What to Include in a Creative Practitioner Brief
A brief is a document in which you set out the objectives of a project or commission that you want a creative practitioner to undertake, and a specification as to how this will be done. It also defines what sort of person you are looking for in order to achieve your objectives. When you advertise for a freelance creative practitioner, any advertisement should link to your brief, so that prospective applicants can find out more about the commission, what you are looking for, what fee you are offering and how they can apply:
Suggested items to include in a brief.
- Title of project or commission
- Introduction (eg what has led to this commission? Describe any project the creative practitioner will be part of. Say what makes a creative practitioner important to this project etc
- Objectives of this commission – what do you want it to achieve and for what purpose
- What the role will involve – including values, tasks, processes, outputs and outcomes
- Required skills and experience.
- Location(s) of the role.
- Timetable – including milestones and deadlines and number of hours/days/weeks required overall.
- General information about the institute or department the person will be providing services for.
- General information about the University of Exeter – size, locations, rankings etc
- Fee/budget– for creative practitioners this should be fair and reflect the number of hours/days the person will be working. (This could include research and development time as well as time actually present.) See our guide to ‘Paying Creative Practitioners’ for more information on fair pay. Don’t forget to state whether the fee includes VAT and whether it includes all expenses and materials. We recommend that the fee should include both of these.
- Application process – what information do you want to be submitted (eg CV, personal statement, examples of former work), in what format, to whom, by when? What would you like them to include in their personal statement (eg particular experience, values, skills..)
- Selection and interview process – if possible share interview dates and whether they will be in person at a given location or online.
- A contact email for questions, or to ask about other format options for submitting an application or discuss any support that might be needed.
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