What you need to know when starting a new design collaboration
Every self-respecting designer often feels a strong need to make big changes for a new customer. Every designer with respect for their customer knows that there will often be things that they are not allowed to do anything with.
Everything from revision to revolution
Working with a new customer’s identity requires a situation-dependent thought process. Sometimes a complete overhaul will be necessary. Other times it will be a matter of working on an existing design in the best possible way. Because how does one deal with the elements that already exist but which one is not allowed to touch? Those things that are set in stone? Or those that are too expensive for the customer to change initially, even though they would like to?
Which things a designer is not allowed to touch will vary from time to time. Possibly a logo? A pay-off? The sign programme? The long-term strategic plans? Sometimes quite a lot is firmly locked in place, and then one simply has to try to make big changes on smaller parts of the canvas.
The customer is not always right. Nor are we.
Making it through the exacting eye of the needle to a new and exciting customer can make even the most accomplished designers rejoice. Once we as a design agency have begun the journey of shaping a company’s identity, we are not looking to set in stone what already exists. We wish, of course, to represent a positive difference for the customer. At the same time, we are aware that there will no doubt be certain work stipulations with which we must comply. However, there is a difference between being service-oriented and servile. If we just say “Yes” to everything the customer says, we will only be an unnecessary intermediary in the customer’s own conversation with him/herself.
Five things to consider before redesigning
1. There are times for revolution and times for evolution
If we at Mission take over a larger customer from an accomplished design agency, this agency will presumably have done a lot of good work for this customer. We accept this. If we were to cast aside each and every design expression that we ourselves have not been responsible for, this would only reflect on us. Sometimes the time is ripe for a change, a new direction or a clearer delineation of one’s identity. Other times a brand-new strategy is required – or even nothing short of a revolution?
2. It is great to be able to relax, but not to fall asleep on the job
Very close relationships can be developed between employees in a design or advertisement agency and a customer’s individual employees. Both parties may feel a sense of security in the collaboration, and therefore one searches at all times for any excuse to maintain the relationship. There is absolutely nothing wrong with long-term customer relations. Continuity no doubt has its value. One must just ensure that this security does not become a pillow.
3. Not all customer relations start in the same way
We love to aim high when we acquire a new customer, but we do not always get the chance to make the biggest changes first off. We know from experience that we must often think big long before we can act big. For some customers, we have started to work on something small, on a little side project. By continually doing a good and thorough job, we have gradually over time been given the opportunity to work with their whole identity.
4. It is never the wrong time to contact us
It is never wrong to start a customer relationship straight after a lot of money has been used and huge projects have recently been carried out by others. Even though, for many good reasons, this may not be the right time to blow one’s own trumpet, it may very well be exactly the right time to think long term and intelligently with a new design agency. Then we can instead dream together about the time when new budgets will appear.
"There are times for revolution and times for evolution."
5. Resource wastage is found in so many forms
If a new customer does not really listen to what the design agency comes up with, this would be a huge waste of resources. It would also be a waste of resources if we, as a design agency, did not partake of the accumulated wisdom that a customer has acquired. Asking the right questions and presenting potential possibilities as early as possible during the collaboration will be beneficial to all parties.
You know yourself what you feel to be set in stone in your company. However, you must not disregard the fact that certain things which you feel are rock solid, may give us itchy fingers. But we are not the kind of design agency that ostensibly thinks that everything that has happened before our time is devoid of any value.
