To be honest, I did not know what a creative brief was until Thursday. Once I learned what it was, I was quite intrigued. For those that don't know, a creative brief provides inspiration but also focus for the creative team and their advertising campaign.
I know that doesn't sound all that intriguing, but the way my professor explained it to me was what really caught my attention. Her first explanation: "What was told to Michelangelo about painting the Sistine Chapel? What was the direction given to him, that produced the result we have today?" You obviously wouldn't want to be too specific, because you wanted to leave some creativity to him. But there had to be some focus, because if you just told him to paint the ceiling, people could interpret that differently, and you're might end up with an unintended result. In other words, whatever was told to Michelangelo about painting the Sistine Chapel would be the creative brief. Some other examples that were given to us were the Great Wall of China and Egypt's pyramids.
Having been given that description, I got to thinking about a few other things and their potential creative briefs. One that most all of us are aware of... What might have been the creative brief for Burruss Hall here on Virginia Tech's campus? Was the building intended to be a central point on campus when it was built? Or did that come after? Was it designed knowing that it would be a symbol of Virginia Tech? There are so many things I would need to look up before I could even begin to think about what the creative brief for Burruss Hall was. But its still fun to think about, right?
Thinking about actually writing a real creative brief scares me. Luckily, we have a group assignment in Advertising that requires our group to write a creative brief and present it to the class later in the semester! As scared as I am, I am excited to dive in and learn more about what works and what doesn't in a creative brief.
I like the comparison to Burruss!
ReplyDelete