Superlatives are always a challenge. What makes something “best” or “worst” is fraught with conditional qualifications that can range from “I made a ton of money” to “I needed therapy just to face the person.” Reflecting back on four decades of more than 200 clients, some with long, happy tenures and others who were so uncomfortable to work with that we had to fire them, what makes for a successful client relationship is all a matter of how one sees success.
The Great…
Great clients think it’s good business if both want the other to succeed. Clear communications and understood goals are the heart of successful give-and-take. Clients retain studios because they want skills and products they can’t create themselves—and they know that by working together, the results will be better than they could achieve alone. It’s a partnership, not a power play.
Client relationships are built on trust, generosity, and goodwill. I have always said that we look for clients, not jobs. When you start working with a client, remembering that they selected you to partner with them. It’s AURAS’s job to build a personal rapport to make the process rewarding—and enjoyable.
Clients who value creativity, are not threatened by honest critiques, respond thoughtfully to presentations, and work collaboratively to find better solutions get the best out of us. Walking on eggshells or passive-aggressive behavior are the antitheses of a successful creative process. We’re hired because of our skills, and smart clients want us to stretch them. We want to be inspired working together. Everything is more successful when experimentation, tolerance for missteps, and mutual respect are parts of the process. It’s a two-way street, and we have an obligation to gently push clients beyond their original conceptions.
Finally, great clients choose us because we know more than they do. That’s why they hired us: to go beyond their skills. We shouldn’t be hired to validate an idea, or to offload production work, or to prove that we weren’t needed in the first place. We shouldn’t be spoon-fed clues to what they want when they are already convinced of a direction. Any good business relationship acknowledges both parties have an implicit obligation to support one another.
For me, the fun part is also learning about their business. Design is only effective when it’s based on a thorough understanding of the client’s priorities. I’ve learned more about biblical archaeology, communications technology, urban planning, world press freedoms, the work of the Peace Corps, and every other client we have enjoyed partnering with.
Clients who are as enthusiastic about their work as we are about design always get better results. We owe them good design, and they always appreciate our interest. It’s an upward spiral for success.
…and the Grate
Bad client relationships often feel like bad romantic relationships. You think; “They’d be great If we could just get them to . . . ” or worst of all—“I know that we can prove to them we‘re right!” but by then, we’ve already gone down the rabbit hole. Often the work is interesting, and the fees are high, but the relationships internally or with their contacts are so toxic that they become like a bad tooth. As Cosmo has admitted about bad boyfriends, “They’ll never change.”
Some clients see a working relationship as a test of control. We have a vested interest in keeping the client happy, so when a repeated request begins, “Could you do this one little thing for me while you’re at it?” it’s hard to say no. Perhaps the client sees the tactic as part of being a shrewd businessperson, but it is based on the idea that the relationship isn’t mutual; there has to be winners and losers. Not only is that premise false, but it’s also no fun.
Micromanaging the design process almost always makes it more difficult and less successful. Asking Dr. Deborah Birx about the feasibility of injecting bleach to cure COVID is nothing compared to clients who have told me never to use the color green because his wife “hates that color.”
A magazine editor once demanded that in his magazine that letterforms never, ever touch one another in a headline because “That isn’t good type.” Micromanagers who want to weigh in on every little thing or focus on minutiae can miss the point entirely. If I had a dollar for every time I have said, “it’s just a comp….”
Studios and their clients are in an arranged marriage where the client can decide if they want an annulment. It’s a studio’s job to convince them that an open and reciprocal relationship is in their best interest and that we are worthy of their trust. Pushing back never works. I have told frustrated designers many times that, at a design impasse, the only acceptable solution is to satisfy both the designer and the client.
When that’s not possible, I fall back on the words of Reinhold Niebuhr:
“Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”
