"Let me know what you think" is the most expensive sentence in design work. It invites an opinion, and an opinion arrives as I'm not sure about the blue — which is not something anybody can act on.
A form asks better questions. Below are three, ready to paste: a full one for a design review, a short one for small jobs, and a production version for artwork that is about to be printed. Take the fields you need and delete the rest; a form nobody finishes is worse than no form.
1. The full design feedback form
For a first-round concept or a design presented to more than one person.
DESIGN FEEDBACK
Project: ....................................................
Version: v.... Sent: .......... Reply by: ..........
1. Does this do the job it was briefed to do?
( ) Yes, proceed ( ) Yes, with the changes below
( ) Not yet — see below
2. What works? (Genuinely useful — it tells us what not to lose.)
..........................................................
..........................................................
3. What needs to change?
For each point: where it is, what is wrong, and what
"right" would look like, if you know.
1) .......................................................
2) .......................................................
3) .......................................................
4. Is every fact correct? Please check specifically:
( ) Names and job titles ( ) Prices, dates, times
( ) Phone, web, address ( ) Legal or required text
5. Anything missing that you expected to see?
..........................................................
6. Who else has to see this before we proceed?
Name: ...................... By when: ..............
7. Your decision on this version:
( ) APPROVED — the version named above, go ahead
( ) CHANGES — the points above, then send the next version
Download as a fillable PDFor as plain text
Why each field is there
- Question 1 up front forces a decision rather than a reaction. Feedback given without a decision in mind tends to be decoration.
- "What works" is not flattery-fishing. Without it, round two "fixes" something the client liked and nobody said so.
- Where / what / what right looks like is the difference between an actionable note and a search. This one field removes most back-and-forth.
- The facts checklist exists because clients proofread designs like designs. They check the facts when — and only when — you ask them to.
- "Who else has to see this" costs one line and occasionally saves a whole round. The person replying is often not the person who can decide.
- A named decision at the end, with a version number. "Approved" three rounds in points at nothing; "APPROVED v3" is a fact you can act on later.
2. The short version
For a small job, a returning client, or round three when everyone is tired.
[project name] — v2 attached.
Changed since v1: [one line]
Please reply with either:
APPROVED v2 — we proceed as it is
CHANGES — listed as: page / what is wrong / what it should say
Please check names, prices, dates and contact details before approving.
Reply by [date] to keep the [date] delivery.
Three lines and it still collects the two things that matter: a decision naming a version, and located changes. The changelog line is what stops round two being read as round one.
3. The production version
For artwork going to print, where approval has consequences that a design review does not.
PROOF APPROVAL
Job: ........................................................
File: ............................... Version: v....
Finished size: .................... Pages: ....
Please check and confirm:
[ ] Spelling of all names
[ ] Prices, dates, times
[ ] Phone number, web address, opening hours — read them out loud
[ ] Legal / required text, logos you are obliged to carry
[ ] Every page, including the back
[ ] Nothing important sits close to the trimmed edge
Colour: screen colour is a guide rather than a match. If an exact
brand colour matters, tell us now and we will discuss a printed sample.
Your decision:
( ) APPROVED — the file and version named above, go to production
( ) CHANGES — listed below
Name: ...................... Date: ..............
Download as a fillable PDFor as plain text
"Read them out loud" is not a joke: phone numbers and web addresses are what the eye slides over and the mouth catches. The colour sentence belongs before production, because afterwards it is an excuse rather than a term.
More wording for the covering message is in our artwork approval email templates, and the internal version — what you check before it goes out — is the proof approval checklist.
How to send it so it comes back
Put the form in the message body, not in an attachment. An attached form is a second file to open, and on a phone it is a second file not to open. The plain-text download exists for exactly this: open it, copy, paste. Send the PDF only when somebody has asked for something to print and sign.
Ask for one consolidated reply. If three people are looking, name one of them to collect. Three separate replies is a merge job, and merges are where remarks get lost.
Give the deadline a consequence. "By Thursday" is a wish. "By Thursday to hold the Monday delivery" is information they can act on.
Keep the version number in every subject line. It is what makes the thread searchable six weeks later.
When the form stops being the right tool
A form works because it structures the reply. What it cannot do is put the remark next to the thing being remarked on — you still get "the date on the back page" and still have to find it.
It is also not the document that records the decision. That is a design sign-off sheet: the version, the date, who approved it and what they were approving, on one page you can hold up a month later.
Read this paragraph knowing it is about our own product. Proofavo replaces the attachment with one link: comments are pinned to the artwork itself, everyone with the link sees the same version and each other's notes, and the approval is recorded against that exact file with a downloadable record naming the version, the person and the time. Reviewers need no account and no password, and they never cost a seat.
The parts of the form that still matter — check the facts, name who else must see it, decide — are exactly the parts we did not automate, because they are a conversation rather than a feature. Try the loop in the live demo.