What should a branding brief include?

A branding brief should cover the business in a few lines, one real customer, what the brand must never sound like, the surfaces it needs at launch, the languages, what you already own, dates and decision makers, and how you will judge the result.

How long should a branding brief be?

Most useful briefs fit on about two pages. Long briefs often hide the important points. Write in plain sentences, and cut anything that could describe any business in Dubai.

Should I include design ideas in the brief?

Share brands you admire and say why, but avoid instructions such as "make the logo blue". The brief should explain the problem and the person. The studio should bring the design answers.

Does a portfolio of concept identities prove results?

No. A concept identity shows positioning, a mark, a voice and applications. It does not show sales or bookings. Ask whether each project is a concept, a launched brand, or a launched brand with results.

How to Write a Branding Brief: A Guide for Dubai Founders

Short answer: a good branding brief tells a studio four things. Who the brand is for. What it must never sound like. Where it has to live on day one. And what you already own. Keep it short, honest and specific, and leave the design ideas to the people you are briefing.

This guide shows how to write a branding brief that starts a real conversation. It is written for Dubai founders and marketing teams. Many studios here look alike from the outside. A clear brand brief is often the moment the difference shows.

What is a branding brief?

A branding brief is a short document that explains the business, the people it serves and the job the brand has to do. It is not a design wish list. It is the raw material for brand strategy, and it gives a studio enough truth to ask better questions.

Think of it as the opening scene of a film. It sets the place, the people and the tension. The studio writes the rest of the story with you.

Who is the brand for?

Describe one real person, not a market segment. Say where they are, what they want and what they are tired of. A brand built for everyone tends to speak to no one.

The moment. When do they meet you? On a delivery app at night, in a lobby, in a search result?
The doubt. What makes them hesitate before they choose you?
The alternative. Who else are they looking at, and why might they pick them?
The feeling. How should they feel the second time they see your name?

What should the brand never sound like?

Name the voice you want to avoid. This one line often does more work than a page of adjectives. "Premium" and "friendly" describe most brands in Dubai. "Never loud" or "never clinical" tells a studio exactly where the edge is.

Add two or three brands you admire and say why, in one sentence each. Then add one you do not want to resemble. The reasons matter more than the names.

Which surfaces does the brand need on day one?

List the places the brand must work at launch, in order of importance. A café needs a sign, a cup and a menu. A consultancy needs a website, a pitch deck and a LinkedIn page. The list shapes the whole identity.

Be honest about size and distance. A mark that looks calm on a billboard may vanish on an app icon. If you know the smallest place your logo will appear, say so in the brief.

Should a Dubai brief cover Arabic and English?

Yes, if your customers read both. Arabic is the official language of the UAE, and signs on commercial outlets are in Arabic and English, according to the UAE government fact sheet. Your name and mark will often have to live in both scripts.

Arabic is written right to left, as the W3C explains. That changes how a logo lockup, a headline and a sign are balanced. Ask for the Arabic version to be drawn with the English one, not added later. Say in the brief who will review the Arabic voice.

What do you already own, and what needs protecting?

List what exists today: a name, a domain, social handles, a logo you may keep. Then say what has to be protected. A studio can design a mark, but only you can register it.

A trademark is a sign capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one business from another, according to WIPO. WIPO says registration usually lasts 10 years and can be renewed. In the UAE, trademarks are registered through the Ministry of Economy and Tourism, under Federal Decree-Law No. 36 of 2021. Put "check the name can be registered" in the brief before anyone falls in love with it.

Ask for the name to be used the same way everywhere. Google asks businesses to show their name as it is used in the real world, on signage and stationery, in its Business Profile guidelines. A brief that fixes the exact name early saves a lot of later clean-up.

What should a brief say about colour and accessibility?

Ask for brand colours that people can actually read. W3C's contrast guidance asks for a ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text. The logo itself is exempt, but text set in brand colours is not.

So a pale gold on white may look beautiful in a logo and still fail on a button. Say in the brief that the palette must work for text, buttons and small labels, not only for the mark.

What will a concept identity not prove?

A concept identity shows how a studio thinks. It does not prove sales, footfall or bookings. Both of our published food projects, Snack Lab and GOAT, are 2025 concept identities for a Dubai food group. They show positioning, a mark, a voice and how one idea holds from a cup to a wall.

When you read any portfolio, ask the same question. Is this a concept, a launched brand, or a launched brand with results? Write in the brief which of those you need to see.

How to write a branding brief, step by step

Most strong briefs fit on two pages. Use this order, and write in plain sentences.

The business in three lines. What you do, for whom, and why now.
The person. One real customer, their moment and their doubt.
The edge. What the brand must never sound like.
The surfaces. Where the brand must work at launch, smallest first.
The languages. Arabic, English or both, and who reviews each.
What you own. Name, domain, handles and any marks to keep or protect.
The practical limits. Dates, who decides, and what is out of scope.
What good looks like. How you will know the work is right in 12 months.

Read it aloud before you send it. If a sentence could describe any business in Dubai, rewrite it until it could only describe yours.

Which mistakes make a brief harder to use?

Designing in the brief. "Make the logo blue" closes doors before the thinking starts.
Too many audiences. Five target customers usually means none of them is real.
Borrowed words. "Luxury", "innovative" and "trusted" say little on their own.
No owner. If nobody can say yes, the work waits in inboxes.
Hiding the hard part. If there is a problem, such as a name clash or a past launch that failed, say it.

If you are still comparing studios, our guide on how to choose a branding partner in Dubai covers that step. This page is about what you write once you are ready to brief.

Key takeaways

Knowing how to write a branding brief starts with one real person and one clear edge.
List the surfaces the brand needs on day one, smallest first.
Plan Arabic and English together, and check the name can be registered early.
Ask for colours that pass contrast for text, and be clear about what a concept can prove.

Written by Allen Antony James, Co-founder of Storytellers, a storyteller-first studio based in Dubai, telling stories worldwide. Want help putting this into practice? See Branding in Dubai or tell us about your business.

Sources

Every claim in this guide links to its source. All sources were checked on 14 Oct 2026.

How to write a branding brief: what a studio needs to hear first