SomeOne Senior Designer Tom Myers discusses the myths, legends & clichés that surround the much-debated balance between those doing the work and those footing the bill.
We yearn after that Mad Men aesthetic, that feeling that all eyes are on us for the answer to their business woes. The business people kept looking at the numbers and the balance sheets and the stock prices and none of those things could fix their problems. But creativity will. Beautiful forms and tasteful design will save the day.
We reminisce about stories of Paul Rand slamming a 200-page book down on the table and declaring ‘this is your design’. The balls to be able to charge a hundred grand and go in with one route so confidently that it was bound and printed a hundred times.
We’re told that you should go in with three routes because any more makes you lack confidence in your work. That three is the limit. That if you could be as good as the greats then you too could one day go in with one route — because it’s a validation of your prowess.
And we hear stories of the great design companies that went under. Famous practices that did great work and then found themselves without any to do.
That to give in to the mealy-mouthed client is to suffer the worst of defeats; the loss of your integrity. And that without integrity we are but nothing.
That our only asset is our portfolio, and if that suffers at the hands of a short-sighted and wimpish marketing manager then we too will suffer.
Who cares what the CMO wants. They can’t even tie their own shoelaces, let alone know what good design looks like.
But all of the above is absolute bollocks.
That CMO got on to the board because they earned it. They spend years solving the problems that marketing managers have to solve. Years being the client on challenging projects that their shite design agency is trying to ruin just because they want to improve their own standing rather than actually address the problems their client is facing.
The client of big brand knows the big brand more than you can imagine. They live and breathe it. And they know the problems they’re facing.
The best work gets done when it actually helps the client. Helps the brand. Solves problems. Improves things.
You make your client happy, they’re going to use you again. They’re going to want to work with you. Give you something to challenge you.
Your client is not an adversary to spar with. They’re not the opposite end of the jousting arena. You’re a team, aiming for the same goal together.
That time Turner Duckworth made everyone reassess how to design packaging? When they did something so singular and focused we all wondered how the hell they got away with it? Well, it takes two to tango. That took a great client, far greater than the design team that actually did less work than their predecessors.
They’re not idiots, they’re people who got where they are through as much hard work and dedication as you’ve put in to get you to where you are respectively.
When the client/design line gets blurred and both client and design team are under the same roof, it’s often easier to see what happens when everyone is looking in the same direction, working toward the common goal.
Channel 4’s recent overhaul is everything Channel 4 should be — challenging, progressive, a little bit dark and all sorts of interesting. Even if it’s a bit weird. While it is completely on-brief, it is also by its very nature challenging. And can’t have been easy getting sign-off from the big bods.
The men in the leather board-room chairs do want to do something progressive which moves the industry forward in seismic shift; do want to be able to be one of the fathers of a great risky success. But they also must still get that pang of worry.
This creepy chicken-looking man doing a bouncy-dance in a dark cave that cost a huge amount of money to film may well be ‘Channel 4’ but it’s also pretty scary for young children and pretentious to the guy with The Sun under his arm in a caff. How do you get that signed off?
With a great rapport between the design team and the money. It takes trust. And that trust is earned through building the relationship, not fighting against it.
If you can suggest ways that creativity can make your client’s life easier, not more expensive, you’re going to immediately get that person to like you and want to do more work with you, not less.
Charm will get you everywhere. And more happy clients means more work. More opportunities to do great things. Happy things. Fun things.
More work means more money, which means you get to keep the lights on in your studio for another week longer. And that’s a good thing.
Love your clients. They want to produce great design work as much as you do, sometimes even more so.