Creating the Perfect Creative Brief for Your Food Illustration Project

A creative brief for an illustration project is all the information you provide so I can deliver work that truly fits your needs. These details help me create an accurate quote and ensure our collaboration runs smoothly.

In this article, you’ll find the 25 questions I always ask my clients at some point in our process. By addressing them up front in your brief, you’ll create the perfect foundation for our illustration project—making everything clearer, faster, and more cost-effective.

Should you share this information in writing or verbally? While a quick call can be helpful, it’s always safer to put your brief in writing to ensure there’s no misunderstanding. Ultimately, the choice is yours.

Just a quick note: throughout this article, I refer to “your company,” but if you’re working as an intermediary or agency, most of these questions should be answered for your client—the company the illustrations are for.

Let’s dive in: what are the 25 questions that make up a strong creative brief for an illustration project?

Start Your Creative Brief by Introducing Yourself

1) Your company’s name (and your client’s, if applicable)

2) Your name, email, and role

3) What your company or client does

4) Your company’s core values

You probably already know a bit about me from my website or LinkedIn, but now I’d love to learn more about you! Please take a moment to introduce yourself.

If you’re an agency or intermediary working for a client, don’t worry if you can’t share their name just yet—a general description of their industry is still helpful. Before finalizing the quote, we’ll need full details to ensure the proper transfer of rights.

5) Your main competitors

6) Your company size in 3 ranges: an employee count range, an annual revenue range, an audience range (website visitors, social media followers...)

7) The postal address, Company Id number, and VAT number of the company I should address the quote to (mandatory information)

To get a clearer picture, I’d also like to know how your company positions itself in the market and how it compares to key competitors. Whether you’re a multinational or a small business, I’ll adapt to your needs. Please share your main competitors—even if they’re not in exactly the same field.

It’s also helpful to know your company size. If you’re a smaller business, you might not have a full communications department or in-house designers; larger companies often involve several stakeholders. This info helps me plan the right rights transfer for your audience.

For efficiency, I’ll need your administrative details—such as postal address, this information upfront speeds up the quoting process.

Next, Tell Me About the Illustration Project

8) Describe your project to me, particularly what this project must accomplish for your company.

9) Who is the target audience ?

10) What emotion would you like your audience to feel when seeing the illustrations I create for you? Do you have success indicators for this project?

11) If you weren't doing this project, what would your Plan B be?

With all these questions, I better understand the place our illustration takes in your projects, what you expect from it, and how we'll know it's a great success!

Constraints to Include in the Brief

12) What files do you want me to deliver? Number of files, pixel size, file type, resolution, format, color space, duration...

Technical file constraints must be established right away. The media on which you want to use the illustrations entirely determines the formats we'll work in, and some choices are irreversible.

13) What is your timeline?

The timeline is another important constraint: we won't make the same methodological and artistic choices if your timeline is tight.

14) What is your budget range?

The budget will also influence artistic and methodological choices. I understand this information can sometimes seem scary to disclose. Know that it helps me propose artistic solutions that will optimize your budget. Everyone saves time! Don't worry if your range is wide, it's always better than no range at all.

Some clients hesitate to communicate their budget, either because they fear we'll quote the maximum without thinking, or because they don't know the illustration field well enough to have an idea of their imagined project's cost. In the first case, rest assured: I don't artificially inflate my prices, but I don't give discounts either. I try to find the scope that best matches your need. In the second case, let's discuss it: I can show you examples and indicate their price ranges, so you can think about it before coming back to me.

15) Between level of detail, price, and speed, what are your two priorities?

Level of detail, price, speed - you can't have all three at once. A project is a trade-off between these three factors. Another way to phrase this adage is: "almost anything is possible when you have time and money!"

What's certain is that you can't demand very detailed production for a tiny price in lightning time. As an artist, I always deliver the best possible quality within the given constraints, so it's important that you're clear about your priorities between degree of finish (detail), budget (price), and delivery speed.

Artistic Direction

16) Do you have a brand guide to follow?

For example, do you have colors or a logo that are specific to you and need to be integrated? From a practical standpoint, you'll need to specify in the brief what you'll provide me: logo file, brand guide, etc.

17) Have you already decided on an artistic direction before consulting me, or should we invent it together?

Is there someone in charge of artistic direction for this project? Does the project fit into a communication campaign with which we'll need to maintain close consistency, or are we starting from scratch together?

18) Are there other artistic or material elements in this project from which we'll work (images, designs, etc.) or other people I'll need to coordinate with?

In the latter case, who is in charge of project coordination?

19) How did you discover my work?

What in my style attracted you to my work for this illustration project? Which of my previous works caught your eye? (feel free to include links to my portfolio)

20) What is your team's preferred communication method? (Email, Slack, Teams, etc.)

Let's also talk teamwork! There will be back-and-forth moments between us, which we can call modifications or revisions. I include a certain number at each stage of our project, clearly indicated in the quote. What are your preferred channels?

21) Who is the decision-maker on the project? Regarding choosing service providers, artistic direction, or project validation, in intermediate stages and at the end, who needs to be involved?

Clarifying who the final decision-maker is on your project is crucial. Even if you expect to make the decisions yourself, there may be others—different departments, management levels, or close collaborators—who will need to review or approve the work before it’s finished. If their input matters to you or the project’s success, let’s identify this early on.

Here’s why: If we reach the end of the project only to have new feedback from someone who wasn’t involved earlier, you may find yourself needing to make major changes or even restart the project—something we all want to avoid. To prevent this, think carefully at the beginning about whose opinions and approvals are important, and ensure they’re included in the process at the right time.

Rights Transfer

If this is your first time working with an illustrator, you might not know that we need to define a rights transfer. Defining this transfer is mandatory. I must specify in my quote a rights transfer indicating on which media, for what duration, and over what geographical extent you can use my creations (I discuss this in more detail in this article).

The total price will consist of two elements to add together: a production price, which depends on the difficulty of creating your project, and a rights transfer price, which depends on the extent of rights transferred:

22) On which media will this illustration appear?

23) In which geographical area?

24) For what duration?

25) Do you agree for me to communicate about our project and for it to appear in my portfolio?

That’s it! By answering these 25 questions, you’ll have a complete creative brief with everything needed to launch our illustration project smoothly. Simply send it over or book a meeting, and we’ll be ready to get started!