1. Working to a Brief
LO1
Hayley Brown & Katie Scruton

2. Contractual Brief
Definition - This is the brief which is discussed and signed with a contract between
the client and the company. The company signs a contract agreeing to complete a
project in a certain time period with a specific fee.
Advantages- Advantages of this type of brief is that the Company and the Client
both have control over the situation. Without a contracted agreed brief the
Client could refuse to pay the company or the company could take too long to
complete the specific tasks.
Disadvantages- Disadvantages of this specific brief include things such as the client
and company disagreeing on certain agreements of the contract.

3. Formal Brief
Definition- A formal brief is a type of brief that is more relaxed than the contractual
brief as the client provides the company with a brief that mainly only establishes
the type of product they want to be made. The brief also only contains the basic
information needed for the project. This type of brief is similar to the contractual
brief as both the client and the company will agree on the project however the
formal brief is not always legally binding unlike the contractual brief. This is more
reliable and professional than informal brief as they meet in a boardroom and
have written tasks.
Advantages- This brief is more relaxed for the company and allow the company to
also work on other deadlines and projects as there is no completion date. This
contract is also a bit more informal than the contractual brief as things can be
changed as the project progresses.
Disadvantages- This type of brief can be slightly risky due to not having a contract
involved.

4. Informal Brief
Definition- This type of brief is only done face to face through a brief meeting. It is a
lot more informal than the formal brief as it is usually agreed in a relaxed place
and environment unlike the formal brief that would be usually agreed in a
boardroom meeting and have written down tasks.
Advantages- Relaxed for the company, good relationship between the client and the
company. No pressure as there is no set deadline.
Disadvantages- As there is no contract , nothing is set in stone . The client could
change the amount of pay to a lower amount. This could mean that the producer
has missed out on another opportunity which offered more money. Also the only
proof that you had the job (for future employers) is the final published work, if it
is published.

5. Co-Operative Brief
Definition- A Co-Operative brief is where more than one production companies are
hired to work on a specific brief, the companies then have to work together in
order to complete the given tasks.
Advantages- Advantages of the Co-Operative brief are the fact that they’re is more
than one company working on the project. This means that tasks are shared and
there will be more idea’s produced. This should make the final piece a quality
product.
Disadvantages – Because the brief is shared between two companies, there will be
something’s disagreed. If there is a major amount of disagreeing the brief will
become a negotiated brief. Also the profit made won’t be as high as a brief that’s
not split between two companies.

6. Negotiated Brief
Definition – When two or more companies come together to work on a brief but
have conflicting ideas for the project they will negotiate a brief.
Advantages – An advantage is that the brief will be changed to make all the
companies, including the client, content. This could include a visual change,
content change, anything as long as it stays within legal or ethical obligation.
Disadvantages – A disadvantage is that both parties will have to compromise for the
project to continue.

7. Commission Brief
Definition – This is when a large media company hires a smaller, independent
company to create the final product for them.
Advantages – An advantage is that the independent company will be paid for
making the product AND each time the product is sold/broadcast/published.
Disadvantages – A disadvantage is that the brief is negotiated between two
companies rather than an overall client which means there is no set view from
the start and the two companies will have to negotiate a brief, eating into their
production time.

8. Tender Brief
Definition – This is when a client publishes that they need a media product to be
made. A production company then goes onto create a brief, along side a
proposal and a budget to then pitch it to the client. Many companies may enter a
brief to the client to secure the project. The final brief is chosen by the best
proposal and then offers the project to that company.
Advantages – An advantage is that you get to see what other companies have to
offer before you decide who to spend your money on. Another advantage is that
a company might offer a lower price than what the product is worth, making the
client better off.
Disadvantages – A disadvantage is that the budget from the best sounding brief and
proposal is unrealistically big. Also the final product might not be as visually
appealing as the proposal made out to be.

9. Competition Brief
Definition – This is when a brief is made available to all participating production
companies each of which then completes the brief. All companies involved have
their projects judged and the winning company has their product published.
Advantages – An advantage for the client is that they only have to pay the winning
company. Another advantage is that they get to see what they have been offered
before committing to a company.
Disadvantages – A disadvantage for the companies involved is that if they don’t win
they don’t get paid for their time which is then wasted.

10. My Brief
Which structure/structures will the Vegetarian Recipe Cards brief use?
Reference your reasons for choice/choices
The Vegetarian Recipe Cards brief structure consists of both a contractual brief and a
formal brief.
A Contractual brief because there is a set brief that has been given that has to be done
in a set time for a set fee (nothing). This is so that both the client and employee
are aware of what is to happen and so that nothing will change.
A Formal brief because the brief only contains the necessary information needed to
complete the project. It is set in a formal way and the language isn’t chatty and
friendly. It is also a formal brief because the brief is in writing, if it was informal it
would just be by word of mouth.

11. Reading the Brief
Why is important to thoroughly read your brief?
It is important to thoroughly read the brief so that everything is understood and the company
making the product knows what they are doing. This avoids the project being totally wrong
which could then lead to the company who created the final product being sued.
Reading the brief thoroughly will lead to success in the project. This means your company will be
gaining a good reputation, leading to other external clients hiring your company in the future.
Another reason why following the brief is important is so that if there is any rules set by the client
(for example vegsoc made a rule that all recipes must be vegetarian or vegan friendly) then
you will know about it and you won’t accidentally go against it. Knowing this, you (and your
team if you have one) won’t be wasting your time.

12. Reading the Brief
What is the nature and demand of the Vegetarian Recipe Cards brief?
The nature of the brief we have been given is that all the recipes we decide to create recipe cards
containing have to be vegetarian and vegan friendly.
The demand of the brief is to create recipe cards containing vegetarian recipes with a certain
theme running throughout the cards that can be published by the client. All the cards have to
have the same layout and everything about them so it is easy to spot a theme in them and
also to find matching recipe cards of the same set.

13. Negotiating a Brief
Why is it important to discuss the brief with your client prior to production?
It is important to discuss the brief with your client prior to production so that you can clear up
any issues that you may have or any uncertainties. Doing this will lead more toward success
rather than failure.
Discussing the brief you have received with the client will allow you to ask any questions that you
may have. The client may even want to add some more information to the brief or explain
parts of the brief in more detail.
The brief may be short and just give a basic outline of things so the person hired by the client will
get a feel of what they are doing but then meet up with the client to discuss it further and in
more detail.

14. Negotiating a Brief
What are the advantages and disadvantages of employing discretion with a brief?
Advantages
• The producer of the product might come up with an idea for the product that isn’t in the
brief but the client thinks it is a good feature.
• It allows for some freedom with the product being made, things like colour scheme, font,
layout etc.
• The producer might come up with something worth more money than he’s paid so the client
comes away better off.
Disadvantages
• The producer might take their freedom of choice too far and that will waste time if the client
doesn’t like it, causing deadlines to be missed.
• The client might not get what they visualised in their head and it might be a worse final
product than wanted.
• It might make the producer over paid or under paid, depending on the quality of the final
product.

15. Negotiating a Brief
Are there any potential legal/ethical/regulatory issues with the brief’s proposed product?
The only real issues that could be raised with the making of this product would be the models
used, if we use any at all, the ethnicity of the model used.
Another issue could be the fact that if a meat replacement is used (such as Quorn) that it is
positively meat free. However, hopefully, the company we are designing the recipe cards for
should be well known and trusted.
In general, this area of the brief could be linked to equality matters (such as the Equality Act
2010) to make sure that the cards are friendly and fair for everyone. Another link could be
that the actual production of the cards (things such as printing) needs to be environmentally
friendly. This could included printing with recycled material such as paper and ink.

16. Negotiating a Brief
Amendments you have considered to;
The Product
For the product we know that it’s a vegetarian recipe card that needs to be made but we thought
if we did it for children we could make the products recipe look like a popular kids food or a
meat because that’s what kids like. The recipe cards will be colourful and child friendly so
they will appeal to kids if they are shown it by their parents.
The Budget
The budget will be self financed by our little team but we will probably only have to buy the food
to create the recipes. Then we have sourced equipment to use for free of charge to complete
the rest of the tasks.
The Conditions
The conditions specified in the brief include the paper and ink cartridge types and the fact that
they are recycled. We might not have this type of paper or ink but because it is a prototype
of the finished product it doesn’t matter if we print it on different paper because they will be
printing the main ones. That’s if we print it but we would more likely be emailing the final
products designs.

17. Opportunities
What opportunities could this brief allow you to explore?
Self Development
The development in ourselves will include developing current skills that we have, creating new
skills and increasing them to a good degree, testing how well we work in teams, testing how
well we work in teams and more.
Learning new skills
The different tasks that we will be taking on will be teaching us some new skills. Even if it doesn’t
teach us that many new skills it has the opportunity to increase skills that we already have.
Multi-skilling
The task will require us to take on multiple task. Each task will require a different set of skills. For
example, one task will require writing skills, another will require photography skills etc.
Because there is only two of us, we will have to take on these different tasks and using our
skills in the different departments to the best of our degree.
Contributing to a brief
Contributing to the brief will allow us to ask any questions and maybe even suggest some ideas
toward the clients ideas.