It is the last week of November in a Dubai office. The National Day post goes out on Monday, the designer has sent version 4, and the Arabic line, pasted in at the end, runs over a logo taken from a screenshot. A one-page social media design brief would have prevented all of it. This article gives you that page, the formats, the Arabic and English traps, and what to agree on revisions and files before you pay for a month of posts.
Quick Answer
A social media design brief is one page that answers 8 questions before design starts: the one action the post should produce, who it is for, the platform and format, the exact copy in Arabic and English, the brand assets (vector logo, fonts, colours), references you like and dislike, the deadline and publish date, and who approves. Agree the number of revision rounds and who keeps the source files before work starts, and write both languages before design, not after. Our social media design team works from this brief, in both languages; if you also want the month planned and published, see social media management.
Why Social Media Briefs Fail
In our experience, a disappointing month of posts traces back to the brief more often than to the designer.
“Make it pop.” A feeling is not an instruction. The designer guesses, and the guessing becomes the revision rounds.
No copy yet. The designer writes a placeholder headline; the real text arrives twice as long and the layout breaks.
Arabic added last. The English design is approved, then the Arabic is pasted into whatever space is left. In the work we see, it rarely fits.
A logo from a screenshot. It blurs when enlarged. Our guide to print-ready files explains why you ask for the vector file; the rule is the same on screen.
No one owns approval. Three people comment on WhatsApp, and the designer follows the last message.
The One-Page Social Media Design Brief
Write it once per campaign or month, not per post.
Goal: one action. “Message us on WhatsApp to book”. If you have 3 actions, you have 3 posts.
Audience. Who should stop scrolling, and in which language.
Platform and format. The format sets the canvas, so decide it first (see the table below).
The exact copy, in both languages. Headline, words on the image, caption and button text, final. If writing is the bottleneck, our content writing team writes in Arabic and English.
Brand assets. The logo as a vector file (AI, EPS, SVG or PDF), fonts and colour codes. If you have no logo or brand guide yet, start there: Brand Identity Design is AED 750.02 (bilingual +AED 375), and Logo Design alone is AED 499.99 in English (Arabic & English version +AED 250).
References. 2 or 3 posts you like and 1 you dislike, each with a sentence on why.
Deadline and publish date. Two dates, with room between them for revisions.
Who approves. One name, who sends the designer one consolidated list.
Keep text away from the edges, where apps place buttons. Ratios from the platforms’ own pages, checked on 3 October 2026:
Arabic and English Together
Two versions or one bilingual layout. Separate posts give each language the full canvas and its own reading direction. One bilingual post suits a greeting, a date or a price; in our experience, more than a headline in each language is crowded on a phone.
Mirror the layout, not everything. Apple’s right-to-left design guidelines say a back button must point right, photographs should not be flipped, and the digits within a number keep their order. On a post: mirror arrows and the order of steps, keep photos as they are, write prices and phone numbers as in English.
Font pairing. Choose an Arabic font designed to sit beside your Latin one; the same guidelines note Arabic can look small next to capital Latin letters and suggest setting it slightly larger.
Numbers and length. Choose Western or Eastern Arabic digits and keep them all month. Write less, so both languages fit.
A native speaker proofreads the Arabic. Do not publish a machine-translated slogan, least of all on a National Day post.
Approvals, Revisions and Who Owns the Files
Revision rounds. Agree the number, and what counts as one round, before work starts. Ours are included up to an agreed number, and extra rounds may cost more; get the same in writing from any designer.
Source files. You post the flattened JPG; you edit the PSD, AI or Figma file. Make every template’s source file part of each month’s handover.
Font licences. If a template uses a paid font, confirm the licence covers your company.
When you change agency. Write down now what happens to templates, source files and account access. For animated posts, ask for the project files too; our motion graphics page covers that work.
A Monthly Calendar Around UAE Dates
Agree next month’s plan in the last week of this one, so copy and approvals are done before design. A simple mix: customer questions answered, the product or the team, one offer, and the month’s dates.
National Day. 2 December; the public holiday covers 2 and 3 December. Brief it in October.
Commemoration Day and the flag. The government portal publishes official guidelines for marking Commemoration Day (in Arabic only) and for using the UAE flag; attach them to the brief.
Ramadan and the two Eids. They follow moon sighting, so the dates are announced each year. Prepare designs early; fix the publish date on the announcement.
To hand over the whole month, our Social Media Management Solutions package is AED 1,839 a month: page design and management for Facebook, Instagram, X, Snapchat and TikTok, up to 30 custom posts, profile, cover and banner designs, planning and publishing. Paid promotion around these dates is the job of our social media campaigns service.
Where the Post Sends People
The action a post asks for happens somewhere else: a WhatsApp chat, a product page, a booking form. Before publishing, open the link on your own phone, on mobile data, and complete the action. If the page is slow, opens on the home page instead of the offer, or the form fails on a phone, the design and the ad budget are wasted. Fix the page first: our website optimisation service covers page speed, mobile responsiveness and conversion fixes.
One rule for the copy: UAE media law requires media content to meet national standards, including respect for the country’s symbols and for privacy, and the UAE Media Council’s A’men platform lets the public report non-compliant ads. This is not legal advice.
From Our Work
A first month redone. A client approved a month of English designs, and the Arabic copy arrived after them. It did not fit, and the month was designed again. Arabic and English lines differ in length and shape, so a layout built around one language does not simply take the other. Since then, both languages are written and approved before design starts.
Templates nobody could edit. A shop came to us with posts from a previous designer, delivered only as flattened JPG files. It could not edit its own templates: a flattened file cannot be changed, only redrawn. Source files are now part of our handover, so a client can edit its templates in-house or take them to another designer.
Good posts, slow page. A campaign’s posts performed; the problem came after the tap. The landing page loaded slowly on a phone, and new designs would only have sent more people to it. However good the post, the action happens on the page it opens. In that campaign, fixing the page mattered more than new designs.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should a social media design brief include?
One action for the post, the audience, the platform and format, the final copy in every language, the brand assets as original files, 2 or 3 references with reasons, the deadline and publish date, and one named approver. Add the agreed revision rounds and who keeps the source files.
How many revision rounds should a social media designer include?
There is no standard number. What matters is that it is agreed in writing before work starts, with what counts as one round. Count a round as one consolidated list of changes from the named approver; scattered comments from several people multiply the rounds.
Should Arabic and English posts be separate or in one design?
For anything longer than a headline, separate posts read better on a phone: each language gets the full canvas and its own direction. A single bilingual design suits greetings, dates and prices. Either way, write both texts before design starts and have a native speaker proofread the Arabic.
Who owns the design files when I hire a social media designer?
Whatever your agreement says, so write it down. Ask for the editable source files (PSD, AI or Figma) of every template at each handover, confirm that the font licences cover your company, and state what happens to templates and account access if you change designer or agency.
How much does social media design cost in the UAE?
It depends on the number of posts, their complexity and whether publishing is included. Our Social Media Management Solutions package is AED 1,839 a month for up to 30 custom posts, with design, management and publishing on 5 platforms. Design-only work is quoted on the number and type of designs.
Sources
- TikTok Auction In-Feed Ads — TikTok Ads Manager Help Center (accessed 2026-10-03)
- Single image ads advertising specifications — LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Help (accessed 2026-10-03)
- Human Interface Guidelines: Right to left — Apple Developer (accessed 2026-10-03)
- Public holidays — The Official Portal of the UAE Government (accessed 2026-10-03)
- Guidelines — The Official Portal of the UAE Government (accessed 2026-10-03)
- Media regulation — The Official Portal of the UAE Government (accessed 2026-10-03)
Where We Are
BIGBANG ITS has planned and run technology for UAE businesses since 2003, headquartered at the Sharjah Research, Technology and Innovation Park with a branch in Business Bay, Dubai. Support runs 24/7 and the office is open Saturday to Thursday, 09:00–18:00 Gulf time. For a month of posts designed in Arabic and English, contact us or call +971 4 378 2255.
Talk to us directly — we usually reply within minutes during business hours.
