Designing for the Inferior or Apathetic

Graphic Design

As designers we have a unique perspective into the inner workings of companies and products. We are the ones who find the best features of these entities and turn them into visual value propositions. But what happens when you are working for a client who has no value proposition? What about the clients who are anything but innovative and different, those who only hope to maintain rather than evolve. Obviously business eventually replaces these organizations or products with better variants either through competition or obsolescence. But what happens when you must design for these clients?

My initial reaction would be to suggest changes to the company based on research. However, we all know how well most clients react to change. I have been struggling with this problem for some time now, and it is not always established companies either. Sometimes it is the small business that you know is going to fail if they don’t learn how to leverage their size, or the company who is growing so fast they lose sight or their original vision.

What is the Designer’s Responsibility?

Some designers would argue that as long as they fulfill the project to the requirements listed in the brief then they have done their job. I however do not agree. I think that if there is something that could be done to help the company improve its operations based on design decisions then those are ultimately the most effective directions to pursue. This is true even if the client may not have originally intended it that way. In my opinion this is where true creativity comes from, seeing past wants and determining what the true needs are.

Every time I sit in a discovery meeting with a client, I review their brief and categorize what they are saying into two groups, the wants and needs. At the end I create a goals document that is based on these wants and needs, so far this is the only way that I have been able to set realistic expectations. Usually the goals document is a great way to show clients who realize that they are in need of a change, but I am still stumped as to what to do with the ones who don’t quite realize it yet.

I am curious what other designers do when they are given a project that is destined to fail because of a weak product or service, and a client who doesn’t know it? Please share your experiences in the comments below. I would greatly appreciate it, and I’m sure the other readers would as well.

07/27
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8 Responses to “Designing for the Inferior or Apathetic”

  1. Janko
    July 28th, 2008 at 8:02 am

    I totaly agree. But there is one more reason why one doesn’t want just to fulfill the requirements - they could be junk. And who need junk in portfolio!

  2. Marco Tubb
    July 28th, 2008 at 8:30 am

    I agree with your idea of helping the company. I also believe that by helping them you are helping yourself. If you do decide to put the project in your portfolio, a client might see a piece of work that lacked creativity or innovation. That being said, if your work is excellent, one project won’t make a difference.
     Marco

  3. Joel Watson
    July 28th, 2008 at 9:50 am

    I don’t think there are scenarios in which you “must” design inferior products. As a designer, you SHOULD be discriminating in the clients that you take because the one’s that have crappy business plans, lack of vision and are unwilling to trust your expertise are clients that are not worth having because they will only cause headaches that no size of paycheck can relieve. That is, you SHOULD do this unless you just don’t care, in which case you have bigger problems…

    And if a designer is doing their job and engaging in proper discovery BEFORE they commit to a job, it will be easy to spot these clients a mile away and say, “no thanks”. If you still decide to take on the job even though you know what you’re getting into (crappy client), then the fallout — headaches, frustration and a hit to your portfolio — is entirely the designer’s fault.

  4. Zinni
    July 28th, 2008 at 10:07 am

    Joel,

    I agree with what you are saying about doing detailed discovery before committing to a project. For that exact reason I have stopped accepting RFP’s because they never allow you to have sufficient input into a project. I think there is however to produce a great portfolio piece even with a non ideal client. It does however take a ton more stress and work on the designer’s part, but it is possible.

    The project I was referring to when I wrote this article is actually the result of the addition of a new decision maker. The client allowed tons of creative freedom in earlier projects which made it worthwhile, however the new stakeholder is exactly the opposite. In the past I did believe that we were able to help this client as they were open to suggestion and improvement, this has changed though. This may mean that I no longer produce work for the client, but I think that there may be something I can do in the meantime…

  5. Jin
    July 28th, 2008 at 1:39 pm

    I feel your pain.

    Stakeholder change during the midst of a project is quite painful.

    I can’t say there’s a solution to all. In my experience, sometimes we as the designer have to play the politic card as the last resort. While the stakeholders want to assert themseves in the design/creative decision making, at the same time they’re aware of how the final product reflects on them, to their superiors. I’d document every design request/decision, and make them aware of it. Sometimes CCing their superiors in an email will make them think twice about what to tell you.

  6. Joel Watson
    July 28th, 2008 at 3:17 pm

    “The project I was referring to when I wrote this article is actually the result of the addition of a new decision maker. The client allowed tons of creative freedom in earlier projects which made it worthwhile, however the new stakeholder is exactly the opposite. In the past I did believe that we were able to help this client as they were open to suggestion and improvement, this has changed though. This may mean that I no longer produce work for the client, but I think that there may be something I can do in the meantime…”

    You made them issue change orders for shifts in direction, right?

  7. Zinni
    July 28th, 2008 at 7:25 pm

    Joel,

    I definitely issued change orders. I am not afraid to do do otherwise thats when things really get out of control. I was trying to see if some other people out there have some creative ways to handle similar situations for the future. Unfortunately no matter how well you prequalify your clients situations like this are going to arise from time to time.

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