This document summarizes different types of client briefs that can be used for media projects. It defines contractual, formal, informal, co-operative, negotiated, commission, tender, and competition briefs. For each type of brief, it outlines the key advantages and disadvantages. The document also discusses reading the brief thoroughly, understanding the nature and demands of the client brief, negotiating the brief with the client prior to production, employing discretion with the brief, potential legal issues, and opportunities the brief allows.

1. WORKING TO A BRIEF
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Jordan Armytage

2. CONTRACTUAL BRIEF
Definition: A contractual brief is where a media company signs
an agreement with another media company to complete a
specific task(s) within a specific time period for a fixed fee.
Advantages: Some advantages of a contractual brief are that you
know you will be paid for delivering the work that you’ve been
asked for, and you will also be provided with the information
an materials to complete the task(s).
Disadvantages: Some disadvantages might be that the money
you would receive might not be enough for you to make a
profit or you may come within breach of your contract and
would be open to a lawsuit.

3. FORMAL BRIEF
Definition: A formal contract is a contract between a client and
media company to create a product within a specific time limit
and fixed pay.
Advantages: A formal contract isn’t legally binding, which
means that if you were to come in breach of what you and your
client agreed to, they can’t take any legal action against you.
Disadvantages: One disadvantage is that the client doesn’t need
doesn’t have to provide you with all the information that they
have, they may only give you the basic information you may
need.

4. INFORMAL BRIEF
Definition: An informal brief is most likely a verbal contract
between a client and a smaller company to work for them
without a written document.
Advantages: An advantage might be since this is a verbal
contract, there’s very little chance that the client can take any
legal action against you if you were to use any information they
didn’t provide you with or took without their permission.
Disadvantages: A disadvantage to an informal brief is that if you
complete your work for you client and hand it over to them,
they might possibly not pay you because don’t have a written
agreement and can’t make them deliver on what they
promised.

5. CO-OPERATIVE BRIEF
Definition: A co-operative brief is where 2 or more companies
are hired by the same client and then work together to
complete the project for their client.
Advantages: One advantage of a co-operative brief is that since
more companies are hired, the work load is shared and can be
completed in a shorter amount of time.
Disadvantages: A disadvantage of a co-operative brief is that if
a disagreement breaks out between the hired companies
happens, it can be difficult to resolve it in a way that satisfies
both companies.

6. NEGOTIATED BRIEF
Definition: A negotiated brief is when 2 or more companies are
working on a brief for a client and have conflicting ideas that
need to be resolved in a way that satisfies all parties, including
the client.
Advantages: One advantage of this type of brief is that if the
brief is renegotiated, the deal can be made better for everyone
involved.
Disadvantages: One disadvantage might be that the negotiation
may break down because the 2+ companies may disagree with
each other too much, or one company may side with another.

7. COMMISSION BRIEF
Definition: A commission brief is when a large media company
hires an independent media company to create a product for
them. If the product created is used, the independent company
will be given a part of the product’s profit.
Advantages: One advantage of this type of brief, is that the
company that creates the product will be paid and be paid a
part of product’s profits.
Disadvantages: A disadvantage might be that the independent
company may not make a profit if the product isn’t very
successful and the company could end up losing money.

8. TENDER BRIEF
Definition: A tender brief is when a client publishes an ad for
other companies then make a brief, proposal and budget to the
pitch to the client.
Advantages: An advantage to this type of brief is that the client
will get multiple proposals and can then choose the one that
they like the most.
Disadvantages: A disadvantage might be that the proposals they
receive might not match the type of work they’re looking for, or
the company may lie in the proposal or might not be able to
deliver on what they promised.

9. COMPETITION BRIEF
Definition: This type of brief is when it’s made available to all
participating production companies. The companies then all
complete the brief and the client then choose the one they
think is the best.
Advantages: One advantage to this type of brief is that it’s
usually a free to enter competition and then the client only has
to pay the winner of the competition, if they choose a winner.
Disadvantages: A disadvantage is that all the entries that the
client would receive, may not be the type of work they’re
looking for, or the quality might not be to the standards that
they want.

10. MY BRIEF
Which structure/structures will your client brief use?
Reference your reasons for choice/choices
My brief is an informal brief because my client and I agreed to
be a part of my project without any written agreement. The
main reason why my brief is a informal/verbal brief with my
client is because they’ve given me permission to use any of
their materials, so no legal issues could possibly come up.
With by brief being an informal brief, it gives me more freedom
to work with because there aren’t any legal restrictions that I
have involving any content that I use from my client.

11. READING THE BRIEF
Why is important to thoroughly read your brief?
It’s important to thoroughly read your brief because there may be
something written in there that you don’t agree with, but could do
nothing about if you sign the contract without reading it first.
It’s also important to read your brief before agreeing to it because you’ll
want to fully understand/be aware of what’s required of you and what
your client will provide you with.

12. READING THE BRIEF
What is the nature and demand of your client brief?
The nature and demand of my brief is to make a campaign poster to
help my client raise donations for their new animal hospital. The only
part of my designs that I need to include for my client are who they are,
what they do and how the public can reach them. I also need to only
include any content that my client has provided me with and make sure
that contact information I use is accurate an up to date.

13. NEGOTIATING A BRIEF
Why is it important to discuss the brief with your client prior to
production?
It’s important to discuss the brief with my client prior to production so
that I’m fully aware of what my client wants from me and any
restrictions that I may have to work in. It’s also important to discuss
my brief with my client to fully understand what they’re asking of me,
especially if the brief doesn’t contain a lot of information.
It’s also a good idea to discuss the budget, if one is included, with my
client because it might not be enough for me to work with. Discussing
the time limit to make my final product within is important as well,
because my client will want to know how long it may take me to make
or I will want to know when my client wants the final product by.

14. NEGOTIATING A BRIEF
What are the advantages and disadvantages of employing discretion
with a brief?
Advantages: One advantage of employing discretion allows me to
interpret the amount of information I’ve been provided with in anyway I
want, which also allows me to make a better product because I can
view the information in anyway I want.
Disadvantages: A disadvantage to employing discretion to my brief is
that I may not be given enough information to make what my client is
asking me to make or it may not be what my client is asking for
because I didn’t have enough information.

15. NEGOTIATING A BRIEF
Are there any potential legal/ethical/regulatory issues with the brief’s
proposed product?
There aren’t any potential legal/ethical/regulatory issues with my
brief’s proposed product because my client has given me
permission to use any information/images from their websites and
I will also keep in contact with my client to make sure that I don’t
use any content that they don’t want me to use.
None of these issues would come up for me because the content
that I’m using are provided to me by my client, so I’m not using
any copyrighted materials without the owners permission.

16. NEGOTIATING A BRIEF
Amendments you have considered to:
The Product: Negotiating the product with my client is important
because what my client may be asking for, might be too difficult for me
to make or too difficult to make within the time limit they’ve given me.
Negotiating the product can overcome this problem.
The Budget: Negotiating the budget with my client is important because
my client may give me a budget that might not be large enough for me
to fully complete the project, so I would need to negotiate for a larger
budget.
The Conditions: Negotiating the working conditions my client is
important because the conditions that I may be working in might not
be safe enough, so I may need a different space to finish the work,
without the risk of being hurt.

17. OPPORTUNITIES
What opportunities could this brief allow you to explore?
Self Development: My brief allows me to explore an opportunity for self
development because I’m using skills that I’ve already learned for my
project and my brief will possibly allow me to further develop my skills.
I can further develop my skills by using some skills I haven’t used in a
while, so I can remember how to use those skills again, or I could some
skills I use mostly and develop them further, which would make my
final product better.
Learning new skills: My brief allows me to explore opportunities to learn
new skills when it comes to making my final product because some of
the designs that I may use with the final product might not work, so I
may need to learn some new skills to make my product better. Some
new skills I could learn to make my final product better could be
formatting text to fit around images or arranging my final product
different to other pieces of work I’ve made before.

18. OPPORTUNITIES
Multi-skilling: My brief allows me to explore opportunities to use
multiple skills to make my final product because if I were to use only
one specific type of skill, my final product might not be as good as it
could be if I were to use multiple skills. If I were to use only one type of
skill to make my final product, it would possibly look very boring and
wouldn’t fulfil its purpose. If I were to use multiple skills to make my
final product, it would possibly look better and more eye catching,
which is its purpose.
Contributing to a project: My brief allows me to explore the opportunity
to contribute to another group’s project by helping to raise awareness
about their campaign by helping out with some design work for one of
their campaign posters. This could also be great experience for me to
know what it could be like to work with others and contribute to
something else, besides by own work.