“I’ll send you a photo of a printout, and you can use it to extract the design, right?”
As designers, I think only we understand how extremely infuriating or extremely hilarious this conversation can be.
Starting out, I put so much effort in how I’m delivering my work than how I’m solving someone else’s problem. While that is a great measure to get better sleep at night, it isn’t always what designing is about. Or atleast, that’s what my 2 years of experience working directly with clients has taught me.
Before studying design as a subject, I was constantly asked this one question, the answer to which I think (think being the keyword) I have, as of today, 7 years later.
“What is design?”
If I give you a little flashback on my answers, right from all those years ago when I decided to pursue design as a career, or even during my graduate years, or my internships, I never ever had problem solving as my core answer..it was always more beautification than utility.
When I got my first client feedback, I shoved my head in a pillow and screamed. And when I got back to working on the feedback, I never actively analysed it. I just went with the flow and no surprises there, I was miserable looking at the outcome. Although I find myself wondering why I’m alive whenever I have to call someone when I can just drop a text and be unbothered until they respond, I have really grown up to understand how a one-on-one discussion with your client can be a game-changer. As someone who I work closely with says, “Pick up the phone and talk to them”, I’ve grown to like how directly talking to the person you are designing for, helps you move things forward, and in a better way, most of the time.
Designing for brands in the luxury market, is particularly complicated because as human beings we have our own perceptions of luxury, but as designers, problem solving sometimes takes a back seat and the focus shifts to our idea of what things should look like… which then, sadly, reflects on the communication we do as a brand. This is where direct contact with your client without the involvement of a client servicing individual comes into picture. All these years of studying design, and this could be my ignorance but I was never made aware of the fact that, in order to create strong communications you have to actually verbally, actively, patiently, simply talk to the person whose problem you are solving. When you approach your client with a problem-solving mentality, fun fact – they actually listen to you. I can hear you mumbling, “not all clients”. Yes, there are exceptions, but I’ve 40% learnt the way to deal with it, which is surprise surprise – direct communication.
Ever find yourself wondering why they told you to change the pattern you spent an hour making? Pick up the phone and talk to them! As a designer, when you ask your client why this masterpiece of a pattern bothers their eyes, you will find out that it isn’t aimed at your pattern making skills but it just isn’t working out for them. So you take a deep breath and ask them what it is that might work for them and come to a conclusion. Now hear me out, imagine the same situation, handled by a client servicing middleman. This could easily cost you rounds of changes without actually understanding what is and isn’t working out. As someone who runs away from confrontation, let me tell you, I had no idea this level of sorcery exists!
