Clients taking over

[yajiu]

I am wanting to grow as a designer (and show the client something innovative that will sell), but constantly have clients/higher bureaucracy taking a well-thought campaign and turning it into something that they are extremely proud of, but fails to sell.

I'd like to know how you "train" your clients, what processes you have in place to let them know:

I sell visually to the public all day every day, and I'm good at it.

Do you have a client training document, do you make them feel like they are part of the design team so that they can put on the designer hat for one day and feel special?

[Ned]

Honestly, if your job is in design, and you are not part of the marketing team, then this is the job of the client's, not yours!!

Only full-service agencies are expected to provide full marketing services, as well as design services. A designer or a design studio is just that - design.

Now, we need to know what we're doing, as far as selling through communication is concerned, as the message that they give us to spread, has to be spreadable through our visual art form.

However, they are the ones who know their company best. That "higher bureaucracy" is probably being paid to do just what they're doing, tear down a campaign and change it to follow the rules that they have established. Perhaps they are wrong, but it's their necks on the line, not yours.

Trust me, you will only beat yourself over the head trying to change a company's existing marketing strategy, until they hand over the entire thing to a full-service agency, or hire a design team to work in-house alongside their marketing department.

[yma123]

I am wanting to grow as a designer (and show the client something innovative that will sell), but constantly have clients/higher bureaucracy taking a well-thought campaign and turning it into something that they are extremely proud of, but fails to sell.

I'd like to know how you "train" your clients, what processes you have in place to let them know:

I sell visually to the public all day every day, and I'm good at it.

Do you have a client training document, do you make them feel like they are part of the design team so that they can put on the designer hat for one day and feel special?
hey there...

yes, I have many clients that think that they are designers & its frustrating...

I tend to keep them happy by designing what they are after but Ill try and meet them half way & design 2 or 3 other designs that incorporate what they want... Ill usually add a innovative touch, but still try to stay on the brief guidelines.

BUT... you got to always have supportive answers & points to back yourself up when they try to stick to their own way... little white lies do the trick... he he he

amy...

[yajiu]

Thank you both for your observations.

It is really a hard issue swallowing your pride on this and perform your role. But I have found an analogy that I am developing, maybe you can help me. The team of Client, Account Manager (advertising person) and Designer is like a Movie crew:

Client=Producer (has the studio's say in the project, states aims, ensuring a dignified and consistent company perspective)

Account Manager=Writer (balances aims of client, defines the needs of target audience and facilitates comunication between parties)

Designer=Editor (takes the raw elements and distills it into a linear and coherant visual work, trimming fat, giving feedback from specialist knowledge and experience)

Notice that none of them is the Director, that role belongs to the target audience alone.

How does this sit with you?

[yma123]

yeah this sounds spot on!!!

[undressedmonster]

So... what happens when the designer IS the marketing director, copywriter, editor, advertising person, and everything else all in one? For example, an in-house designer at an organization that doesn't have those other positions?

[yajiu]

That Lucky person. Wish I was in that position.

But the client still needs to trust that their personal tastes and prefferences are second to one who knows what the target audience wants. And that is a very hard thing for a lone designer to discuss with their client.

I believe they need to be completely wowed and then they will be open to you, because they have seen what you can do.

[Ned]

I agree, when you're in that position, you're a very lucky person - as long as the compensation is correct for what you're doing. :p

[Samy the owl]

Trust me being an in-house designer is not all that great. I've been in an agency and I prefer that to this anyday! Imagine working under the client's nose everyday... you do learn alot of management and organisational skills but other than that, it really gets to you at times.

[popejoydesign]

This is what I tell ALL my clients about whatever design they are hiring me for...whether it's a logo or anything else....

"The design is yours, not mine. Here's how I look at it...the design is like a daughter. I take care of it, raise it, watch it grow but when the time comes to give her away, she's all yours. You'll be married to it not me." When I take this approach a lot of them understand that I am a service to THEM and not the other way around. I am not the one doing them a favor, they are paying for my house, my food etc.

I always try to steer my clients in a positive direction in design, but it doesn't always work. Sometimes their heart is set on a bad logo design and I can't talk them out of it. So I do it, give it to them and wash my hands of it :)

That's what's great and bad about the industry. After you're done, no matter how bad or good it is...its no longer yours. It's the clients.

[wienerdog]

Trust me being an in-house designer is not all that great. I've been in an agency and I prefer that to this anyday! Imagine working under the client's nose everyday... you do learn alot of management and organisational skills but other than that, it really gets to you at times.


Plus, there seems to be a huge distinction in the business relationship being in-house and working FOR someone vs. working WITH a client. Very different.

[Six]

This is what I tell ALL my clients about whatever design they are hiring me for...whether it's a logo or anything else....

"The design is yours, not mine. Here's how I look at it...the design is like a daughter. I take care of it, raise it, watch it grow but when the time comes to give her away, she's all yours. You'll be married to it not me." When I take this approach a lot of them understand that I am a service to THEM and not the other way around. I am not the one doing them a favor, they are paying for my house, my food etc.

I always try to steer my clients in a positive direction in design, but it doesn't always work. Sometimes their heart is set on a bad logo design and I can't talk them out of it. So I do it, give it to them and wash my hands of it :)

That's what's great and bad about the industry. After you're done, no matter how bad or good it is...its no longer yours. It's the clients.

Healthy attitude.

As designers the design becomes like a child and we want to hold onto it and not let it be "hurt" by someone else. Unfortunately, that often is outside our control.

Not an awful lot you can do with clients who want to design. To them the process looks so easy and they have opinions that get translated into changes that sometimes ruin a good design - but sometimes it is actually an improvement.

The best we can often do is to give them what they want and, if we think it will be received objectively and the costs warrant it, submit another design that we believe is better. At SPAR we sometimes do this but the circumstances must be right. One such circumstance was when we designed the Buffalo Trace Bourbon package back in 1998-99.

The design chosen by the client team was not well liked by the designers at SPAR. The client was prepared to sign off on a "design by committee" that just wasn't a very good solution. We took a risk. First we made the changes the client requested, then we created an entirely new design that we thought was a better solution. I showed their design first, and they loved it. I then showed ours, and they loved it even more and adopted the design with no significant changes. The winner is in our portfolio section on our web site. That one had a happy ending but not all turn out that way.

You have to try not to get attached to your baby. In the end the customer is in control whether you recognize that or not. Our job is to do good design and SELL IT. Never assume the design will sell itself. Some designs do, but often you have to defend your solution and sell it to the client. My presentation of the new BT design was preceded by a verbal selling of the design and why it was a better solution. It must be presented in objective terms that the client can relate to. Designers often are not good at that. They lay the designs out there and sort of say, "Pick one." Don't be surprised when they pick the worst one and THEN ask to change it in ways that make it worse.

Six

[budafist]

The kind of design I do at my day job are in no way my "babies". They are solutions for clients. The stuff I do freelance however have more soul in them. They are what I consider to be my babies.

[Six]

The kind of design I do at my day job are in no way my "babies". They are solutions for clients. The stuff I do freelance however have more soul in them. They are what I consider to be my babies.

I don't know what you do in your day job, but if you were working for me I would expect your heart and soul in the project WHEN it is called for, and that would be most of the time around here. Yes, we get some jobs that don't call for that kind of comitment, just quick and dirty designs and get them out of here, and maybe all you get to do in your day job are those kinds. Sorry to hear that. I would have a very hard time going to work under those conditions.

Six

[Kool]

Six, Buda's a printshop designer, unfortunately that's ALL about quick & dirty. :D

[morea]

especially when the boss doesn't charge for the design solutions... just hands it out for free when the client pays for printing.

[Six]

I apologize to Buda if that post came off strident. That was not my intention. My point was in the last statement, “I would have a very hard time going to work under those conditions.”

Buda has my utmost sympathy. I have a very good friend who worked for Kinko's doing that. He is extremely talented, and I am not sure how he was able to deal with that situation. I guess since he did not freelance, his outlet was designing for himself – just creating designs like wallpaper for his computer or manipulating pretty ordinary photos he took into works of art.

Any design environment will have a certain amount of drudge work - jobs that just aren't very much fun or terribly challenging. We have them too, and to put heart and soul into them is not economically wise or psychologically so either. The hard part is differentiating between the two.

Six

[budafist]

Yup I work at a printshop. Many of the designs I do are a free for clients as long as they get their printing done by us. It's a sad sad way to work....but it pays the bills!

People bring in ugly looking business cards of their friends or competitors and ask me to replicate them but in this colour and with their own details on it. Ahem...right...you know I have a design degree and I can design something that you wouldn't be embarressed to hand out right??

[Six]

Yup I work at a printshop. Many of the designs I do are a free for clients as long as they get their printing done by us. It's a sad sad way to work....but it pays the bills!

People bring in ugly looking business cards of their friends or competitors and ask me to replicate them but in this colour and with their own details on it. Ahem...right...you know I have a design degree and I can design something that you wouldn't be embarressed to hand out right??

Buda,

Just visited your web site. Great stuff! You really need to find a job that can better utilize your talents.

Six