Creative agencies receive dozens of creative design requests daily. Each project has different goals, deliverables, specifications, and timelines, and much of this information may be scattered across various communication threads, emails, and documents. Project managers centralize this information using documents called design briefs.
The design brief outlines the goals and requirements of a creative design project. It helps everyone involved in the design process stay on the same page.
However, creating a design brief from scratch requires some effort. That’s why using design brief templates helps kickstart your creative design projects.
We have listed the 11 best design brief templates that you can use.
11 Best Design Brief Templates
What Are Design Brief Templates?
Design brief templates are pre-defined frameworks for capturing all the essential elements and critical information related to a design project. They act as a starting point for creating an exhaustive design brief and ensure information is presented clearly and concisely.
A design brief template helps designers and other key stakeholders in a design project streamline their workflow and access necessary details whenever needed.
What Makes a Good Design Brief Template?
A good design brief template makes setting a solid foundation for a design project easier. Here are some of the key attributes of a good design brief template:
- Comprehensive structure: A good design brief should cover all the creative design project elements in detail to avoid confusion or ambiguity. For instance, a well-structured web design brief template would have sections to capture information about the target audience, project scope, project duration, technical requirements, and design preferences
- Clarity: The design brief template should be simple and easy for stakeholders and other team members to understand
- Flexibility: A flexible design brief template allows you to tailor your brief according to various types of work, client requirements, and project scales. This allows you to adapt your design brief to impromptu changes without overwhelming your team. For instance, templates can have optional sections such as notes, competitive analysis, the scope of work
- Organized structure: Your design template should be easy to fill out and neatly structured using clean layouts, bullet points, sections, columns, and headings. A well-organized design brief template avoids uncertainties and facilitates smooth communication among stakeholders and designers
11 Creative Design Brief Templates for the Marketing Team
The right design brief template makes navigating the complexities of a design challenge easy. However, templates vary based on project requirements, types, and specifications.
Look at these 11 design brief templates that will meet your varied requirements.
1. Design Brief Template
If you need help effectively communicating the details of your design projects with your creative and marketing departments, the Design Brief Template is just what you need. It offers a well-structured layout that allows you to clearly define details about your projects, such as goals, objectives, timelines, and direction.
The template can be shared with your creative team and other stakeholders to help them effectively execute a design project. It helps them stay focused and prioritize tasks for better and faster outputs.
Key features
- Record essential information such as goals, direction, scope, and timeline using a neatly structured framework
- Visualize the duration for each task with Timeline View
- Manage every detail of your project with the help of customizable sections that can be adapted to any type of project
This template is best fit for:
- Creative teams launching multi-channel campaigns with tight deadlines
- Marketing agencies managing multiple client branding projects at once
- Designers collaborating with copywriters, strategists, and developers in one workspace
- Project managers streamlining feedback loops and approval workflows
- Teams needing a reusable brief structure to kick off projects efficiently
💡 Pro Tip: Use a design project management tool like Design to work on design ideas, collaborate, and manage tasks—all in one place. It also offers several customizable design templates tailored to any use case in your design process. Use the power of AI, automation, and much more to deliver flawless designs.
2. Design Brief Whiteboard Template
The Design Brief Whiteboard Template is an excellent tool for project briefing meetings. The template contains sections to map client requests, objectives, references, marketing directions, and more. This visual framework can be used for project kick-off meetings to ensure everyone is working towards the same goal.
This template allows you to leverage the Whiteboard by giving you a pre-defined structure for effective collaboration. Whiteboards act as a digital canvas, enabling you to brainstorm with your team. And with this template, you can turn ideas into tasks from your whiteboard. Plan out project timelines, deliverables, and objectives interactively and collaboratively with the flexibility of a whiteboard.
Key features
- Map out client objectives, references, marketing directions, and more using sections
- Use the visual framework to explain ideas and concepts during project kickoff meetings
- Monitor the progress of different tasks and sub-tasks with the Board View
- Work collaboratively with stakeholders and other team members using collaboration features for better design outputs
- Plot tasks along a flexible timeline using Gantt View
This template is best fit for:
- Visualizing complex creative briefs in brainstorming or kickoff sessions
- Collaborating across departments on campaign concepts or product launches
- Mapping out project elements, timelines, and dependencies in one shared space
- Collecting team input, suggestions, and ideas in real time
- Turning messy creative thinking into structured plans that are easy to execute
3. Creative Brief Whiteboard Template
The Creative Brief Whiteboard Template is a visual tool for brainstorming and planning the different aspects of a creative design project. It helps you create a clear action plan and manage all the project-related tasks in a single place.
The template offers a bird’ s-eye view of the entire creative process, helping plan, execute, and track the various tasks involved in the project. It covers information on the target audience, tone and style, brand guidelines, and deliverables.
Key features
- Create tasks within the template and assign each one a custom status like Client Review, Complete Development, In Progress, and Final Approval
- Use priority labels, tagging, and nested sub-tasks to create a well-structured creative brief with ease
- Add attributes such as Responsibility, Involvement, Session Type, End Date, and Email to organize different tasks using Custom Fields
- Describe the creative brief process and set the context for what’s to follow in the document using the Start Here View
This template is best fit for:
- Kicking off new creative campaigns with a collaborative, visual workspace
- Mapping out brand messaging, audience insights, and design ideas in one view
- Hosting real-time brainstorming sessions with cross-functional teams
- Organizing creative inputs, feedback, and revisions visually for faster alignment
- Aligning stakeholders on creative direction before jumping into production tools
4. Creative and Design Template
The Creative and Design Template streamlines request intake, planning, and execution of all your design tasks. You can also use the template to brainstorm ideas, assign tasks, set deadlines, and track progress. This ensures that every aspect of your design process is thoroughly planned, improving project efficiency and clarity.
Key features
- Give a quick overview of the design process to those using the template with the help of the Welcome View
- Allow stakeholders to submit creative requests using the Form View
- Organise and manage design assets such as graphics and multimedia files using asset management
This template is best fit for:
- Managing the full lifecycle of creative projects—from ideation to delivery
- Assigning design tasks, tracking revisions, and setting visual milestones
- Collaborating across design, content, and marketing teams in one unified space
- Organizing assets, feedback, and approvals without losing creative flow
- Streamlining creative ops for faster turnaround and better consistency
5. Creative Brief Document
The Creative Brief Document Template is a must-have for aligning stakeholders and the creative design page to deliver results for any creative project successfully. Its well-defined sections help you organize project information in an easy-to-grasp format. You can also use the template to set timelines and budgets to ensure the project is completed on time without going overboard on costs.
Key features
- View your work in multiple ways, such as the List, Gantt Chart, Workload, or Calendar view. This allows you to view your workload and visualize all your tasks along a flexible timeline
- Use custom fields in the template to track things like your budget or the key demographics of your target audience
- Streamline the review and approval process using @mentions and comments to tag team members and assign them tasks and action items
This template is best fit for:
- Creating structured, easy-to-follow briefs for internal or client-facing projects
- Documenting project scope, objectives, audience, and deliverables in a clear format
- Sharing briefs with stakeholders for quick alignment and approvals
- Providing a single source of truth that creative teams can reference throughout the project
- Standardizing briefing across teams to streamline the creative kickoff process
6. Graphic Design Template
If you are a graphic designer, you may have struggled with ineffective project briefs that make it rather challenging to understand client expectations. Managing design projects is tricky if details are scattered across channels like email, chat, or other documents.
The Graphic Design Template perfectly organizes such scattered information using a single, standardized framework. It allows you to keep all project-related information in one place, saving time and effort.
This template addresses most challenges graphic designers likely face when managing multiple requests. It helps them stay accountable and adhere to timelines.
Key features
- Enable your team to share real-time updates and contribute their insights or provide feedback using collaboration features
- Organize all your design-related tasks under different lists, such as project planning, concept development, design creation, or review and approval, using the List View
- Import your work stored in external tools such as editors, cloud storage, or design apps in no time with the Import View
- Use the Gantt View to see all your tasks along a flexible timeline. Prioritize your tasks and stay on track with project deadlines
This template is best fit for:
- Managing end-to-end graphic design projects from concept to delivery
- Coordinating multiple design assets, revisions, and feedback loops
- Aligning designers, clients, and stakeholders with clear task assignments
- Tracking deadlines and approvals to ensure on-time project completion
- Streamlining collaboration between creative, marketing, and product teams
💡 Pro Tip: Use a comprehensive design brief as a critical reference point to help graphic designers understand how their work addresses project specifics. This is essential to streamlining the graphic design workflow and avoiding ambiguity regarding the design requirements.
7. Web Design Template
The Web Design Template is a great way to manage the multiple facets of web design, such as UX design, content management, visual design, and optimization. Use this template to plan your web design process meticulously by adding tasks, descriptions, and priorities for each project stage.
The template also allows you to manage your team’s workload and effectively allocate resources so your teammates can handle multiple design requests.
Key features
- Use Custom Field attributes such as Industry, Email Address, Output Drive, Purpose, and Contact Phone Number to easily visualize important information regarding projects
- Track the time spent on different tasks and amp up efficiency
- Create visual representations of websites using the Board View
- Leverage Design Capacity View to see how much work is being handled by your designers and how much more they can take up
This template is best fit for:
- Managing the full lifecycle of web design projects from concept to launch.
- Coordinating design, development, and content tasks to ensure smooth collaboration.
- Aligning stakeholders around wireframes, prototypes, and final deliverables.
- Tracking project milestones, launch deadlines, and revisions to maintain momentum.
- Streamlining feedback collection and iteration cycles for efficient teamwork.
8. Design Ideation Template
Struggling to put together all the different design ideas from your team into impactful solutions?
The Design Ideation Template is ideal for a fruitful brainstorming session. It is structured to help you capture and categorize your team’s ideas effortlessly. All you need to do is add your teammates to the template and enable them to work collaboratively on identifying potential solutions.
Key features
- Assign custom statuses, such as open or closed, for every idea to track their progress
- Organize different ideas by their owners or other categories using custom fields. This helps designers easily visualize the design process
- Use the Getting Started Guide View to describe the design ideation process
- Visually represent the ideation process using the Design Ideation Diagram View
This template is best fit for:
- Facilitating brainstorming sessions to generate and capture creative ideas
- Organizing concepts, inspiration, and initial sketches in one collaborative space
- Encouraging cross-team input during the early stages of design projects
- Prioritizing ideas and planning next steps with clear workflows
- Turning abstract ideas into actionable tasks for smooth project kickoff
💡 Pro Tip: Using creative project management software that combines traditional features with advanced functionalities can help design teams stay creative and avoid bottlenecks, resulting in a quicker and more efficient design process.
9. Design Board Template
The Design Board Template offers a single space where everyone can collaborate on design ideas and visualize different types of content. It acts as a centralized source for you to upload design files, mockups, wireframes, and images so that everyone can view these assets and provide real-time feedback using comments and annotations.
Key features
- Save important information about your design projects using custom fields such as Design Links, Strategy Documents, Design Stages, and Approval
- Alert users to complete all activities before changing the task statuses using the Dependency feature
- Use the Priority View to plan your tasks and resources according to their urgency
This template is best fit for:
- Visualizing project stages with drag-and-drop boards for seamless workflow tracking
- Managing creative tasks across design sprints, campaigns, or client projects
- Collaborating visually to keep teams aligned on priorities and deadlines
- Tracking progress and bottlenecks with clear, customizable columns and statuses
- Organizing feedback, approvals, and revisions in a single, transparent space
10. Design Review Template
The Design Review Template provides a streamlined way to organize and document your design review process. It can be shared with your team to get feedback and identify potential risks or errors. The most significant advantage is that the template offers a consistent process for approving your designs.
Key features
- Divide the review process into different stages and use custom statuses to denote the progress of each stage
- Record your screen with Clips to explain design concepts and add them to the design review template for easy access
- Edit your designs in real-time with your team members to ensure all of them are on the same page
- Add comments on the template and use @mentions to assign each comment to the appropriate team member
This template is best fit for:
- Collecting, organizing, and responding to feedback during the design review process
- Managing stakeholder approvals across multiple design iterations
- Tracking design changes, version history, and final decisions in one place
- Collaborating with cross-functional teams to refine visuals before launch
- Streamlining client or internal design reviews with clear timelines and task ownership
11. Graphic Design Advanced Template
The Graphic Design Advanced Template is customizable according to your project requirements. It provides all the tools you need to foster collaboration and ensure the successful execution of graphic design projects. This simple-to-use template manages complex graphic design projects with advanced features and requirements.
Key features
- Create better workflows for the graphic design process using customizable workflows
- Use custom statuses to understand the different stages of the design project
- Stay updated whenever a change is made to the design tasks with the notifications feature
This template is best fit for:
- Managing complex graphic design projects with multiple assets, phases, and stakeholders
- Coordinating revisions, approvals, and deadlines for client or campaign work
- Tracking asset production across multiple platforms (print, digital, web, etc.)
- Collaborating with marketing, content, and design teams in a centralized workflow
- Scaling creative operations with built-in automation, task dependencies, and file management
Choose the Right Template to Elevate Your Design Process
Design templates are a great way to simplify creating standardized processes for each request. However, choosing the right template for your specific use case can be slightly challenging.
A well-rounded list of templates like this one and ’s repository help you make informed choices. Sign up for free to learn how can fast-track your creative process in various other ways!
Everything you need to stay organized and get work done.
