A brief is the shortest path between the problem you have and the work you want. Most briefs are too long, too vague, or too aspirational. They cost the agency hours of re-briefing and cost the client a project that does not look like the thing they actually needed. This is a practical guide to writing the brief that gets you the brand you wanted.
Keep it short
The best branding briefs I have ever received fit on two to four pages. They were written by the founder or the CEO in a long email, sometimes over a weekend. Every paragraph had a specific thing in it. No section called "culture." No mood board. No forty-slide deck. If your brief is more than six pages, most of what you are writing is decoration, not direction.
Sections that belong in a branding brief
Who we are, in one paragraph. The short version of the business. What you do, who you do it for, why you started it. One paragraph.
What we are asking for. Be specific. "A brand refresh" is too vague. "A new primary logomark, a typography system, and a new marketing website, plus a brand guidelines document" is specific. If you do not know yet, say so: "We think we need an identity system. We would like the agency to help us scope what that actually includes." Honesty beats precision here.
The problem we are trying to solve. Not the solution. The problem. "Our current logo was designed when we were a wedding venue, and we are now a full resort." "We merged two companies and the brand is now a mess." "We are going from developer-owned to member-equity and the brand has to signal that." State the problem, not the logo you think might fix it.
Who this brand is for. Audiences. Real people, not "high-net-worth individuals." A forty-five-year-old father buying a residence near the mountain course where he honeymooned. A member of a member committee who has seen three bad rebrands and is tired. A restaurant guest driving two hours on a Friday for dinner. The more specific, the better.
Who the competition is. Name three to five real names. Not "the category." Specific brands with specific traits you admire or want to differentiate from. Say which ones you want to stand next to and which ones you want to step away from.
Constraints. Timeline, budget range, decision-making structure, technical constraints (e.g., "the mark has to engrave on metal," "we are on HubSpot and cannot migrate"), and the non-negotiables. An agency needs to know what it has to work around, not find out in week six.
Success, defined. A sentence or two on what "good" looks like twelve months after launch. Not a metric from a marketing dashboard — a real-world test. "The members start asking for the new mark on their apparel." "The sales team can send the buyer book without rewriting it." "A first-time guest recognizes the brand from the monument to the menu."
What to ignore. If there is something the agency should not do, say so. "Do not touch the restaurant sub-brand." "The website is out of scope." "We do not want a rebrand; we want a refresh." Clarity on the negative is as valuable as clarity on the positive.
Sections that usually do not belong
A mood board of other brands you like, unless you are clear that it is a reference and not a target. A mood board sent without commentary often becomes what the agency designs toward. That is rarely what the client actually wants.
A list of every touchpoint you can think of. The agency will build the list. Your job is the why, not the what.
A long section on "values." Most brand values read as a list of words any competitor could also claim. If values belong in the brief at all, put them in one short paragraph and only the ones that would genuinely rule out a design direction.
What the agency will ask back
Expect a well-run agency to come back with questions before it writes a proposal. At ESQUE, we typically ask: what is your role in the decision and who else has veto; what has been tried before and why did it not work; what does "done" look like; who has to live with the work after we hand it off. If the agency does not ask these, either the brief was exceptional or the agency is going to misunderstand the job.
A test that usually works
Before you send the brief, read it out loud. If a paragraph sounds like something any brand in your category could have written, cut it or rewrite it until it only applies to you. The brief is the first sentence of your brand. Make it specific.
If you are starting a project
Our brand strategy and brand identity pages cover scope and engagement. For related reading, see brand strategy vs. brand identity and what a brand guidelines document should include.