Session 1- Deciding upon a Brief & Collaboration Contract

Creative partner: Melissa Hardcastle

For the session we had to bring along our own sheet explaining why we had chosen our partner and what our expectations of the briefs our… 
the three briefs we had chosen where

D&AD 

• National Trust
• Unilever

YCN 

• Oasis

Why have you chosen to work with your creative partner ? What are your aims ?

I have chosen to work with my partner, Melissa, as I feel that we have similar interests within and beyond graphic design. We both lean towards design for the fashion sector. I aim to use this very similar interest and understanding to our advantage. I also aim to learn how to work with another person as a collaboration and splitting the roles. I also aim to learn a little bit more about photoshop as I think Melissa might be able to teach me some things I don't know. 

What are your specific areas of creative interest in these briefs ?

The Oasis brief as mentioned appeals to my sector interest, as well as this the target audience as well, and the type orientated nature of this brief would suit me better. The National Trust brief also interests me for its values and its environmental side. The response to this brief could also be quite organic, and this interests me. Finally the Unilever brief interest me due to its social aspect, and aiming for social good.

What specific design skills do you have to offer in relation to your briefs ? How do you intend to use them ?

I have a good sense of layouts and using grids, which produce well organised responses. I also like type and a lot of my work is more type based, and I think especially for the oasis brief this would help extensively. As well as this I am quite good digitally and this will help us as Melissa isn't as experienced. 

What non- specific design skills do you have to offer in relation to your briefs ? How do you intend to use them ?

I am organised and always manage to do a good amount of work to a good quality in the time that I have. I think that this will help us as I can project manage, and plan the time wisely. I also know about the production of design i.e. print and I know roughly how long / how much things take and cost. I would also say I am quite understanding and will listen to comments opinions and I can compromise and I think that this will help us to move on quickly in the project. 

What will your specific roles be in the collaboration in relation to the briefs ?

I think that we will designate roles between us, and not do everything together. I think that at this point I will mainly be in charge of type and layout , and a lot of the digital- unless it is photographic. I think that Melissa will mainly be in charge of images and imagery.

What do you think your responsibilities will be in response to your brief ? 

To keep to schedule 

To remember things

To listen 

To manage time responsibly 

To collaborate and to listen

What do you think your joint responsibilities will be ?

To arrange and keep to print slots

To meet deadlines

To inform each other of where we are at and any changes

The Session 

And so in the session we had to get out our three briefs. We then had some time to go through each brief and list the pro's and con's. 

For the session I printed out our briefs and so when we annotated the pro's and con's we talked about them but then wrote them down in our own way. I decided to use post-it notes as I didn't want this on my brief, where I would rather have other annotation. 

Oasis 

Pro's

• Fashion Based- Design would be for the fashion sector, which interest us both.
• We are / are similar to the target audience 
• We both like designing for this audience
• Could be quite easy to obtain primary research/images
• Tone of Voice- achievable, easy and relatable, its also positive which makes it fun to work with.
• Mandatories are very open

Con's

• No actual age mentioned for the target audience making it too broad there is no specific audience
• Already have quite a distinct style would they like a slightly different style ?
• The set response ranges in its requirements, i.e. you can just write the messages or you can design them. This means that someone might not be putting in the same amount of time.

Unilever

Pro's 

• The brief is about doing good socially and this to me is important and a good cause/ purpose
• Products are well known and easy to get information and images on. 

Con's 

• Slightly earlier deadline
• 'This is a big complicated brief' - This could be too much to take on especially for a first collaboration brief. And it may be too broad
• Choosing your own target audience again is too broad, it's like they don't really know who to target next
• The products they want to use don't exactly solve the more serious issues, and they don't really help in certain areas i.e. Ben and Jerry's - Health
• The deliverables are anything, they don't really know what they want either.

National Trust 

Pro's

• Easy resource-able primary research
• Nature based
• Personal knowledge and experience of some of the sites 
• The campaign offers scope for design

Con's

• A lot of people have preconceived ideas of the National Trust and it would be hard to really impact on the mind set of these people.
• The target audience is perhaps too old, the age range especially late twenties to forties may already be visiting these sites as couples, with dogs, for leisure or with children as a family, and so this specific audience doesn't seem quite right
• 'Old fashioned ways' they themselves need to address this issue maybe a rebrand, or something would help them over one campaign.

After this discussion we had to decide which brief we wanted to answer , we chose... 

 

Oasis

We then had to discuss the collaboration contract in which we would agree to our roles and responsibilities. 

This is the first contract we wrote, but like most pairs in the session these where slightly vague due to the fact we haven't had chance to get some initial ideas on the brief itself. However I do think that me and Melissa devised this contract up quite easily and I feel that there weren't really and disagreements. But this contract needs some revising before it is final. 

What are roles and responsibilities ? 

Roles

Project Management

Resources- i.e. cameras, stock, laptops etc

Contacts and information

…

Responsibilities

Style

Research areas

Fulfilling the agreement

Meeting Deadlines

Maintaining Clear Communication

At the end of the agreement me and Melissa also exchanged emails so that we will be able to keep in contact, and send each other work.