Different types of brief

Contractual-

A contractual brief is a brief that sets certain agreements from clients to complete all necessary paperwork and details in an easy manner, making it easier to understand. A client would be asked to provide formalities and information, as this is needed in order for the company hired, in order for them to complete the work. A disadvantage of this brief is that there could be disagreements between the client and company with the contract, and this could be over terms within the contract. Also, the timing of the brief may become an issue; this is because the brief is very likely to have a timing limit. But an advantage of having this type of brief is that the client can control everything within the brief for there own personal preference.

A contractual brief means that anyone involved in the project will have to sign a confidentiality agreement, for example this was used in “the taking of prince harry” as prince Harry was interviewed, a confidentiality agreement was used to keep him safe from other dangers.

In my own personal experience with working with brief, I was contracted with contractual brief in order to create an ident for a online channel, this meant the client would either have an idea of what they wanted, or give complete control to the maker, which Is what happened in this case.

Negotiated-

This type of brief can be described as similar to the formal brief as this will have both the client and the company offering up ideas and suggestions that could be used for the project, for example you might have different ideas for a advert, meaning the client and company could compromise. An advantage of this type of brief is that the best ideas from both parties involved can be used.

In my own experiences with briefs I was conducted with a negotiated brief when making an animation, which meant that for example, the way the animation was made and conducted was chosen by the company, but the actual storyline was made by myself. Another example of a negotiated brief in my work is my ident. I was commissioned to create an ident to show Thomas Tallis School in a positive way. I created different ideas and communicated with the clients on what ideas would be suitable for this project.

Formal-

The formal brief is a brief that will have certain aspects within it, these certain aspects have to be met and cannot be changed under any circumstances. Due to it being a formal brief, each section will be made very clear to the company, thus making it very easy to understand, and therefore meaning a project can be created quickly and easily for the client. But one of the disadvantages of a using a formal brief is that it can be very serious, and this may put off potential clients, and a company may want to be not constricted with his artistic freedom.

In my own personal experiences with briefs as I was used within a formal brief in order to create an ident for a online channel, for example the ident had to be created in a certain way E.G. to show to channel in a positive light to people who will not have seen it before. Another example of a formal brief is the graphics used within the Thomas Tallis School. This can be described as a formal brief as apart of the brief included that companies would have to run workshops to obtain different thoughts and ideas about the school. This may intern put some companies off, as they may prefer to work alone on the project

Informal-

A informal brief is quite similar to a formal brief as it gives a company a idea, but this can be quite vague, there are guidelines to the brief, but they are quite open ones, which give the creator artistic license on their project. This can be an advantage as ideas are conceived in a very relaxed environment, but on the other hand this can cause a disadvantage by working in this way, it can be described as an unprofessional working environment and ideas can be described as unclear.

In my own personal experience with informal briefs I worked on an animation, which was quite relaxed environment to work in as I had the choice of how the animation was created and the storyline for the animation. An example of this brief is a young photographer being commissioned to photo a music event, but instead of asking the photographer to focus on very specific aspects, he is asked to produce photos just detailing the full day of the event, showing anything. Thus giving more artistic freedom to the photographer.

Commission

Certain companies such as TV channels use a commission brief; it is used, as a company will be hired in order to create a product for their certain schedule. This can be an advantage for the companies as they get a certain “niche” product for their company, but on the other hand this can be a disadvantage to the companies as they may not have the ideas to create for certain projects. With this brief it is somewhat different to other briefs, as a creator will enquire about certain companies from looking at past work or word of mouth from other people, for example a company may be commissioned to produce a art piece after the client seeing a past exhibition from this client

In my own experiences with commission briefs I created an ident, this was a commission ident as I was asked to create a ident with certain aspects within, one of this was that it was used to show the school in a positive light, meaning I had to follow certain aspects in order to complete the project.

Tender-

Tender brief is used almost competition like in a way, as a group of creators would be sent a tender brief in order to decide who’s ideas are the best, one of the advantages of this is that ideas can be created in quite a calm environment, but a disadvantage is that you may not be given the job. This brief is a public one so that multiple companies can submit a response and “tender” for the work.

An example of this brief is the graphics placed around light-wells within Thomas Tallis School. 4 graphic companies tendered for this work and the school chose whoever they wanted to complete the task. The brief for this was quite specific as the school wanted the pupils and teacher’s feedback and ideas for this, which may have put off some creators, as they may have not wanted their final product to be negotiated with other people.

This brief can also be linked to a commission brief as then once all different companies tendered for the brief, the school decided that one company would be “commissioned” for this.