Webflow Designer UK: What Brand Assets Does the Designer Actually Need?

Introduction

The kick-off call ends, somebody sends over the logo as a screenshot from a slide deck, and the project has already lost a week. Brand assets are the least glamorous part of a website project and the one most likely to hold it up, because nobody owns them and nobody is quite sure what exists. This sets out exactly what a designer needs, in what form, what to do when half of it is missing, and who should be holding all of it afterwards.

Key Takeaways

• Send Source Files, Not Exports: A screenshot of a logo is not a logo.
• Check The Font Licence Early: A desktop licence does not cover a website.
• Name An Asset Owner: Missing assets stall a build more often than decisions.
• Guidelines Can Be A Page: A one-page summary beats a missing forty-page document.
• Photography Is Usually The Gap: It takes longest and nobody plans for it.
• Keep The Originals Yourself: Ask for the working files, not only the outputs.

Which Assets Are Actually Needed?

Twelve things, and most projects start with four of them. Naming the whole list early is the difference between one collection exercise and six interruptions.

1. The logo in its original vector file, plus any secondary or stacked versions.
2. The colour values, written down, rather than picked off an old PDF.
3. The typefaces, with the licence that covers web use.
4. Photography, with a note on what may and may not be published.
5. Illustration or iconography, in their source files.
6. Any brand guidelines that exist, however short.
7. A favicon, and the image used when a page is shared on social platforms.
8. Product screenshots or interface imagery, if the company sells software.
9. Tone-of-voice notes, or three examples of writing the company approves of.
10. Legal marks, disclaimers or accreditations that must appear.
11. Client or partner logos, with permission to use each one.
12. Any motion or animation previously made for the brand.

Items three, four and eleven are the ones that generate lawyers, delays and awkward conversations, in that order.

Which Formats Actually Matter?

Source files rather than exports, for anything that will be resized. A logo supplied as a small image cannot be made larger without looking worse, and a designer redrawing it is paying twice for something you already own.

Type is where this gets expensive. Webflow’s guidance on custom fonts states that the platform accepts WOFF2, WOFF, TTF, OTF, EOT and SVG font files, allows up to 4MB per file, and instructs you to read the font’s licence agreement and confirm you have permission to use it on a site before uploading. The commercial consequence catches companies out regularly: the licence bought for the design team’s laptops is usually a desktop licence, it does not cover a public website, and discovering that at build stage means either an unplanned purchase or a typeface change that reopens every design decision.

1. Logos as vector source files, with a flat version for small sizes.
2. Colours as written values, including any variations for dark backgrounds, since a Webflow web design UK build will need them defined once and reused.
3. Fonts as licensed web files, with the licence document itself.
4. Photography at the largest size available, unedited.
5. Icons as vectors, in one consistent style.
6. Anything animated in its editable project file.

A pro tip: ask your design team or previous studio for the working files, not the outputs. Companies routinely own a brand they cannot actually edit.

What If the Brand Guidelines Do Not Exist?

You proceed, on one page rather than forty. Most companies below a certain size have no guidelines, and waiting to commission a full brand exercise before touching the website is usually the wrong order.

1. Write the colour values down and name where each one is used.
2. Pick one typeface for headings and one for body text, and stop.
3. Choose three adjectives the brand should feel like, agreed by two people.
4. Collect ten images that feel right and ten that do not.
5. Note anything that must never appear, such as an old logo or slogan.
6. Agree who has the final say when two people disagree.

That page is enough to design from, and it becomes the start of real guidelines later. A Webflow designer UK companies work with will usually offer to help write it, and it is worth accepting because the conversation surfaces disagreements that would otherwise arrive at review.

Two Assumptions That Delay the Build

One is about availability, the other about ownership.

1. Assuming the assets exist somewhere. They often exist on a former employee’s machine, in an agency’s archive, or only as exports. Check before the project starts rather than in week two.
2. Assuming permission travels with the file. Photography, client logos and typefaces each carry their own terms, and holding the file is not the same as being allowed to publish it.

What Should You Send Before Design Starts?

Everything on the list above, in one place, with a named owner. If designs already exist in a design tool, send the working file rather than images of it.

Webflow’s Figma guidance is specific about why that matters: the plugin syncs components, variables and styles, uploads image layers and vector icons as assets, converts every layer name into a class, and requires custom fonts to be uploaded to the site before designs are transferred, while layers only copy across when they use auto layout. In practice that means a tidy source file moves into the build quickly and a messy one gets rebuilt by hand, so the state of the file you send has a direct effect on how long the build takes and what it costs.

A second pro tip: put everything in one shared folder with a plain naming convention on the first day, and give the studio write access. Assets sent through chat messages get lost, and the search for them happens at the worst possible moment.

Who Holds the Assets Afterwards?

You do, including the working files and the licences, whoever created them. This is a contract question rather than a technical one, and it is easiest to settle before anyone starts.

1. The original vector files for every mark and icon.
2. The font licences, in your company’s name rather than the studio’s.
3. The photography, with its usage terms recorded.
4. The editable design file for the site itself.
5. Any illustration or motion in its source format.
6. A written note of anything licensed with an expiry date.

Conclusion

Projects rarely stall on a design decision; they stall because a logo, a licence or a photograph could not be found, and nobody had been made responsible for finding it. Collect the twelve items early, send source files rather than exports, check the font licence covers web use before anyone falls in love with the typeface, write a one-page guideline if none exists, and make sure the working files end up in your hands. A Webflow designer UK teams keep working with is usually the one who asked for this list at the start. Spoke handles Webflow web design UK projects end to end, from brand collection through to the final handover.

FAQs

Q. What if our logo only exists as an image file?

Ans. Ask whoever made it for the original vector file first, because redrawing costs money you have already spent once. If nobody has it, budget for a redraw early rather than discovering the problem at the first design review. A logo that cannot be resized cleanly will look wrong on a large screen and worse in print.

Q. Do we need to buy a new font licence for the website?

Ans. Usually yes, if the typeface is a commercial one. Desktop licences cover the design team’s machines rather than a public site, and web licences are sold separately and often priced on traffic. Check this in week one, because the alternative is changing typeface after the designs have been approved.

Q. Can the project start before photography is ready?

Ans. It can, provided the layouts are designed around the shapes the images will take and somebody owns the shoot with a date against it. Photography is the asset most likely to arrive late, and designing with placeholders is fine until sign-off. What does not work is approving designs built on stock images you never intend to license.