2.2
Client Requirements and Briefs
A brief tells you what to make and the conditions it has to meet. Most marks here come from reading it carefully — pulling out what the client actually said, and explaining how each requirement changes what the team can do.
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What you need to know
- Pick specific requirements and constraints out of a supplied brief.
- Tell the product’s genre, style, theme and purpose apart.
- Recognise commission, formal, informal, meeting, negotiated and written briefs.
Start here
What to pull out of a brief
Section B gives you a scenario and expects you to mine it. These are the nine things worth looking for.
Look for the giveaway wording: “must include”, “aimed at”, “no longer than”, a named date. Some requirements are implied rather than stated — a display going in a noisy entrance hall has to work without sound, even if the brief never says so.
| Requirement | The question you are answering |
|---|---|
| Type of product | Is this a video, a website, a graphic, something else? |
| Purpose | Promote, educate, entertain, inform or influence? |
| Audience | Who is meant to use or respond to it? |
| Client ethos | What values should the work reflect? |
| Content | What has to be in it — information, images, sounds, features? |
| Genre | Which category is it, and which conventions come with that? |
| Style | How should it look, sound and read? |
| Theme | What idea runs through the content? |
| Timescales | When are drafts, approvals and delivery due? |
Learn the list
Six ways a brief happens
These are not six boxes to sort a brief into. They describe different aspects, so they stack: a commissioned job can start with a meeting, get negotiated, and end up as a formal written brief. That is normal.
Each has a trade-off worth knowing. Written gives everyone something to check back against. Discussion lets you ask the question you would otherwise guess at. Which is why teams do both, and write down what was agreed in the meeting.
| Format | What it means |
|---|---|
| Commission | A client hires a producer or company to make a particular piece of work. |
| Formal | A structured, detailed statement of what is required, usually with terms attached. |
| Informal | Requirements passed on casually — a conversation, a short message. |
| Meeting / discussion | Client and producer talk it through and ask each other questions. |
| Negotiated | Both sides discuss and agree the requirements, or agree a change to them. |
| Written | The requirements are recorded — a document, an email, anything written down. |
How it works
When a requirement becomes a constraint
A requirement turns into a constraint the moment it closes off options. A fixed launch date limits how long you have. A maximum duration limits how much you can fit in. Having to use the client’s brand colours limits the palette you can design with.
Look for dependencies too, because they decide the order of the plan: approval has to happen before publication, and dialogue has to be recorded before it can be edited. If two requirements genuinely clash, the answer is to go back and negotiate — not to quietly drop one and hope.
How it works
Turning requirements into ideas
Take each requirement and ask what it forces you to do. A client whose ethos is about environmental responsibility needs factual content and imagery that match that message — using stock photos of something they would never do undermines the whole thing. An audience of young children changes your vocabulary and how many steps you put in an instruction.
Keep a hard line between what the client said and what you are proposing. “The logo must appear” is a requirement. “Put it in the top-left corner” is your idea about how to meet it. Both are fine; presenting the second as the first is not.
Common trap
If a question asks for two timescale constraints, give two things about timing. Answering with two content features scores nothing, however well you explain them.
In the exam
From requirement to planning decision
Worked answer
3 marks
A library needs an illustrated reading guide for children. The client must approve it one week before printing. Explain how that approval requirement affects the plan.
Tempting, but this does not score
The team has to get the guide approved a week before it is printed, so they need to be organised and meet the deadline.
This repeats the requirement and then adds a personal quality. It never says what the team has to actually do differently, or what happens if they do not.
Worth writing
The team has to finish a reviewable draft well before that approval date, and leave time after it for corrections. If they aim the draft at the approval day itself, any change the client asks for pushes into the printing slot and the guide misses its print date even though the artwork was finished.
Where the marks come from
- Names the task the requirement creates: a draft ready early, not on the day.
- Names the second task: time set aside afterwards for corrections.
- States the consequence of getting it wrong — the print date slips.
Key takeaways
- A requirement says what the client needs. A constraint limits how you can deliver it.
- Client ethos means the values the product should reflect.
- Brief formats overlap — a commission can be negotiated in a meeting and then written down.
- Never present your own idea as something the brief said.
- A constraint is not a complaint. It guides decisions rather than ruining them.
Glossary
- Client brief
- How a client sets out what they need from a project.
- Requirement
- Something the client needs the product to be or do.
- Constraint
- A limit on the choices available while planning or producing.
- Ethos
- The values or principles a person or organisation works to.
- Theme
- The central idea running through the product’s content.
Test yourself
5 questions
What does client ethos mean?
The values or principles the client works to, and wants the product to reflect.
How is a negotiated brief agreed?
The client and producer discuss it and agree the requirements, or a change to them, together.
Can a brief be both formal and written?
Yes. Formal describes how structured it is; written describes how it was recorded. They are different things.
Why is a fixed delivery date a constraint?
It caps the time available for planning, making, reviewing and finishing — so it shapes every other decision.
What is the difference between a requirement and your idea?
A requirement came from the client. Your idea is one way of meeting it. Do not present the second as the first.
Common questions
Are genre and theme the same thing?
No. Mystery is a genre and brings conventions with it. Friendship could be the theme running through it. Style is how it is all presented.
Does an informal brief mean less planning?
No — usually more. The requirements still exist, they just have not been written down yet, so someone has to confirm them before the team can plan.
What if the brief does not mention the audience?
Ask. If you are in an exam and cannot, say what you would need to confirm and plan against a reasonable stated assumption.