How to brief a creative agency (and get better work back)

The brief is the cheapest part of any creative project and the one that decides most of the outcome. A vague brief produces work that is technically fine and somehow wrong, followed by rounds of revisions that cost both sides time and goodwill. A clear brief does not guarantee great work, but it removes the most common reason for bad work: the agency solving a different problem from the one you have.

Here is what to put in a brief, what to leave out, and a template at the end you can copy.

What a brief is for

A brief is not a description of the finished design. It is a description of the problem, the people, and the limits. Its job is to give the agency enough context to make good decisions without you in the room.

If your brief says “modern, clean, premium logo in blue”, you have written a solution. If it says “we are moving from selling to distributors to selling directly to hospitals, and our current brand looks like a trading company”, you have written a problem. The second one gets better work.

The sections that matter

Background

Who you are, what you sell, who buys it, and what has changed. Something has always changed, or you would not be commissioning work. A new market, a new product, a merger, a competitor, a new leadership team, a launch date. Name it.

The objective

One or two sentences on what this work needs to achieve. Be concrete. “Launch the new clinic in Jeddah and fill appointment slots in the first three months” is an objective. “Raise awareness” is a direction, and an agency cannot design against it.

The audience

Describe the people you need to reach as specifically as you can: who they are, what they currently think of you (if anything), what they care about, and where they will see the work. If there are several audiences, rank them. Work that tries to speak equally to everyone tends to speak clearly to no one.

What you need delivered

List the actual deliverables: logo and identity, website pages, social templates, a company profile, a campaign film, packaging. Include formats and languages. If you need Arabic and English, say so up front, because bilingual work changes the design approach from the first sketch, not at the end.

What must stay

Every business has fixed points. A logo that the board will not change, a colour that is on every truck, a product name that is registered, brand guidelines from a parent company. Tell the agency early. Discovering a fixed point after the first presentation wastes a round.

Budget

This is the section clients most often leave blank, and it is the one that most affects the result. Agencies are not trying to spend whatever you have. They are trying to work out what kind of solution fits. The same request (“we need a website”) can be a two-week template job or a three-month custom build, and both are legitimate answers at different budgets.

If you share a range, you get a proposal that fits it. If you share nothing, you get a guess.

A range is fine. If you genuinely do not know, say what you are comparing it against, or ask the agency to propose two or three options at different levels.

Timeline

Give the real deadline and the reason for it: a launch event, a tender submission, a trade show, the start of Ramadan campaigns. Then be honest about your side of the timeline. How quickly can you give feedback? Who needs to approve, and are they available? Many projects run late because approvals take longer than the work.

Success criteria

How will you decide whether the work is good? Write it down before you see anything. For example:

• The new identity works in Arabic and English at small sizes on a phone.
• The website lets a hospital buyer find our product specifications in under three clicks.
• The profile has everything procurement teams ask for in vendor registration.

Agreed criteria make feedback faster and less personal. “It doesn’t meet the second criterion” is easier to act on than “I don’t like it”.

Who decides

Name the person who gives feedback and the person who gives final approval. If they are not the same person, make sure the decision maker sees the brief before the agency starts, not after the first presentation.

What to leave out

• Design instructions disguised as requirements. Share references you like, but say why you like them.
• Every opinion in the company. Gather input before the brief, then write one clear version.
• Hidden tests. If you are comparing agencies, say so. Good agencies will still respond, and you will get more honest proposals.

Brief template

Copy this into a document and fill it in. Short answers are fine. Gaps are useful too: they show the agency what to ask about.

1. Company and context. Who we are, what we sell, who buys it, what has changed.
2. Objective. What this work must achieve, in one or two sentences.
3. Audience. Primary and secondary audiences, what they think of us now, where they will see the work.
4. Deliverables. List, with formats and languages (Arabic, English, both).
5. Fixed points. What cannot change: logo, colours, names, guidelines.
6. References. Work we like or dislike, and why.
7. Competitors. Who we are compared with.
8. Budget. A range, or what we are comparing it against.
9. Timeline. Real deadline and why; our feedback and approval speed.
10. Success criteria. Three to five statements we will judge the work against.
11. People. Day-to-day contact, final decision maker.

What happens next

A good agency will read your brief and come back with questions. That is a good sign, not a delay. The questions usually reveal the assumptions that would otherwise have surfaced at the first presentation.

When you are ready, you can send your brief through our start a project form. It asks for the same things as the template above, and we reply with questions or a proposal. If you want to see how we approach this kind of work first, have a look at our work or our services.