A design brief example earns its keep once it is filled in, not blank. A template tells you the eight sections; an example shows what actually goes in each one, down to the file dimensions and the rejected reference. Most teams already have the blank version and still stall on the same two sections: the brand, which gets copied from an old PDF or left as "keep it on-brand," and the constraints, which turn into adjectives instead of numbers.
Below are two filled-in design brief examples, a social campaign and a pitch deck, plus the weak and strong version of the sections that usually go vague. If you need the blank sections first, start with the design brief template.
Key Takeaways
- A filled-in design brief example replaces adjectives with numbers: a contrast ratio, a budget, a file dimension, an approver's name.
- The brand section of a brief should link to a current source rather than restate a hex value, since pasted values go stale.
- A reference section with one rejected example and one line on why saves a round of revisions no adjective would have caught.
- The same brief that works for a new designer works as a prompt for Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor, as long as it drops anything that assumes shared context.
- TrueKeep serves the brand half of a brief through an MCP connection, so the project half is the only part a maker has to write.
Design brief example: a social campaign
This is the brief for a seasonal sale, filled in rather than left as brackets.
# Design brief: spring sale social campaign
Owner: marketing lead Ships: March 14
Approver: creative director Rounds: 2
## The ask
Four Instagram carousel posts and one 15-second Reel announcing the spring
sale (20 percent off), live by March 14.
## The problem
Now: last sale's posts used three different discount badges, none of them
approved, and the brand team found out after they went live.
After: every discount graphic uses the one badge in the brand kit, and the
creative team can pull it without asking.
## Audience
Existing email subscribers, scrolling Instagram on a phone, who tap through
to the sale page.
## Deliverables
- 4 carousel images, 1080x1350, PNG
- 1 Reel, 1080x1920, 15 seconds, source file included
## Brand
Follows: the brand portal, assets section
Bends here: none, this is a standard promotion
## Constraints
Budget: $600 for a freelance illustrator
Technical: Instagram's 30MB video limit
Accessibility: captions burned into the Reel, body text at 4.5:1 contrast
Do not change: the sale badge shape, it is trademarked
## Success
Reel completion rate above last quarter's average; carousel saves above 50.
## Reference
Like this: last August's carousel, one offer, no clutter
Not this: last March's Reel, three transitions in 15 seconds, too busy to
read the offer
"Budget: $600" settles an argument before it starts. "Do not change: the sale badge shape" tells the designer exactly where the edge of their judgment is. The accessibility line names the WCAG 2.2 contrast minimum of 4.5:1 rather than a guess. Nothing in this brief describes a feeling, which is why nobody has to argue about one later.
Design brief example: a pitch deck
A pitch deck brief carries less about files and more about what has to land in the room. The ask, audience, and constraints sections stay short:
## The ask
A 12-slide investor deck for the Series A pitch, ready for a rehearsal by
Friday.
## Audience
Five investors, in a conference room, deciding whether to ask for a
follow-up meeting.
## Constraints
Technical: must present cleanly on a 16:9 projector with no internet
Do not change: the three customer logos on slide 4, already cleared by legal
## Success
At least three of the five investors ask a question about the roadmap
slide, not about the logo or the color.
The brand section matters more here than in the social post above. Twelve slides have to hold one voice, not just one graphic, so a single rule like "logo alone on slide one, never repeated" carries further than it would on a single Instagram post.
The line between a usable example and a vague one
A vague brief and a usable one usually differ in exactly one place: whether the hard call got made on the page or got left for the feedback round, when changing it costs more. The Design Council's Double Diamond treats defining a problem as a separate stage from developing its answer, and a brief that blurs the two pushes the hard thinking into revisions instead of onto the page.
A line that invites an argument:
Make the deck feel more credible to investors.
A line that settles one:
The deck opens with the logo alone for three seconds before any copy appears. Every slide keeps at least 40 percent of its surface empty. Body copy never drops below 24 point.
Writing the second version takes longer, because the decision gets made on the page instead of in a meeting. That cost is real. It is still smaller than the cost of making the same decision three rounds into feedback, after the deck has already been redrawn twice.
The brand section, and where it should come from
A brand section that works reads like this, three lines, nothing more:
Follows: the brand guide, voice and color sections
Avoid: "revolutionary," "game-changing," and more than one exclamation
mark per headline
Primary color: #1B3A5C, never shown tinted below 80 percent
Open a handful of your own past briefs and the brand section barely changes between them, just the date pasted in at the top. That is also the part that drifts out of date fastest. A color gets updated, and the brief written in February still points at the version it replaced.
TrueKeep keeps that half current by design: the reasoning behind a brand, written into the portal's guide and assets sections. Colors render as swatches and logos at presentation quality, so a designer working from your brief copies the value instead of asking someone for it. The project half, the ask, the deliverables, the constraints, stays the part only a person can write.
Using a design brief example as a prompt
These two examples work as a prompt as well as a document. Paste the social campaign brief above into Claude or ChatGPT and ask for three carousel headline options, and the model has the audience, the deliverables, and the one line it cannot cross. What it does not have is the brand: the exact color, the banned words, the logo file.
That half does not have to be typed in each time. Connect a portal to Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor once through an MCP connection, built on the Model Context Protocol, and a downloadable brand kit skill carries the same rules into Claude directly. The guide to connecting your AI tools covers the setup, and a final pass checks the output against the brand before it ships. The brief in the prompt then holds only what is specific to the project, the same way it would for a new designer.
FAQ
What is a design brief example? A design brief example is a filled-in version of the standard eight sections (the ask, the problem, the audience, the deliverables, the brand, the constraints, success, and approval), with real numbers, dates, and names in place of brackets.
How is an example different from a design brief template? A template gives the blank sections to fill in. An example shows what a finished one reads like, which settles the harder question: how specific is specific enough.
What should the brand section of a brief include? A link to the current guidelines, plus anything that bends for this one project. Hex values and banned words belong in the source it links to, not retyped into every brief.
Can I use one of these examples as a prompt for an AI tool? Yes. Paste the project half (the ask, audience, deliverables, constraints) into Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor as written. Connect the brand half once through an MCP connection instead of typing it in each time.
How specific should the constraints section be? Specific enough to check. "Budget: $600" and "contrast ratio: 4.5:1" can be verified. "Keep it affordable" and "make it accessible" cannot.
Start from one of these, then swap in your own numbers
A good design brief example replaces adjectives with a budget, a date, a file dimension, and a named approver. Keep the structure from the two briefs above: the ask, the problem, the audience, the deliverables, the brand, the constraints, success, and approval. Swap in your own numbers before you send it, since the specifics are the part that does not transfer from someone else's project.
The brand section is the one part most teams keep retyping instead of linking. Give it one current source, in a portal their AI tools can read too, and get started with TrueKeep.