This study deals with the development of lateral load patterns for the conceptual seismic design of moment-resisting frame structures. The proposed lateral load patterns are based on inelastic behavior and are a fundamental component of a proposed seismic design methodology to limit the extent of structural damage in the system and distribute this damage uniformly along the height. These load patterns are expected to provide a uniform distribution of story ductility ratios when compared to the distributions obtained with moment-resisting frames designed based on the code-compliant design lateral load patterns. The implementation of the aforementioned methodology would not only distribute damage along the height of the frame, but also help avoid undesirable dynamic responses that occur once structural damage is concentrated in one or in a few stories, e.g., story drift amplifications caused by P-delta effects. The family of structural models used in this study is composed of six to eighteen-story moment resisting frame structures with fundamental periods of vibration that vary from 0.6 s. to 3.0 s. On the input side, two basic types of ground motions are used: far-field and near-field ground motions. The proposed design lateral load patterns are a function of the fundamental period of the structural system, the target level of inelastic behavior (or damage), the total height of structures, and the frequency content of the ground motions.