A useful custom font brief explains the brand context, the audience, the problem the typeface must solve and where it needs to work.
It should also cover personality, applications, sample wording, character sets, styles, technical behaviour, timing, budget and rights. You do not need to tell the designer how to draw an S. You need to explain why the S matters.
What should be included in a custom font brief?
A custom font brief should include:
- The brand, product or campaign background
- The audience and the context in which they will see the type
- The real problem the font must solve
- The desired personality, including what it must not become
- Every important application and production environment
- Real words, phrases, prices, dates and interface labels
- Relevant layouts, brand assets, references and early sketches
- The required styles, languages, characters and features
- Technical requirements such as small-size legibility and accessibility
- The timetable, budget, approval process, rights and deliverables
That sounds comprehensive because it should be. It does not mean the brief needs to be sixty pages long. A page of clear answers is more useful than a small novel containing the words bold, iconic and disruptive twenty-seven times.
What do clients most often forget?
In my experience, the biggest omission is the real brand context. Clients often begin with how they want the font to look, but forget to explain what the organisation does, who the audience is and why the typeface is being commissioned. That leaves the designer trying to solve a problem nobody has properly described.
These are the gaps I encounter most often:
- No clearly defined problem. “We need a custom font” is a proposed solution, not an explanation of what is failing now.
- Personality without boundaries. Words such as playful, premium or quirky are supplied, but nobody explains what would make the result too childish, too delicate or too strange.
- An incomplete list of applications. The designer hears about packaging, then discovers halfway through that the same font must work on mobile UI, outdoor signage and broadcast graphics.
- No character-set requirements. Extra languages, symbols or currencies suddenly become essential after the main alphabet has been approved.
- Styles are under-specified. A request for “a font” later grows into several weights, italics, condensed versions or a variable font.
- No description of real technical behaviour. Small-size legibility, accessibility constraints, typographic hierarchy and kerning expectations are left until the font is being used rather than while it is being designed.
These are not small administrative details. They affect the design, scope, schedule and quote. The earlier they are discussed, the more time can be spent making something good instead of discovering something large.
A clear brief creates creative freedom
A detailed brief should not tell a type designer exactly what every letter must look like. Its job is to define the purpose and the boundaries clearly enough for useful experimentation to begin.
That was true when I designed the custom typeface for NEX Playground. NEX wanted something unique and quirky, like the console itself. It needed to feel fun and appeal to adults as well as children because the existing typeface was not quite hitting the mark. The type would be used for events, signage and wider out-of-home marketing.
Because the audience, personality and applications were clear, the brief gave me more freedom to experiment. I could explore alternative characters and ligatures without losing sight of the projects aim. A clear brief did not narrow the possibilities. It made the possibilities easier to recognise.
1. Explain the brand context
Begin with the organisation, product or campaign. What does it do? Who does it serve? What is changing? Is the font part of a rebrand, product launch, entertainment title or new design system?
Include the brand name, market, competitors, current positioning and the reason the project is happening now. Send any existing brand guidelines, logos, colours, photography, illustration and typography. Do not assume the designer already understands the internal history behind the project. We were not in the meeting where everyone agreed never to use orange again.
2. Define the problem the typeface must solve
Ask what the new typeface must achieve that the current typography cannot.
Perhaps it needs to:
- Make packaging recognisable without relying on a large logo
- Connect campaign, social and retail work with one visual voice
- Give a game, film or entertainment title its own personality
- Replace several inconsistent fonts with a practical family
- Work more clearly at small sizes or across digital interfaces
- Provide alternative letterforms that other designers can use flexibly
“We want something unique” is a start. “We need to be recognisable when the logo is absent” is a direction.
3. Describe the audience and personality
Who will read the typeface, and in what situation? Someone glancing at supermarket packaging behaves differently from someone navigating an app or reading a sign across a crowded event space.
Choose a small number of personality traits, then give each one a boundary:
- Confident, but not aggressive
- Handmade, but not rustic
- Playful, but not childish
- Premium, but not delicate
- Technical, but not cold
- Quirky, but still easy to use
One person’s playful is another person’s children’s television presenter trapped in a lift. The boundary prevents an attractive word from becoming an unhelpful interpretation.
4. List every important application
Do not brief only for the application currently visible in the presentation. List the places the font will need to survive:
- Packaging and point of sale
- Advertising, social media and out-of-home campaigns
- Websites, apps and user interfaces
- Broadcast graphics, games, film titles and motion
- Editorial design
- Signage and environmental graphics
- Presentations and internal documents
- Merchandise and products for sale
Include likely sizes, production methods and platforms. A character that looks magnificent on a forty-eight-sheet poster may become a small dark potato on a mobile button.
5. Supply real words, references and working material
The words matter as much as the moodboard. Send the actual product names, headlines, campaign phrases, prices, dates, interface labels and awkward legal wording the font will need to handle. Real language reveals useful questions that Lorem Ipsum politely avoids.
Ideally, I would also receive:
- Brand guidelines and current font files
- Existing layouts and real usage examples
- Campaign concepts and moodboards
- Typefaces the team likes, with an explanation of why
- Examples the team wants to avoid
- Preliminary ideas, rough sketches or lettering
- Example words and phrases for early character tests
References do not have to be other fonts. Signs, objects, films, album covers, clothes, materials and photographs can all communicate something useful. “We like this” shows taste. “We like its uneven rhythm and blunt confidence” provides direction.
6. Define the character set and styles
Do you need one expressive display style or a wider family with several weights, italics or widths? Would a variable font solve a real implementation problem, or merely give everyone another control to ignore?
Consider whether the font needs:
- Uppercase and lowercase characters
- Numerals, punctuation, currencies and mathematical symbols
- Accented characters and extended European languages
- Non-Latin scripts
- Alternative letters and ligatures
- Small caps or different numeral styles
- Brand icons, symbols or custom glyphs
If you do not know the technical name for a character set, list the countries and languages in which the typeface must work. The type designer can turn that into a sensible specification. My guide to custom fonts, modified fonts and retail fonts may also help establish the right scale of project.
7. Describe the required technical behaviour
A font is not finished when the alphabet looks good. It has to behave properly wherever the creative team uses it.
Tell the designer about:
- The smallest sizes at which the font must remain clear
- Accessibility or legibility requirements
- How different weights should create hierarchy
- Spacing, kerning and compactness expectations
- Web, app, desktop, game or broadcast environments
- Required file formats and any embedding needs
- The software and operating systems used by the wider team
You do not need to prescribe the technical solution. Explain the real behaviour you need. My guide to custom font file formats covers OTF, TTF, WOFF and WOFF2 in more detail.
8. Include budget, timing and approvals
State the launch date, important presentations, testing periods and any fixed production deadlines. Name the people providing feedback and the person with final approval.
A realistic budget range helps establish whether the right answer is a bespoke family, a focused display face, permitted font modification or custom lettering. Hiding it does not create a bargain. It delays the useful conversation.
If you are still defining the scope, read how much custom font design costs in the UK and how long a custom font takes to design.
One person should ideally collect and combine feedback before it reaches the designer.
9. Clarify rights and deliverables
“Custom” describes the work. The agreement describes the rights. Explain which company, agencies, suppliers and production partners need the font files, where they will use them and whether exclusivity is required.
Also confirm the expected deliverables: desktop fonts, webfonts, variable fonts, specimens, usage guidance or editable source files. If future languages or styles are likely, mention them before the initial font is designed rather than after everyone involved has disappeared into another project.
These details should be confirmed in the contract. Read more about custom font ownership, licensing and exclusivity.
A shorter custom font brief checklist
Before sending the brief, check that it answers these questions:
- What does the brand do, and why is the project happening?
- What problem must the new typeface solve?
- Who is the audience?
- How should the typeface feel, and what must it avoid?
- Where will it be used, and at what sizes?
- Which real words and phrases should be tested?
- What references, layouts and early ideas can be shared?
- Which styles, characters, languages and features are required?
- How must it behave technically?
- What are the budget, deadline and approval stages?
- Who needs access, and what rights and deliverables are expected?
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to understand type-design terminology?
No. Describe the audience, uses and problem in ordinary language. If you do not know which character set, font format or OpenType feature is required, explain where the font will be used and let the designer recommend the technical solution.
How long should a custom font brief be?
There is no ideal length. It should be long enough to make the purpose, applications and constraints clear. One page of specific information can be more useful than twenty pages of vague adjectives.
Should the budget be included?
Yes. It allows the designer to recommend an achievable scope rather than guessing whether you expect a small modification, one display font or a multilingual family.
Can the brief change after the project begins?
Yes. A brief can develop as the work becomes clearer. Significant changes to the character set, number of styles, applications, rights or deadline may also change the cost and timetable, so they should be agreed rather than quietly added.
Who should write the brief?
The client or agency should supply the brand, audience and practical context. The type designer can then help translate it into a creative and technical scope. It is a working conversation, not an entrance exam.
A brief should open the work, not close it
The best custom font brief defines what really matters.
You do not need all the answers before contacting me.
Bring me the brief and we can shape the right scope together.
