Client Requirements
What is a Client Brief?
Before any media product is made, a client — the person or organisation commissioning the work — needs to tell the creative team what they actually want. They do this through a client brief: a document or communication that sets out their requirements. Think of it as a set of instructions that shapes everything you produce, from the first idea to the final file.
Reading a brief carefully is a real professional skill. Examiners frequently reward candidates who can pick out the key information buried in a scenario and explain what it means for the production process.
The Nine Client Requirements
A client brief can contain many different types of requirement. This unit identifies nine that you need to know.
Type of product refers to what the client actually wants created — a website, a video advertisement, a poster, a social media graphic, and so on. This immediately tells you what software, file formats and skills the project will demand.
Purpose explains why the product is being made. A brief might ask you to advertise a new service, educate young people about road safety, or entertain an audience at a live event. Purpose drives every creative decision that follows, because a product designed to inform will look and feel very different from one designed to entertain.
Audience describes who the product is aimed at. A brief might specify an age range, a location, or a particular interest group. Knowing your audience shapes the language you use, the visual style you adopt, and the platforms you choose to distribute on.
Client ethos is the values, personality and identity of the organisation behind the brief. A children's charity, a luxury car brand and a grassroots music festival all have very different identities, and your work must reflect theirs — not your own preferences. If a client's ethos is built around sustainability, for example, that should feed into the tone, imagery and messaging of anything you create for them.
Content covers the specific material that needs to appear in the product — images, text, video clips, logos, slogans, or data. Sometimes the client supplies these assets directly; sometimes they give you guidelines about what must be included.
Genre refers to the category or type of creative work expected. In video, for instance, a brief might call for a documentary-style piece rather than a fast-paced action trailer. Genre signals the conventions and expectations your audience will bring with them, so it directly influences your choices around music, editing pace, typography, and much more.
Style is about the overall look and feel of the product — whether it should be bold and energetic or calm and minimal, photographic or illustrated, formal or playful. Style requirements often come with reference images or examples of work the client admires.
Theme is the central idea or message running through the product. For a theme park campaign, the theme might be "adventure and discovery." Every creative element — from colour palette to copy — should reinforce it.
Timescales are the deadlines and milestones the client sets for the project. These are not optional; they are a hard requirement. A product delivered after a launch date is worthless to a client who needed it in time for an event. Timescales also affect how you plan your work: tight deadlines may mean prioritising tasks, working in parallel, or keeping ideas realistic in scope.
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