them on the questions they ask as much as on the price.

What is the difference between a brief and a scope of work?

The brief is yours: it describes the problem, the audience and the constraints. The scope of work is the agency’s answer: what it will do, deliver and charge to solve that problem.