How to write a packaging design brief

A founder came to me last year with a brief that said, essentially: "we need new packaging, something fresh and premium." There was no category context, consumer detail, list of competitors and no indication of budget or timeline. What followed was a series of back-and-forth emails that added three weeks to the project before we were in a place to get started.

A well written packaging design brief doesn't just save time, it saves money, reduces revisions, and significantly improves the quality of the final outcome. The brief is the foundation that everything else is built on, and when it's incomplete the whole project has to work harder to compensate.

‍ Below I have outlined what a good brief actually needs:

‍Start with the product and the person buying it

‍This may sound obvious, but a brief should clearly explain what the product does and who it's for. It should do this not in a vague demographic sense ("women 25-45") but with real clarity about the consumer's motivation. Are they buying in a hurry on autopilot or are they spending time comparing options? The best briefs I've received don't just describe the product, they describe the moment of purchase and what led to that decision. Having detailed context will shape everything from the visual hierarchy to the choice of colour palette.

‍Be specific about where it's sold

‍A product that sells at Woolworths versus one that sells at a health food store or direct-to-consumer online, need fundamentally different packaging approaches. The brief should name the retail environment and if the product is in multiple channels, that needs to be noted too, because the design will need to work across all of them. This is one of the most common things founders leave out and if I don't know where the packaging needs to perform, how will we be able to measure what success looks like?

‍Show me the shelf it needs to compete on

The competitive context is as important as anything else in the brief. Knowing who your direct competitors are, what they look like, and what you want to look different from is essential. Even better is a photo from an actual shelf (not a Google image search) showing what your product would sit next to. The brief should also tell me what you don't want - "We don't want to look like X" is genuinely useful direction, and most designers are glad to have it.

Include the practical constraints

‍Every packaging project has non-negotiable technical requirements, and these need to be in the brief from the start. This includes the number of SKUs and variants, any existing packaging structure or format you're locked into, whether you have a print vendor already or need one sourced, any mandatory label elements (ingredients, country of origin, certifications), and your material or sustainability requirements.

‍Finding out three-quarters of the way through a project that there's a structural constraint that changes everything is one of the most common causes of delays and budget blowouts. The brief is the right place to surface these things before they become problems.

‍Be honest about budget and timeline

‍Designers understand budget and time constraints, even a general range tells me how deep I can go on strategy, how many concepts I should develop, and whether a project is realistic for the scope you're describing. "We need this by Christmas" is very different to "we're planning a range review with a buyer in six weeks." Both are manageable, but they require completely different approaches.

‍Say what success looks like

A brief should end with a clear picture of what a successful outcome looks like. What will you be able to do with this packaging that you can't do now? What result are you hoping for at shelf, online, or with a buyer? It doesn't need to be a KPI, but it should be honest. If the goal is to get into a major retailer, that's relevant context. If the goal is to relaunch a brand that's losing ground to private label, that's also relevant. The more clearly I understand what you're trying to achieve, the better placed I am to design toward it.

If you're putting together a brief and want to make sure it covers everything, you can download my free Packaging Project Readiness Checklist. It walks through the key questions to answer before any project starts.

‍And if you'd rather talk through the brief than write it alone, get in touch. Most briefs I receive are works in progress, and part of my process is helping founders refine them before we start.