165 design references

Write a compact personal brand brief

@matthgray on Instagram

A brand brief works when each page asks for one decision and leaves the line blank, in a fixed order, before anyone picks a color, a font, or a hire.

What to look at

Ten gray pages. The cover puts (in just 7 days) in green under How to build a personal brand. Each day is one sheet: a boxed title, one question, blank lines. Day 1 is seven empty boxes. Day 2 is values, then impact. Day 3 asks what the audience struggles with. Day 4 is voice, four color boxes, a font, and three rules. Day 5 is a Founder Note: why, the problem, the change. Day 6 is three overlapping circles. Day 7 is empty checkboxes for a team, then a line for tools. A timeline repeats the seven days, tools last. The last page is a black book and a green pill: Comment "BRAND."

Day 1 is seven empty boxes. The brief is the blanks, not a logo.
Day 1 is seven empty boxes. The brief is the blanks, not a logo.
The seven days in one list, with tools and the team on the last line.
The seven days in one list, with tools and the team on the last line.

Why it works

Nielsen Norman Group says a wizard, one step to a screen, helps someone who does not yet know the process, and that a list of the steps keeps them from losing the shape of the job. That finding is about software, not about this post. The same group says a form is easier when related questions sit together and the label stays outside an empty line, and it describes one question per screen as the way to keep a long form from feeling like a wall. GOV.UK's question pages start with one question, a way back, and a continue button. The number seven is not a rule. Nielsen Norman Group says designers misuse a memory study when they cap a list at seven, and that the useful move is a meaningful chunk, not that count. The sheet says to survey the audience and ask them directly. Nielsen's rule is the opposite of treating that answer as the plan: watch what people do, because what they say they will do is a poor guide.

Try it

  1. Split the brand page into separate screens: who you serve, the problem, the voice, then colors and type.
  2. Put the question above a blank line, and put one filled example under the question, outside the line.
  3. Show the full list of steps on the first screen, and mark the step the visitor is on.
  4. Ask three customers what they already tried, and watch that, before you write their problems from memory.
  5. Add tools and hires only after those answers exist. Do not open the page with a team chart.

What it costs

A wizard that shows one step at a time makes it hard to look back at an earlier answer, which Nielsen Norman Group lists as a drawback. These pages are pictures, so nothing is saved if you leave. The lines have no filled example, and the form research says an example kept outside the field is what stops a guess. Seven pillars and seven days sound finished, and the chunking research says that number is not a limit you should design to. Day 7 offers a team before a single earlier line is filled. The last page does not include the template. It asks for a comment. The line about 30 ideas in 30 minutes was not tested. On 2026-11-13, Matt Gray's site sells a call and a seven-part content system. It does not show this blank workbook.

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