Effective Designer-Client Interaction

Contents:

• Brief and Technical Assignment: Important Elements, Not Just Formalities
• Communication Channels

Maria Elenevskaya

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About the author

I am the Development Director of GoDesigner.ru, a creative platform focused on competitions. My responsibilities include managing the design community, which numbers thousands of professionals. I also provide customer service support and design for products and services.

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Even with boundless design talent, you can face challenges landing projects and retaining clients if you haven't mastered the skills of effective communication with clients and presenting your work. Here are some tips that will be helpful early in your career.

"I'm a designer, I have my own vision," "It's either this way or that way," "You don't understand because you're not a designer," "Any professional will tell you that..." Try to refrain from making categorical statements when communicating with the client.

Design is a practical activity focused on solving brand-related problems, not on self-expression or artistic aspects. Therefore, don't be offended by the client if their opinion differs from yours. Instead, listen to their suggestions and try to understand what ideas and values ​​they reflect.

"The client is always right!" - this is how many clients think, but you shouldn't agree with it. If you make changes only at the client's request, ignoring logic and common sense, the result will be a low-quality layout created with minimal experience. Who needs that?

Therefore, maintaining balance is key. Don't agree to endless revisions; it's much wiser to set a limit on the number of options proposed in advance. Clients typically don't understand the scope of your work, and if you don't set boundaries, revisions can drag on forever, as there will always be a reason for their dissatisfaction.

This means explaining your ideas and choices clearly and understandably, as if you were sharing them with a friend who doesn't have much design knowledge. Don't try to confuse your interlocutor or impress them with complex terms. This often leads to the opposite result: the client may feel deceived, treated as ignorant, or even ridiculed.

Keep in mind that you and your client are on the same team and working together to achieve a common goal, so it is crucial to perceive and understand each other correctly.

Brief and Terms of Reference: Important Elements, Not Just Formalities

Start by formulating a clear and detailed terms of reference. The more thoroughly you develop it, the more predictable the final result will be.

Identify the brand's challenges, as well as the client's desires and your goals. Clients often don't know exactly what they want at the beginning of the project, so it will take significant time and effort to clarify. Try to grasp the client's vision, request additional examples, and discuss them to better understand the client's worldview.

Don't miss the opportunity to clarify the brief directly with the client. Sometimes it can be written by secretaries, and sometimes a lengthy document conceals something you might perceive differently. Therefore, it's worth holding a face-to-face conversation to clarify all the aspects of interest.

It's important to understand that the design is not focused on the client themselves, but on their target audience—those who will use their product or service.

If the client doesn't understand the differences between the proposed options (or hasn't even considered them), this becomes a separate issue worth addressing. It's important to explain how each solution outlined in the specifications contributes to achieving the client's desired outcome.

Once you've completed the client's brief and translated the discussion into a formal specifications, send the final document to the client for signature. Work should begin only after receiving approval. While it's impossible to foresee every detail, it's important to consider common issues in advance.

Don't dump everything on the client at once—this will lead to more revisions and unnecessary waste of your efforts. Work in stages and gradually clarify the client's expectations as the assignment progresses.

Create a sketch—submit it for approval, put together a mood board—present it, create a mockup of one side of the packaging—show it to the client to avoid redoing the entire layout. Tedious? Sure, but it's much easier and faster than finding a new client and starting the process over again.

Communication Channels

When it comes to methods of obtaining information, it's important to utilize all possible sources to avoid missing anything significant.

When choosing a communication method, it's important to consider clients' preferences. The primary criterion should be their convenience—there are a wide range of options. For example, some clients prefer Skype, but for more shy people, this option may be uncomfortable. On the other hand, constant calls or voice messages can irritate you, because you may feel that you are being controlled, although in fact, for clients it is just a convenient way of communication.