Understanding Clients

Dear clients, I don’t mean to insult you or rant about our sometimes tense relationships. We’re all “just” humans, with our very own personal goals and our very own approaches to problem solving. But try to look at it from our perspective, too. I know, you pay the bill so you are the boss. But then, this whole thing doesn’t work if what you actually want doesn’t end up in our place in a form which allows us to actually *understand* what it is, that you want.

It sounds so easy: meet, discuss, define, do. But it’s not. Every human being has a different approach to communication and it is our job to adjust to that. But it’s not just the designers job to take responsibility for understandement, it’s also the client’s job to provide spot-on definitions. In a perfect world, anyways. Don’t worry, we’re always going to figure out a way in the end, but it might turn out frustrating for both parties at some point: for the designer, because he feels lost in a bunch of cloudy definitions and for the client, because he doesn’t feel understood.

Also, you have to realize that you cannot expect quality work to be done on inhuman schedules or right on the first try. It just doesn’t work this way. Dear clients, please try to understand how the creative process works and give us the necessary time and space to come up with the dazzling solutions to the problems you ask us to solve.

Please, don’t expect us to read between the lines all the time. It’s a time consuming task, frustrating and it doesn’t help anyone in the end. Au contraire. It will kill the creative drive, thus affecting the outcome of the solution in a negative way. See, pressure is a good thing to achieve a lot of results in a short time and be productive. But quantity and quality are quite the opposite. No designer has a button on the back of his head which reads something like “Generate a Great Idea” or “Make it Snappy”. It doesn’t work like that. The “perfect solution” is something everyone wants, but realistically, it doesn’t exist. There’s always a gap somewhere between what’s possible and what’s perfect. You can get only as close as possible, which requires a constant stream of constructive feedback from your side, the opinions of others and realistic goals to be set upfront. I’ve been doing this for 10 years now and this is basically what it comes down to: Be communicative, be clear and specific if you know what you want and be open for everything if you don’t know what it is, that you actually want and let us do the job of developing an idea. It is obvious that the latter is the more time consuming approach. The “sweet spot” is somewhere in between regulation and creative freedom. Let us find this spot together and “make it snappy” together. Both sides want to produce great results, this is a fact. But also, both sides need to “adjust” their communication protocol to allow an error-free and clear communication to start with.

See, I love clients. But we expect some love in return, too. :-)