Writing a brief

Writing a brief

When working for a client or company, they will provide you with a written brief of what they will want you to produce for them. Illustration briefs usually include the exact details and requirements of what the paid illustration(s) should look like, information and concepts behind the illustrations, picture themes, sizing requirements, who the target audience is, a payment or budget figure and a deadline date.

Illustration briefs should be well written and thorough, including every requirement that the commissioner expects from the work that will be produced from the illustrator. Briefs that are vague and don't include too much detail into what will be required from the artist will sometimes cause confusion with the artist and a poorly written brief can result in the artist creating something completely different to what the client has visualised so putting as much detail and information into a brief is very important.

A good example of a brief that's easy to read and is also informative is this brief below I've found from a website advertising a competition to design a book cover for the book, 'Lord of the flies'.

1. Read the book for ideas and themes, and look at the competition website for help with ideas. You can interpret the story visually in many different ways – we will be looking for the most creative and visually appealing solution. You may wish to concentrate on the location, or some of the characters, or a single character, or a single item or motif, or something more abstract and symbolic – the choice is up to you.

2. Create an illustration for the cover, to fit the dimensions below. Your image can be full colour, or a single colour, or two colours . . . it’s up to you.

3. You can use any media: paint / pencils / collage / printmaking / photographic illustration / vector based artwork / a 3D model (photographed and designed to fit the dimensions) . . . the possibilities are endless.

4. Please do not include lettering, but allow lots of space for it. The designers at Faber will be adding the author and title type to the cover.

5. When uploading your work to the site please supply it as an RGB jpeg, no bigger than 5mb. Please make sure you keep the original high res artwork as this will be needed if you win the competition.

6. Size: 208mm high X 136mm wide Your artwork can be bigger than this, but it must be scaled to the correct proportions. Also, the outer 5mm of the winning artwork will get trimmed all round when printed. This is called the ‘bleed’. Nothing important should go in this area.

Brief taken from this website >> ( http://www.lordofthefliescover.com/about-competition/illustration-brief/ )