Describe the product relationship
Explain what the product does, who chooses it, what promise it makes, and how it relates to the company brand. Provide competitors and adjacent categories as context, not as a collage to imitate.
Name the perceptions to support and the clichés to avoid in plain language.
List real usage conditions
Prioritize the places the mark must work: application header, mobile icon, browser tab, documentation, marketplace listing, packaging, video, or print. Include size, color, accessibility, embroidery, and motion constraints only when they are real.
A logo optimized for a launch slide can fail in the interface where customers see it daily.
- Primary surfaces
- Minimum size
- Required lockups
- Backgrounds
- Production methods
- Localization
Define how decisions will be made
Identify the decision owner, reviewers, legal check, timeline, and criteria. Feedback should connect to the brief rather than prescribe arbitrary drawing changes.
Ask the designer to present rationale and failure testing, not dozens of unrelated options.
Give the brief to someone outside the project and ask them to identify the audience, required surfaces, non-negotiable constraints, and decision owner.