Unit 5 - Working to a Brief

This unit aims to take me through the whole process of working to a brief from initial negotiations, through the process of developing and realising ideas in liaison with the client to final self-evaluation on completion of the work.

The learning outcomes of this unit are:

1. Understand the requirements of working to a brief.
2. Be able to develop a planned response to a brief.
3. Be able to apply a response to a brief.
4. Be able to review work on completion of a brief.

Learning Outcome 1

In this learning outcome I must understand the requirements of working to a brief.

There are many different structures of breifs, and each of them contain different pieces of information.

The different types of brief are:

• Contractual - A contractual brief involves a signed agreement and clearly states the objectives. It contains a legal document with specific terms and conditions. They usually have clauses for cancellations and changes, with timescales and a salary. There is also sometimes a space for signatures at the bottom to show that you have agreed to the brief and will do what it asks.
• Negotiated - This brief contains negotiations from the two parties. A downside to this is that the two parties may not agree with eachother and have different ideas. If this is the case, they sometimes bring in a third party (arbitrator). After a final agreement you may not like what you have to do.
• Formal - A formal brief is usually very detailed, clear and contains many explicit requirements. The major downside is that you may not like what the brief asks, but in some cases you can ask for minor changes, but this has to be agreed on. The brief is legally binding; this can be both an advantage and disadvantage. The advantage of this is that the client knows the requirements will be followed and if not, the worker may not be paid for their efforts.
• Informal - An informal brief is a verbal agreement between different parties with no official written document. This is usually a conversation between two or more people face to face or over the phone. As it is not written down, some of the discussed information may be forgotten and not completed.
• Tender - A tender brief is widely open to interpretation. The client asks for ideas for a specific subject. It contains basic information such as a brief summery of the subject, company name, contact details, and deadline dates. This type of brief allows the worker to be creative with their ideas. The downside to this particular brief is that you can spend a lot of time on the project but not actually get the job. Also, the client could then use your application to gain more ideas.
• Cooperative - This brief is used so companies or different parties come together and agree on a specific subject. There is more documentation as there are many different companies, so letters or phone calls will be needed to contact eachother. The advantage to a cooperative brief is the companies can combine ideas to make a better product.
• Competetive - A competitive brief is basically a competition where the client applies specific requirements for the audience and they choose the entry/entries they think are the best and want to use. This type of brief is very explicit as the client knows what they want. This means that creativity is very limited.