Chapter 7
Managing Clients

Building Lasting Client Collaborations

Creating a strong collaborative partnership with clients is critical for graphic designers. Design is, by and large, a commercially driven applied art form that is nearly always commissioned by a client seeking to send a specific message for a specific purpose, often in service to their business. There would be no design project without a client. Even when designers are creating self-promo materials or their own products, they are their own client with set goals and expectations.

Here are the keys to having a successful and lasting client relationship:

▸   Do what you say you’re going to do.

▸   Exceed clients’ expectations.

▸   Stay in constant communication.

▸   Treat clients as important contributors.

▸   Create design that works to meet their goals.

▸   Deliver on time and on budget.

The more often you do these things, the more you’ll build up your clients’ trust and respect, which are at the heart of all long-term designer–client relationships. Building that strong connection with a client is often accomplished by fully involving them in the design process.

Working through Problems

The working relationship between designer and client doesn’t always run smoothly, however. The main problems clients may have with designers include

•  Missed deadlines

•  Miscommunication

•  Off-target creative

•  Noninvolvement of the principles

•  Bad chemistry

•  Surprises, creative or financial

The main problems designers have with clients include all of the above, plus

•  Excessive revisions

•  Fear or issues with the design solution

•  Delays in client input or approvals

•  Payment delays, or worse, nonpayment of invoices

Other problems can arise during the design process—every job is a custom order, after all. As a policy, it’s best to resolve any trouble immediately and as thoroughly as possible.

One area of ongoing difficulty that designers experience has to do with gaining clients’ approval of challenging design solutions. There is an art to presenting design well, especially in a way that fosters helpful discussion and, ultimately, client acceptance of the design. Practice makes perfect in this regard. The more you do it, the better you get at it. The better you get at it, the more the client trusts you, and the more they trust you, the more likely they are to approve your design solutions.

Six Tips for Getting Client Approval

Getting clients to buy into the design, no matter what stage the project is in, is vital. Designers must figure out how to sell their ideas to their clients. Accomplishing this is partly informing them and partly charming them, with a lot of salesmanship thrown into the mix. Here are some tips on persuasion:

image Set the tone.
Be on time, dress to impress, and have presentation materials in order. Establish a friendly bond with the client and show them respect and warmth. Set the stage for them to receive the presentation and listen to you in a positive frame of mind.
image Summarize the background.
Remind the client of previous discussions. Review any research, strategy, or prior thinking for the work. Sum it up again so that the client understands the context of the current presentation. Reinforce that this is not an arbitrary concept, but a design based on the creative brief.
image Tell them a story.
Explain briefly how this idea works. Take them through the decision-making process for the design. Do it in narrative form. Show how the idea evolved from the client’s goals and that it is a logical conclusion, and, therefore, a perfect design solution.
image Employ relevant buzzwords.
Speak as the client would speak when talking about the design’s goals, context, and appropriateness. Refer to the client’s language from briefings. If they wanted to “dominate” or “reignite” or “dazzle,” tell them that your idea does exactly that.
image Give them a solutions hook.
Clients love a short, easily repeatable explanation of the design that they can express to their internal team. Make it clearly definable and memorable. Explain the concept as a sound bite that obviously solves their problem. Let this be the take-away they can explain to others.
image Know when enough is enough.
Make your case. Do it with confidence. Then stop talking and invite feedback. Think before you speak and especially avoid defense mechanisms.

Case Study in Managing Clients:

Primal Screen/Atlanta, Georgia USA

Primal Screen

Primal Screen is a multiplatform design agency that distills a keen knowledge of brand essence and serves it up to every screen—televisions, computers, mobile telephones, PDAs, and lightweight media receivers. The firm is expert in dynamic media and is poised to bring graphic design wherever communication via screen takes us. Doug

Grimmett, founding partner and creative director, leads a creative team that combines the best of the design and animation worlds into something new and ever changing. “Think about it—from Google to YouTube, from iPods to Wii, it is designers who create the experience, build the interface, and give it meaning,” says Grimmett. “Design has never been as important as it is now.”

BELOW
The Primal Screen website sets the tone for a fun, screen-based experience. Showcasing the firm’s work through a series of playfully rendered screens, the website takes the viewer through a creative journey. “Primal Screen can do it all: eel animation, CGI, Flash, live-action combinations,” says Pat Giles, associate creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi/NYC. “It has attention to detail and design that rivals other world-class animation studios in London, New York, and Los Angeles.”

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Hallmark Channel: Tell Us Your Story
Hallmark Channel is about stories. To build a strong connection to its core audience, the television network gives viewers an opportunity to phone in amusing or sweet stories from their lives. Stories that are selected are animated and streamed online at the network’s “Tell Us Your Story” website, and sometimes aired on TV as well. This story, “Garfield,” captures all the discord and harmony of the American holiday, Thanksgiving, in thirty seconds. What’s more, it reinforces Hallmark as a family-oriented and holiday-focused brand.

“The one thing I wish every client understood about working with a designer is the incredible power and value of good design. Most clients do not get it, but good clients get it instinctively.”
—Doug Grimmett, founding partner and creative director, Primal Screen

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Case Study in Managing Clients:

Primal Screen / Atlanta, Georgia USA

PBS KIDS

PBS offers everyone opportunities for exploration and discovery through content on TV, mobile devices, new media, the Web, and community programs. PBS KIDS is an iconic extension of the PBS brand. It is a trusted guide for little explorers, from every walk of life as they discover themselves and the wonder-filled world around them. The main creative challenge was to infuse the presentation of the brand with its explorer archetype. The PBS KIDS logo features two animated preschool characters. Primal Screen developed a world where these characters could explore and experiment in a laboratory for discovery. Visually, cutout paper, felt, pipe cleaners, and other craft materials familiar to preschoolers created opportunities for the brand’s preschool audience to explore the everyday world around them.

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TCM Prime Time Movie Open

Turner Broadcasting Network’s flagship primetime movie event, Turner Classic Movies (TCM), wanted to create an opener that took place in a monumental movie theater. “Of course, no single building could contain all of TCM’s film goodness, so we built a citywide cinematheque,” explains Grimmett. “The actors are live-action, but the backgrounds are computer-generated graphics to heighten the drama with expressionistic lighting and powerful camera moves. And while the structures may be entirely digital, the scenes are as real as the celluloid we all love so much.”

Designers must do the following three things to keep their clients happy:

1. Manage expectations; carefully define the parameters and deliverables.

2. Once expectations are firmly established, exceed them.

3. Listen carefully and send notes with action items after every review.

—Doug Grimmett, founding partner and creative director, Primal Screen

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How to Run a Creative Meeting

Throughout the design process, no matter what the project, every graphic designer has to have meetings. Some are internal, and some of the most important ones are with clients. Here are some recommendations regarding meetings.

The main reasons to have a meeting:

•  Evaluate information.

•  Make decisions.

•  Make key creative presentations.

•  Inspire the team.

•  Bring people together.

Don’t call a meeting if you

•  Have a simple message to deliver, especially if it requires no immediate answer

•  Are more persuasive on paper or via telephone than face to face

•  Can reach your goal by other means

If you must call a meeting

•  Prepare for it in advance.

•  Define the meeting’s purpose and goals.

•  Invite the minimum number of essential people to attend.

•  Create an agenda, send it before the meeting, and stick to it at the meeting.

•  Make sure all attendees have the relevant logistical information (location, time, parking, etc.).

•  Start and end the meeting on time.

•  Keep it short and to the point, but make sure all attendees have a chance for input.

•  Present only relevant background information.

•  Emphasize people—listen to the group, exchange ideas, stimulate discussion.

•  Assign follow-up action items and then make sure they are done.

•  Close the meeting by summarizing decisions and next steps.

•  Confirm commitments and responsibilities.

A meeting will tend to fail because

•  It was unnecessary or held for the wrong reason.

•  The objectives and goals weren’t clear.

•  The wrong people were present.

•  It was badly timed.

•  It wasn’t properly controlled and was subject to poor decision making.

•  It took place in an uncomfortable environment.

To be effective in meetings

•  Clarify and summarize.

•  Listen and question.

•  Concentrate and focus.

•  Be polite and patient.

•  Serve as a role model.

•  Encourage participation.

•  Don’t dominate the discussion.

•  Control your emotions.

•  Judge content, not delivery.

•  Observe verbal and nonverbal cues.

•  Tolerate divergent views.

•  Act as a mediator.

•  Stay impartial until all information is out.

•  Be fearless.

Case Study in Managing Clients:

344 Design, LLC / Los Angeles, California USA

Stefan G. Bucher’s firm, 344 Design, is founded on the idea that art best serves commerce if it’s built on a solid foundation of truth, integrity, and heart. “Because that’s when art actually works. Anything less, starves a soul and isn’t worth anyone’s time or attention,” says Bucher. 344 Design specializes in complex solutions for ambitious clients with graphic design as the starting point. Bucher also does writing, illustration, animation, and music.

LA Louver: David Hockney Catalog

344 Design creates many distinctive publications for the international all-star roster of LA Louver Gallery artists. For David Hockney’s exhibition, “The East Yorkshire Landscape,” Bucher designed a catalog that mirrors the strong horizontal nature of Hockney’s paintings. The seventy-four-page, fully illustrated catalog features a foreword by gallery owner Peter Goulds, with text and paintings by Hockney, who is considered to be one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century and is routinely referred to as “Britain’s most famous living artist.”

BELOW
The subject of Hockney’s paintings is the landscape of East Yorkshire, England, which first engaged his imagination as a teenager and has become a recurring primary source of inspiration for his art. The catalog allows viewers to immerse themselves into these lush landscapes, taking away a feeling of being in a timeless space.

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Case Study in Managing Clients:

344 Design, LLC / Los Angeles, California USA

Designing the Hockney catalog was a dream come true for Bucher. “Not only did I get a private event showing of his amazing new landscape paintings at his Los Angeles studio, but I got to meet the man himself when it came time to present comps,” he says. “It’s not often that you get to meet one of your heroes, and a rare occasion that they exceed your expectations.”

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Bucher’s client decided to delay publication of the catalog until after the artist’s opening show. “This gave us the opportunity to document the paintings in LA Louver’s beautiful gallery space, which also gives you a better idea of their monumental scale,” Bucher explains. “The design of the catalog is quite minimal. When you’re working with brilliant ingredients you don’t mess them up with fussy spices or a tricky sauce. That said, I could allow myself one little flourish. Since we are dealing with landscapes, all the painting details are anchored by horizontal lines that align with the horizon of each painting.”

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Hockney’s paintings are very big—up to 40 feet (12.2 m) wide—and most are made by fitting many smaller paintings together, a method that allows the canvases to be easily transported back and forth. Plus, Hockney can work on the individual segments in his studio without standing on a ladder, something that works well for this deaf painter who is well over seventy years old. In creating these paintings, Hockney eschews all use of photography, which standardizes color, flattens perspective, and pushes the viewer away from things. As such, in Hockney’s paintings, the viewer is brought into the landscape with an immediacy that is filtered through the artist’s experience of place, both felt and remembered.

Case Study in Managing Clients:

344 Design, LLC / Los Angeles, California USA

The format of the catalog is 15 × 9 inches (38.1 × 22.8 cm), a size that works well with the oil paintings’ format, and is impressive to hold in your hands. All the images are finished with a spot gloss varnish. The inside of the high-gloss dust jacket has a subtle double hit of hot pink ink. “We selected a number of painting details for the catalog divider pages,” notes Bucher. “They are reproduced at 100 percent scale. While the paintings are designed to look startlingly realistic and pastoral when viewed at about 80 feet [24.4 m], they reveal themselves to be highly stylized and full of motion at close range.” “As part of the process, Mr. Hockney’s assistant takes hundreds of photographs of each painting taking shape,” says Bucher. “This allows him to review his own project progress from day to day. It also gave me wonderful material for the catalog. How often do you get the chance to show not only the beautiful end result, but also a behind-the-scenes look at its creation?”

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Stefan G. Bucher on Clients

Q. What do you think are the three most essential things a designer must do in order to keep their clients happy? A. Be useful. Be true to your word. Be a mensch.

I’m always shocked when clients are grateful when I simply do what I said I would when I said I would. To me, that’s basic business conduct. Hell, that’s basic human conduct. You deliver what you promise. But apparently this puts me ahead of many other designers. In the rare instances, when I can’t stick to my promise, I say so as soon as I know it’ll happen, so we can minimize the damage. Over the past few years, I’ve worked with a few vendors that turned out to be often late, often careless, but never at a loss for excuses or a passive aggressive attitude. That’s a serious drag, but a great education, because it put this thought firmly into my mind: How can I be most helpful to my clients? How can I make their day better for having dealt with me? What do they need out of this project, both in terms of the end result and their day-to-day process?

There is this idea out there that clients will water everything down, and that we need to fight them to get our aesthetic solutions through, because they don’t trust us. Well, a lot of times they actually don’t. I think it’s because they’ve been burned in the past. If we want clients to trust us, we have to deliver on the day-to-day stuff by behaving like adults, and by being menschy about it. Manners and follow-through will open any door eventually. As soon as I was able to approach my clients as somebody wanting to help them versus somebody protecting a nascent portfolio piece, they started listening to me. Because they could see that I truly had their best interests at heart. (And that, of course, actually led to much better work for my portfolio.)

Q. How did you learn to effectively work with clients? Was there one huge learning opportunity or an evolving understanding?

A. Working effectively with clients, was and is, an evolving understanding, but there were definitely markers along the way. A big step came with my doing editorial and self-generated work. That let me to get a lot of the things off my mind and on press without having to wedge them into client projects.

The big revelation was trying to hire outside creative help, and becoming a client myself. Some of the people I worked with were great. They addressed my requests, and then exceeded them. Others either fought me constantly or just went sour and limp. I recognized that I had sometimes done that in the past, and that it wasn’t doing anybody any good. In fact, it made me into a horrendous micromanager—the kind of awful, nasty client every designer mutters about under his or her breath. The one thing I wanted was to make my life easier by paying somebody else to help me. Instead, I had to sit on people every day to extract a product that I then had to fix, if not redo outright, only to catch attitude for doing so. It forcefully put the idea of being useful at the top of my list.

Realize, please, that I’m not saying just roll over and do whatever the client wants. I’m saying try, as much as you can, to put yourself into the client’s shoes to understand what they need. It’ll let you ask better questions, which will give you better information, which will let you do better work that’s easier for the client to approve. It will also make their life easier, which will make them trust you more, which will give you the confidence to do even better work.

Q. What is the one thing you wish every client understood about how to work with a designer?

A. Some clients don’t understand that what we do is art—art applied to a commercial purpose, but art nonetheless. They may think that we treat our job as they treat theirs—as a professional task that’s important, but doesn’t define them. They may not understand that a bump in type size causes serious mental discomfort. Many do understand, but it’s not a priority for them. Nor should it be. When I pay for somebody’s help, I try very hard to make sure that they can be proud of the result of their labor, but in the end I need to get a product that’s at least as good as what I had in mind. If I’m not getting that I’m going to enforce the changes I feel are necessary. (This is why I work alone and do 99.9% of everything myself.)

Q. What’s the one thing you wish every client understood about how to work with a designer?

A. Every copy revision means fixing the rag again. Stop it!

Case Study in Managing Clients:

344 Design, LLC / Los Angeles, California USA

The Graphic Eye

The Graphic Eye is a collection of photographs taken by graphic designers from around the globe. It is highly personal work from some of the world’s most innovative graphic designers, including big international names such as Ed Fella, Jeri Heiden, Sean Adams, and Marian Bantjes. The images in The Graphic Eye offer a glimpse into the working methods and obsessions of this unique class of visual creatives. Detail-oriented and aesthetically demanding, graphic designers have a special way of looking at the world, and the photographic images they create for their own reference and enjoyment—from micro details to monumental cityscapes, funny vignettes to found fashion—are as unconventional as they are inspirational.

RIGHT
The images in the book showcase graphic designers’ exploration into the concept of experimenting with different media. Many of these people appreciate and create in other forms of art, such as film, music, and sculpture, and that is reflected in their photos.

BELOW
“The Graphic Eye collects 500 photographs by 120 of the world’s best graphic designers in one handsome volume,” says Bucher. “I’m not just saying that. It really is quite beautiful because I selected them from thousands of submissions and put them into what is an interesting—possibly even evocative—sequence for you.” The 9.5 × 7.75 inch (24.1 × 19.7 cm) book also contains a foreword by graphic design writer and critic Natalia Ilyin.

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Michael Bierut Talks about Clients

→   Clients can be the best part of the design process.

→   Clients are the difference between art and design.

→   My clients are the same as yours.

→   The right client can change anything.

→   The best clients love design or don’t give a damn about it. (i.e., they have confidence)

→   The worst clients are somewhere in between (i.e., they have fear).

→   Never talk about “educating the client.”

→   What makes a great client? brains, passion, trust—and courage. “You’ll never go wrong when you work with someone smarter than you.” (the late graphic designer, Tibor Kalman)

→   Warning: Your great client may not be my great client.

→   Great clients lead to more great clients (and more great work).

→   Bad clients lead to more bad clients (and more bad work).

→   Bad clients take up more of your time than they should.

→   Meanwhile, we take great clients for granted.

→   The trick is to reverse this.

→   What do I owe a great client? Loyalty, honesty, dedication, and tenacity. Once you find a great client, never let them go.

→   If you can find five great clients, you’re set for life. “You better find somebody to love.” (by Darby Slick, performed by Jefferson Airplane)

→   Good luck.

Michael Bierut is a partner at the multidisciplinary design firm, Pentagram in New York (www.pentagram.com) and is an editor of the online design magazine, Design Observer (www.designobserver.com.) His talk was part of an AIGA New York 2010 Creative Mornings series. Thanks to Paul Soulellis of Soulellis Studio for the speach transcription.

Project Profile in Managing Clients:

Aspen Leaf Soap Factory designed by Dig Design / Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA

Aspen Leaf Soap Factory
Dig Design, led by creative director Amy Decker, believes that “good design is good business.” Its work for the Aspen Leaf Soap Factory (ASLF) proves just that. The client had been selling handcrafted olive oil soap at Colorado farmer’s markets, where they created a loyal following and were asked by local hotels and resorts to carry their handcrafted natural soaps made from pure essential oils. This stirred their ambitions to grow the brand and eventually open their own retail boutique. Dig Design redesigned the identity and expanded product line packaging while highlighting the handcrafted aspect and Aspen location. The rebranding enhanced visibility and created a strong shelf presence.

The initial focus was to create a packaging system to have the products stand alone on the shelf, yet belong to the overall product family. Five new product segments were introduced, twelve products in all. The target audience was local Aspen residents and tourists to this upscale resort ski town looking for a natural alternative soap for personal use and as gifts that performed better than commercial soap.

“It was important to treat the design of the mark as a refinement of the original, as they had been in business for many years and had a strong local following for their products,” says Decker. “After discussing and reviewing the brand, we determined the important elements to keep in the redesign were the leaf pattern and the typeface ITC Cancione. Keeping those would bridge the old with the new successfully.”

“All the olive oil soaps were using the same package with stickers indicating the different aromas when we started working together,” explains Decker. “That was the cost-effective way for ALSF to package the soaps. When I was hired to redesign the packages, they wanted to continue that practice, and for the first round of packaging we did. However, as they were growing and entering into new stores, as well as readying to open their own store, they agreed to have a product line created with a color-coded system for the aromas they use.” “In the final version,” notes Decker, “I chose the copper color for the whole word-mark, and kept the black for ‘soap factory.’ This allowed us to keep the sage green background colors, and incorporate a soft color palette in the leaf pattern for the product color ways and have the mark pop off the background. I also feel the copper is earthier and speaks to the natural handmade qualities. Using the copper on both the mark and the product name ties them together and balances the labels.”

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Project Profile in Profitability:

Various Posters designed by AdamsMorioka / Los Angeles, California, and New York, New York USA

AdamsMorioka Posters

Founded in 1994 by creative director Sean Adams and Noreen Morioka, AdamsMorioka Inc. is a multidisciplinary design firm whose work ranges from corporate identities, identity systems, print campaigns, and environmental graphics to motion and digital projects, animation, and websites. Their work has garnered awards and recognition around the world. Some of their most provocative and intriguing work has been for themselves. Over the years, they have created numerous posters to advertise their speaking engagements from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Cape Town, South Africa. A series of promotional posters for AdamsMorioka lectures appear below and opposite. Each one gives a new take on the design firm’s brand image.

“With our clients, we listen, listen, listen, and make sure we are articulating their vision. Being our own client is sometimes exciting and sometimes scary. I’ve noticed that when we listen to the voices in our heads, things can get a little bit crazy.”
—Sean Adams, creative director, AdamsMorioka

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