The document discusses different types of briefs that can be used for media projects, including contractual, formal, informal, cooperative, negotiated, commission, tender, competition, and informal briefs. It defines each type of brief and outlines their advantages and disadvantages. The document also provides examples of different types of briefs that could be used for a recipe card project and discusses why it's important to thoroughly read and discuss the brief with the client before production.

1. Working to a Brief
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Craig Cassidy Eddie Gill

2. Contractual Brief
Definition:
A contractual brief is were a company will design a brief which states what specific tasks
they will want to do etc… Once the brief has been created a company will sign the
brief, meaning that they agree to the contract and at all its terms. If the company who
created the contract or the company who signed the contract don’t stick to the terms
of the contract then legal action can be taken. It is very important that you read this
contract very carefully before you sign it as you don’t want to agree to something
which you don’t want to do or can’t do.
Advantages:
They are usually in a lot of detail so the company will know exactly what its
doing.
Everyone is aware of the terms of the job, so there is no surprises
Disadvantages:
You agree on a set time scale so it will hard to get an extension
There is also less room to change the terms of the contract.

3. Formal Brief
Definition: A formal brief is where a media company is given a brief by a client who
outlines the product which they are wanting to be made. This brief will be very
open and will only give enough information to be able to produce the product. If
any issues arise that the media company would like to go over can be discussed
during negotiations with the client. The company employed by the client and the
client will formally agree to the project however a formal brief is not always legally
binding.
Advantages: An advantage of having this type of brief is that is that the media
company that is employed can raise any ideas and issues if any and the client is
open to them. The work involved is quite creative for the media company and
there is room for negotiation.
Disadvantages: An disadvantage of a formal brief is that agreements made are not
always legally binding meaning that there are risks involved for example, the
media company could drop out of the project losing the client money and time
wasted. The client isn't always in control of the project.

4. Informal Brief
Definition:
In an informal brief there is more than likely to be no form of contract or written document
which has been produced, so it will be settled with a verbal contract. With it being
informal the client and the company will probably not agree on a completion date for
the project to be finished on. It is definitely the most risky form of brief as there is no
contract involved and if anything goes wrong it’s your word against another person’s
word.
Advantages:
You can come to a quick agreement
Saves all the formality of writing up a full contract.
Disadvantages:
No set completion date
As there is no document actually stating that anyone agreed to do anything, the client
might not end up producing a product
You might get underpaid or not paid at all, as there is no legal documents binding you to
pay anyone.

5. Co-Operative Brief
Definition: A co-operative brief is where two or more production companies are hired
to work on a certain brief, this I where the companies come together to complete
the project. With a co-operative brief if there are any disagreements between the
production companies or about the project a negotiated brief would have to be
submitted to please both companies.
Advantages: An advantage of a co-operative brief is, there are more than one
perspective when it comes to creating the product. Also there are two companies
working on the brief which means if is likely for the brief to be able to be
understood more compared to if there was one company working on the project.
Disadvantages: A disadvantage of this brief is that the project can be prone to
disagreements and conflicts due to the client hiring two companies to work
together.

6. Negotiated Brief
Definition:
A negotiated brief takes place once a contract has already been signed and someone
wants to change the terms of brief, this is what a negotiated brief is used for. So on
the negotiated brief it will state what needs someone wants to be changed about the
original contract and what to expect from the change on the final product.
Advantages:
If there is a major inconvenience it allows change rather than just having to work around
it
Allows more ideas to be added.
Disadvantages:
If only one part wants to change the original contract then the negotiated brief might be
thrown out.
A negotiated brief might extend the completion date for the product massively and cause
inconvenience's.

7. Commission Brief
Definition: A commission brief is where a large company will hire a smaller
independent company to create and produce a product for them. Whether it be a
leaflet or an advertisement. The brief is not negotiated between the external
client, however it is negotiated between the two media companies. The product
that is made by the smaller independent company can then be used by the larger
media company for an external client. The smaller independent company will get
money for producing the product and may even get a cut of the profit each time it
is sold, broadcasted or published.
Advantages: An advantage of the commission brief is that the larger company can
assign work, that is in the brief, to another company. This means that the larger
company doesn’t have to do all the work.
Disadvantages: A disadvantage of the commission brief is that the brief isn't
negotiated with the client but the two media companies. This means that the end
product might not meet the clients standards of work.

8. Tender Brief
Definition:
A tender brief is where a client will create a contract for a brief which they require to be
created. Once the brief has been created and it has been seen by companies, the
company will then create a proposal and a budget and then pitch it in correspondence
to the original brief. Typically more than one company will pitch and then the client will
decide on the best brief which has been pitched.
Advantages:
The client who created the contract can choose from plenty of potential company's so it
hopefully creates less of an opportunity for the project to fail.
Disadvantages:
A team might spend ages producing a brief in accordance to the contract and not actually
get chosen, so it can be a waste of time.
If the original contract is very brief, the brief created by the company might be exactly
what the client is looking for.

9. Competition Brief
Definition: The competition brief is where the client can produce a brief that is made
available for all the production companies that are contributing to the project. This
is seen as a free competition where production company's will complete the brief
and then the client will judge which company has produced the best work and
reward the company by publishing their work.
Advantages: An advantage of the competition brief is that the client only has to pay
the winning production company. Another advantage is that there is a lot of work
produced by the multiple competing company's that the client can then go
through and chose the one they think will be the most successful.
Disadvantages: A disadvantage of the competition brief is that the company's that get
turned down by the client may become disheartened because they missed out on
a potential sale and money.

10. My Brief
Which type of brief is being used in the recipe card project? Explain your response.
First of all I'm going to list the kind of briefs that it isn’t and explain why:
• Contractual brief, its not this kind of brief because there has been no contract drawn up, which
requires me to sign it, to accept the terms of the brief and also the brief isn’t legally binding.
• In-formal brief, it’s not an informal brief because the brief is on a word document and an informal
brief would never come in this form.
• Co-operative brief, its not this form of brief because only one company has been hired to do the
job (myself).
• Negotiated brief, it’s not a negotiated brief because as of yet there has been no terms which I
would like to change on the brief, but it could potentially be this form of brief.
• Commission brief, it’s not a commission brief because it’s not a larger company hiring a smaller
company to complete the terms of the brief.
• Tender brief, it’s not a tender brief because I haven’t been required to create any proposal and I’m
not in competition with any companies to get the contract
• Competition brief, its not this form of brief because I’m not responding to any form of competition.
Finally it is a formal brief because, it has been created on a formal document which states the
conditions etc… It is also open enough just so it gives me enough information about the contract, but
still kind of leaves it abit to me discression and its not legal binding which the brief I have been given
isn’t

11. Reading the Brief
Why is important to thoroughly read your brief?
It’s very important that you as a company will thoroughly read your brief, because its kind of like
getting a recipe book finding a recipe and only reading the ingredients and leaving out the method
it won’t end very well more than likely because you will be going into making it “blindly”.
Its the same case with the brief I have received because it states all the little details that I need to
include such as how to refer to tablespoons and wether I should put a space or space before the
symbol for grams. If I didn’t read the brief thoroughly as well I would get to making my product and
not fully understand what I was supposed to be doing, then I would either not be able to finish the
product or I would make a product and it probably wouldn’t be right according to the conditions of
the brief so it would be a waste of time and money.
Finally another reason why it is important for you to full read your brief is, not so much in the case of
the brief that I have received but if I had received a contractual brief and didn’t fully read the brief
and did something that it stated I wasn’t supposed to do I could be liable for legal action to be
taken against and it would of all been my fault just for not reading something properly.

12. Reading the Brief
What is the nature of the Vegetarian Recipe Cards brief?
The nature of the brief is to produce a set of recipe cards that incorporate a design, high quality
photographs need to be included so the public knows what the end product will look like.
Also a brief description about the recipe, the ingredients and the method. All these will be
appropriately positioned on the card to link with the theme. Certain information needs to be
visible on the recipe card such as the serving number of the meal, preparation time, cooking
time and if its vegan suitable. Finally the companies branding strip needs to be incorporated
into the recipe card so the public know that the product belongs to a certain client.
What is the demand of the Vegetarian Recipe Cards brief?
The demand of the vegetarian recipe card brief is to have a completely finished recipe card by the
21/5/14. The man power needed for the project will be broken up between three people to
ensure the project is complete at a high standard before the deadline date.

13. Negotiating a Brief
Why is it important to discuss the brief with your client prior to production?
It is important to discuss your brief with your client before you go into production because:
• If you have any problems with the brief, such as you don’t think you will be able to meet one of the
requirements you can talk to the client and then they might discuss with you about changing the
brief or they might be able to tell you a possible alternative.
• Another reason why its is important to discuss your brief with your client because, if you are
unsure about one of the terms of the contract then you can ask your client to fully explain what it
means to you. This is important because if you didn’t do the above then you won’t going into the
contract feeling confident and you will probably make a mistake aswel.
• Finally my final reason for why it is important you discuss your brief with you client prior to
production is, just so you can get any last minute useful information about the brief just before you
go into production.

14. Negotiating a Brief
What are the advantages and disadvantages of employing discretion with a brief?
The advantages and disadvantages are:
Advantages
• If there is some room to move around the terms of the brief and it’s not just a set brief with very
strict terms. It allows more room for creativity because you have been given some slight form of
freedom, this also means that you will get a variation in your final products aswel.
• It also makes the company feel as if they are kind of free rather than just being a “slave” to the
terms of the contract.
Disadvantages:
• Sometimes it can be to open
• It can lead to misinterpretation aswel, because if you lead the brief to open to discression then the
company wont fully know what they are supposed to be doing.
• Finally if its too open for discression then as a client you won’t be able to appeal against anything
the company does wrong as the company will be able to justify why they did it because the brief
was too open.

15. Negotiating a Brief
Are there any potential legal/ethical/regulatory issues with the Vegetarian Society brief’s
proposed product?
There are some legal/ethical issues that we would have to consider
Legal
• First of all we could have to consider legally any copyright issues that we might be infringing such
as we would need to make sure the images we used if we got them off the internet were copyright
free or we had permission to use them also maybe we would have to consider out logo design
wasn’t copyrighted already and final we might have to consider if we have permission to use a
recipe.
Ethical
• For ethical reason we would have to consider were we sourced the ingredients from, for example
if we had to use eggs then we would probably have to make sure they were free range to avoid
offending people
• One obvious ethical consideration is obviously not meat can be involved.
• Finally my last ethical consideration is that if any religion can’t have a certain produce, the we
might have to avoid that product (if possible) just to make sure that people of that religion don’t get
offended because our recipe isn’t aimed at them.

16. Negotiating a Brief
Amendments you have considered to;
The Product
After reading the brief it will be important to be aware of that face that there may be some things
that will need to be changed. For example any overly ambitious deadlines and time scales will
need to be considered.
The Budget
If there is not enough finance supplied in order to complete the product an amendment to the
budget may need to be considered. If this is the case either the budget of the project will
need to be increased or the scope of the project will need to be decreased.
The Conditions
If the project were to run overtime you may need to discuss with the client the chance of your
pay being increased, this may be difficult to do after the contract is signed, so make sure to
negotiate this consideration with your client before the project starts.

17. Opportunities
What opportunities could this brief allow you to explore?
Self Development
This means that you will be able to develop your skills within the work that is required from you such as the
graphic designer, Photography and cooking of recipes. It will also allow people within the group to work on
their team work skills and their negotiation and discussion skills.
Learning new skills
This allows you an opportunity to try your skills out on a different job role within your team. For example
assisting the cook when he prepares the food. It will also allow your team to understand the attitude
needed to produce this type of work. It will also help you learn how to produce work to a professional
standard as you will be working alongside a client.
Multi-skilling
Within a group there is going to be people doing more than on job for example the photographer will also do
the graphic design work. This is because with a group there can be members that have a range of skills so
this means he can work on more than one area of the product to help. This will increase productivity and
means that hiring additional personal to do other jobs is not needed but team work will be key.
Contributing to a brief
My group will be contributing towards the brief by producing the food that’s on the recipe card. This will allow
a better understanding of the food and shows enthusiasm. This will be complete at one of the team
members homes.