What Information Should You Have Ready Before Your Website Design Starts?

The industrial automation company kicked off the design of its website on a Monday. The design team asked for the logo, the brand colors, the list of services and some photos, and the marketing manager sent what she had on hand: a logo cropped from an old presentation, the list of services from a five-year-old brochure and a set of stock photos.

With that material, the team designed the home page and the full structure. In the prototype review, the CEO noticed that the service that brought in the most revenue did not even appear in the menu. The sales manager pointed out that the website spoke to the automotive industry, when most new projects came from the food sector. On top of that, the company had an updated brand guide with different colors, and nobody had sent it.

The design started over. Three weeks were lost, and the review round was spent correcting information instead of improving the design. The launch date, already announced to distributors, moved back a month.

Before design starts you need your brand identity in editable files, your current offer, your ideal customer, technical data, real photos, technical access and one person who approves.

Designing with incomplete information means designing twice

The design of a business website is built on its content. The number of services defines the menu, the length of the copy defines the size of each block and the available photos define how visual each page can be. When that information arrives later, the approved design stops working and the project goes back to a stage that seemed closed.

That is why the first week of a project shapes much of the result. A company that hands over complete information at kickoff gets a prototype that already speaks about its real business. A company that delivers it piece by piece gets a prototype built on assumptions, and every wrong assumption is paid for with time.

Why incomplete information uses up the review rounds

Every project includes a set number of rounds to adjust the design. If your team spends the first round correcting services, industries and colors, that round goes to data that should have arrived earlier, and improving the design is left for additional rounds with their own cost and their own time. Gathering the information from kickoff lets you devote each round to what matters: clarity, order and the way the website convinces your buyer.

Brand identity: a pixelated logo ruins the best design

Visual identity is the first thing requested and the thing that most often arrives incomplete. A logo copied from a presentation loses sharpness on a large screen, and a color picked by eye from a photo shifts in tone between the website, the brochure and the trade show banner. Your buyer notices those differences, even without being able to name them, and associates them with carelessness.

Vector logo, color codes and licensed fonts

The logo should arrive in vector format, the editable file delivered by whoever designed it, with its horizontal, vertical and single-color versions. Colors need their exact screen codes, in hexadecimal or in red, green and blue (RGB) values. Brand fonts must be licensed for web use; if they are not, an alternative has to be chosen before design starts.

The current brand guide and who signs off on it

If your company has a brand guide, confirm which version is current and who approved it, because two or three versions often coexist in different folders. If there is no guide, it is enough to gather the editable logo, the colors and the fonts your sales documents already use. That way the website respects what your customers already recognize.

Offer and ideal customer: the website menu comes from how you sell today

The second piece is your current offer. The website is organized around what you sell, and a brochure from years ago carries discontinued lines and leaves out new ones. Before design starts, the sales team and leadership need to agree on what is sold, to whom and what should be pushed.

Current services and products, in order of priority

Make a list of every active service or product line and rank it by importance to the business, whether by margin, by volume or by the strategy for the coming years. Mark what has been discontinued and what is on the way. That order defines what appears first in the menu, which page gets more space and which service takes the lead on the home page.

Industries, buyers and the questions sales hears most

The design also needs to know who it is speaking to. Write down the industries you serve, the title of the person who looks for you and the title of the person who approves the purchase. Ask your sales reps for the questions they hear most before closing a deal. Those questions become copy, FAQ sections and arguments for each page.

Technical data and proof: what only your team can confirm

An industrial buyer compares specifications before requesting a quote. If the website offers vague descriptions, that buyer moves on to the supplier that publishes its data. Technical information is the part of the content that nobody outside your company can invent or complete.

Spec sheets, certifications and capabilities

Gather the updated spec sheets, the certifications with their expiration dates, the production or service capacity you can sustain and your real geographic coverage. Even if the agency writes the copy, only your team can confirm this data. It is a good idea to have an engineer or a technical manager review it before it reaches design.

Case studies, testimonials and customers you can show

Social proof carries weight in a business-to-business purchase. List the projects you can describe, the testimonials you have in writing and the customer logos you have permission to publish. That permission is best requested before design starts, because a customer section left empty at the last minute leaves a visible gap on the page.

Real photos: stock images give away the company that hides its operation

Generic photos are recognized immediately. A buyer who sees the same warehouse or the same handshake on three different websites stops believing what they read. A photo of your plant, your team at work and your product in use conveys capability more powerfully than any text.

What to photograph before design starts

Schedule the shoot in advance, because a plant in operation has shifts, safety permits and restricted areas. Prioritize the product in use, the processes that set you apart, the facilities and the team at their stations. If the shoot has to wait, say so at kickoff so the design can reserve the spaces and avoid rebuilding pages when the images arrive.

Technical access: the domain and the CRM nobody knows who controls

The last piece is administrative, and it is the one that delays launch the most when it is missing. Many companies discover at the end of the project that nobody knows where their domain is registered or who has the password to their sales system.

Domain registration, DNS and corporate email

Find out whose name your domain is registered under, who has the password and who manages the DNS (domain name system) settings. If corporate email depends on that same domain, note where it is hosted, because any change has to protect it. Launching the website only takes temporary access, and it pays to have it located from kickoff.

CRM, analytics and current forms

If your company uses a customer relationship management system (CRM), define which fields sales needs in each request and who can grant temporary access to connect it. If an analytics tool already exists, gather its access to keep the visit history. Also note which email addresses receive form submissions today, so every request arrives safely on the day of the switch.

The folder to hand over on kickoff day

This is the list we recommend gathering before the first design meeting:

• Logo in an editable file, color codes, fonts and the current brand guide.

• A list of active services or products, ranked by priority for the business.

• The industries you serve, the titles of the people who buy and the questions your sales reps hear most.

• Spec sheets, current certifications and capabilities confirmed by your technical team.

• Case studies, testimonials and customer logos with permission to publish.

• Real photos of the plant, product and team, or the date of the shoot.

• Temporary access to the domain, DNS, CRM and analytics.

• The name of the person who approves and their deadline to respond.

With this folder complete, the first review round goes to the design and the calendar moves forward without delays.

At Artisma we ask for this information at project kickoff, where we confirm access and schedule the reviews. Our packages include copywriting, so your team provides the data and we turn it into clear pages for your buyer. Before you pay the deposit you review a prototype of your website. If you choose the express option, which delivers in half the time, complete material and responses within 24 hours are the condition to meet it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I start the design if I do not have the copy yet?

Yes, as long as you have the list of services, the technical data and a clear idea of your buyer. With that foundation, the agency can write and design at the same time. Starting without knowing what is sold or to whom forces the team to design on assumptions, and those assumptions come back as changes in the review.

What should I do if my company does not have a brand guide?

Gather what you already use: the logo in its editable file, the colors from your sales documents and the fonts from your presentations. That is enough to design a consistent website. If you plan to refresh your identity, do it before the website, because changing it midway through the project forces a redesign.

Who at my company should take part in handing over the information?

Three profiles are enough in most cases: someone from leadership who sets priorities and approves, someone from sales who knows the buyer and their questions, and someone technical who validates specifications. A single coordinator should gather the material and respond to the agency, so the information arrives complete and in one version.

If your company is about to start its new website, a week spent gathering this information saves you review rounds, redesigns and weeks on the timeline. Schedule a 15-minute call and we will tell you what material we need for your project and in how many business days you would have your website live.