A high-resolution and multilevel designed reference pattern (DRP) is presented for improvement of both light utilization efficiency and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of reconstructed images in coaxial holographic data storage. With a DRP, the desired Fourier power spectrum of a reference beam is obtained. Numerical and experimental results show that the DRP increases the SNR compared with that of a random phase mask (RPM). Moreover, the light utilization efficiency of the DRP is higher than that of a high-resolution RPM. In addition, the effect of the phase level and the pixel pitch of DRPs on the SNR and the light utilization efficiency are investigated.