At Bold Perspective, we voluntarily commit ourselves to uncompromising excellence with our clients and their projects, as well as with fellow peers of our industry. This obligation is one we pursue out of the interest of delivering unequivocal quality in every area of our work and conduct. The responsibility we are referring to is that of a Design Professional. As professionals, it is our duty to uphold, promote, and dedicate ourselves to conducting with integrity, and competence.

Professionalism is a term that can be rather ambiguous and subjective in meaning. As such, there is need for the concept to be defined in order to diminish any vagueness and potential uncertainty as to what is meant when one is referred to as a professional.

We’ve previously touched on a number of issues in regards to professionalism and how it pertains to client work in our article series, Enabling Successful Projects. While this helps to clarify many parts of our approach, it’s far from all-inclusive. There is much more encompassing the ideology of professionalism, and how it influences the way we operate, than has been articulated in article form. Up until now, it has simply been an internal standard that we uphold on our own account.

The Need for Professionalism in the Design Industry

In 2011, a fantastic piece of writing was published to help define what it means to be a Design Professional; Design Professionalism is a treatise written by the knowledgable and respected, Andy Rutledge. It eschews profligacies and gets right to the core issues surrounding professionalism in relation to the designer. Aptly-dubbed “the designer’s guide to taking back your profession,” it certainly accomplishes the task of putting the designer on the right path towards pursuing a professional career in design.

However, while the treatise effectively covers the topic of professionalism, it wasn’t meant to be used as an exhaustive reference that outlines all of the standards of a professional ethics.

With this being the case, there has remained a need for a thorough, comprehensive outline of conduct held by a professional.

The Academy of Design Professionals

Enter: The Code of Professional Conduct.
The formidable Andy Rutledge continues to lead the way on the front of professionalism in our industry with his latest publication. Not to leave us high and dry, he has compiled an extensive list of ethical standards. From Standards of Excellence to Conduct and Integrity, The Code of Professional Conduct is an in-depth, and laudably meticulous coverage of all things professional.

The Academy of Design Professionals is a public recognition of individuals who represent the highest standards of design professionalism and competence.

Members are those who have made a public pledge the uphold the standards of The Code of Professional Conduct and in so doing, willingly invite scrutiny and become accountable to peers, colleagues and clients.

Endorsement

We are enthused to see such an display of dedication and commitment to professionalism. The ethics and ideals promoted by The Academy of Design Professionals echo those that have been very strongly upheld and practiced by Bold Perspective, and as such receive a hearty “Amen!”. It is with this notion that we give The Code of Professional Conduct our full endorsement.

Pledge:

As Bold Perspective, we hereby pledge our dedication to the the highest standards of professionalism, integrity, and competence in design practice and promise to uphold the spirit and letter of the Code of Professional Conduct through consistent practice and habitual reflection on our actions.

Sean McCabe

Brian Purkiss

View The Code of Professional Conduct

When potential clients approach us, they are looking to hire us because they are interested in the high caliber work we display in our portfolio. They want to have this type of quality design and attention invested in their own project.

While this is a common desire, many are unwilling to submit to what is required for producing this level of an effective project. As mentioned in “Being Selective About Choosing Clients” (Part 2 of the Enabling Successful Projects series), “The ability to produce these effective final products is strictly dependent on a refined and time-tested process that is strictly adhered to. The client agreement should contain terms that reflect your policy. Your policy is an important part of your process. All of these are interrelated and necessary to produce the desired outcome.”

Part of our policy is that we do not show clients wireframes. This will be explained in further detail below, but first let’s examine what enables a successful project. We’ll then look more closely at why professionals don’t show clients wireframes and the detrimental effects experienced by those who ignore this sentiment.

What Enables a Successful Project?

A successful project results when every involved party possessing responsibility is able to do their job effectively and unhindered. It sounds simple enough, but so much goes wrong when this stage is not properly set.

What is the Client responsible for?

The client is responsible for providing two things: Content & Goals. It is the job of the professional to ask the right questions in order to collect this information prior to starting the design.

It is imperative that both the content and goals provided be exhaustive. If content or goals are allowed to change mid-way through (without a renegotiation), the effectiveness of the final product will be compromised and the quality will decrease.

If content or goals change in the middle of the project, a renegotiation of the agreement is mandatory, and a redesign is required. Anything less compromises the quality of the design as a whole.

“Compromise begets compromise and that is a poor characteristic for design work. So…don’t.”

— Andy Rutledge, Design Professionalism Author

What is the Design Professional responsible for?

The design professional is responsible for making design decisions. This cannot be stressed enough. Design decisions should only ever be made by a design professional. At no point should anyone who is unqualified be making design decisions.

The client knows their customers and the designer knows design. This is why the client should be held as the expert on their customers when it comes to defining who their target audience is and goals for reaching them. It is then the designer’s responsibility to execute these goals through the design. If the design is allowed to be dictated by someone other than a design professional, the goals will not be accomplished.

It does not matter if a client “likes” a particular color, or “prefers” a certain layout. Design is not subjective, it is objective. A design professional does not design for the client, but for the client’s customers. This is why the designer was hired. It is of utmost importance that the design professional not subject the client to such decisions.

Let’s Talk Wireframes

No doubt, wireframes are an extremely handy tool. They are beneficial for visualizing user experience flow. Wireframing provides the means to get ideas that are confined to our heads out on paper in a tangible way. In the wireframing stage, focus is placed on hierarchy and structure rather than aesthetics. Constructing layouts on paper gives us the flexibility to make changes with dexterity and focus on the prominence of each individual element.

To reiterate, wireframes are helpful for collaboration and planning amongst professionals within a firm. They are a useful tool for internal use. The reasons for this requirement are very important:

• Wireframes are stylistically subjective to interpretational discrepancies. Every designer has their own style of wireframing and unless another has worked together with the wireframer for an extended period of time (such as another professional collaborating within the same firm), external conjecture will be erroneous.
• Wireframes simply play a part in a sequential series of steps within the design process. Comprehending an undeveloped blueprint or using it to adjudicate design decisions is no more the client’s job than determining what the proper amount of pixels the margins or type leading should be set at.

“Good ideas are often rejected for what is perceived as inadequate execution of the prototype. As a result, many engineers conceal their more provocative prototypes from senior management until they have been appropriately polished. ‘If you show them the plywood first,’ says IDEO’s Kelley, ‘they can’t make the conceptual jump.’”

— Michael Schrage, Serious Play, pg 88

Responsibility

Don’t force clients to make design decisions. Always focus your clients on goals. It is the client’s job to define goals. It is your job as the design professional to make all design decisions in order to achieve these goals.

Professionals have responsibility. If you are pawning off responsibility, then you are, in essence, pawning off your professionalism. You are forcing the client to do your job. Do not expect the client to know what his role is. If you present something to him, he will assume that it is his responsibility to make a decision. After all, you are the professional, and if you ask him to make a design decision, he will oblige.

There is a “Group Think” mentality that not only hindering innovative creativity, but poisoning the endowment of responsibility. It has begun to infiltrate the design industry and professional-to-client relationships. Collaboration—in and of itself—is not an evil thing, but when taken to the extreme where everyone’s opinion has equal weight, leadership is diluted. When everyone is responsible, no one is responsible.

It bears saying again, the client is not the designer. Therefore, they should not be making design decisions of any kind. This is not just in relation to wireframes, but extends even to the number of concepts you provide as well. In presenting 10 concepts, you are causing the client to make a design decision. You should be culling that selection in the exploration and refinement phase of your design process. Present only the most effective of the group. Anything less sends the message that you as a professional are incapable of determining the most effective route. In other words, is sends the message that you are not very professional.

Walk the Client through the Design

“If we’re not allowed to show clients wireframes,” asks the confused designer, “how will they see what’s behind the design when I show them its completion?”

They will see it when you present the completed design, of course. The key being present. Never “show” your design. That’s irresponsible.

Users are meant to experience the design, not clients. Clients are entitled to an explanation as to how the design accomplishes their goals through a very detailed presentation.

This presentation should reiterate the client’s goals and walk the them through, step-by-step, how the finished design accomplishes each and every one of their goals. The reason for any attribute of every aspect of the design should be readily defendable and explained. No design decision should be made arbitrarily. Make sure you cite elements from the original brief in your presentation to show how you responsibly achieved their execution.

If you merely exhibit the design without presenting the clients with “what’s next”, they will get hung up on “what’s now” instead of proceeding as necessary. Walk them through the design decisions and then provide the next step in the process.

Conclusion

The design industry has been operating under harmful practices so consistently for such an extended period of time that most have difficulty accepting true professionalism because it seems to counter existing “standards” or “traditions.”

If what has been discussed here sounds like a foreign concept, you would do yourself a great disservice not to read Design Professionalism. Written by Andy Rutledge, the treatise does an exceptional job of repudiating the all-to-common disillusionments new designers frequently encounter.

If after reading the treatise, you still have questions or topics you would like to converse about, feel free to engage in discussion on Google+.

The internet makes it easy for one to be exposed to an exorbitant amount of extraordinary work in potentially overwhelming doses. This is the case with design, art, music, and just about anything conceivable. There are no true shortcuts in life and most skills are earned through dedication, practice and a great investment of time. But does a lack of innate ability hinder one from succeeding at a skill that he or she was not naturally gifted with?

Definitions

Before we go much further, let’s clarify the two types we’ll be referring to:

The first type is someone who has what might be called a “gift”. This person is probably able to pick up a skill with no, or seemingly little effort at all and is able to do well at this particular skill because it comes naturally to them. This type will be referred to as one with a natural talent.

The second type is someone who is aspiring to become fluent in a skill, but has no natural “gift” or “talent” for such a skill. In an entirely non-derogatory way, this second type will be referred to as one with no natural talent.

Is it Worth Trying?

Naturally, the first question people ask is “Can hard work beat talent?” It’s a fair question because if it’s not possible to do well at something without a natural gift, why even try? The answer is Yes, hard work can beat talent. But a talented person who also works hard will always be ahead of someone who is not naturally talented but also works hard.

This doesn’t mean it’s not’s worth trying to excel at something without a natural gift just because being the absolute best is unachievable. It’s about focus. The focus should be on applying 100% of one’s efforts at whatever task is in question. If a skill is mastered by sheer hard work, that’s saying something. That’s something to be proud of.

Hard Work can Beat Lazy Talent

The light red bar represents the quality of work a talented person is capable of without putting forth any effort. With a bit of effort, someone with no talent can product better work than the talented person that doesn’t apply themselves. This is shown at the point where the dark blue line intersects the light red bar.

There’s no limit to excelling even without a natural gift. Improvement is always possible by applying oneself.

Talent that Works Hard Always Wins

Those who have natural gifts for certain skills know that it’s easy to become complacent. It’s like the tortoise and the hare. By being ahead to start with little to no effort, laziness can creep in. This happens all too often and it is really is a shame. While being ahead of some has a small advantage, it’s not an achievement. What’s being wasted is the potentiality, and laziness wastes talent.

Conclusion

What can be taken away from this? We all have inclinations, gifts, talents, and natural abilities. It’s obviously most resourceful to apply effort to growing in the areas that already have a springboard. However, don’t let that be a limitation. Talent is not a requirement for success. Hard work is.

In the areas that talent is possessed, it’s important that the same, if not greater effort be put forth in excelling at these pursuits. Life is not a destination, it’s a journey and arrival is a fictitious state.

You know how that familiar, pesky background layer you always start with on a new Photoshop document is locked? If you’re like me there’s nothing you hate more than going to the mouse for something you shouldn’t have to.

Chad Engle recently tweeted asking if there was a keyboard shortcut to unlock the Background layer. I knew of none and shared the best way I knew to accomplish the task without retreating to the mouse:

Cmd + J to duplicate, Option + [ to move layer selection back down to Background, and Delete

This gets the job done, but I was less than satisfied. I went back to explore my trusty Custom Keyboard shortcuts. If you don’t use these, you really should. Customizing the shortcuts to personalize actions you regularly perform will boost your productivity tremendously. Head to Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts. (Tip: you can even use a keyboard shortcut to get to the keyboard shortcuts! Cmd + Option + Shift + K)

How to Configure the Shortcut

Once you have the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog open, navigate to Layer > Background. It’s not immediately obvious that this is what we’re looking for, but you’ll see in a minute. Just set a keyboard short for Background. I personally use Cmd + Option + Shift + B.

Now test it out! Open up a new document and your new shortcut should present you with a dialog to optionally rename the layer (essentially unlocking it). Just hit Enter and you’re done!

Speculative Work (or “spec work”) is work performed with no expectation or arrangement for compensation. Anyone who engages in spec work invests uncompensated time and resources with no guarantee of payment.

Ok I get it, but what’s the difference?

You might ask, “Well what’s the difference between spec work and say, ‘giving back to the community’, or ‘donating work to a charity’?”

I’m glad you asked. Let’s break down the difference between the three scenarios so you can see that, in fact, one of these things is not like the others.

Notice the odd one out? The issue is the value, or lack of value, attributed to professional work, and by association, its industry. When you give a gift, the recipient does not view the gift as being worthless, they view the gift as being something of value that was given to them. Donating time or resources to an organization is the same as writing them a check. It is giving them something of value out of charity and they are receiving it as such.

It Comes Down to Value

The spec work mindset is detrimental to the industry. Those who hold contests to solely benefit the contest holder and one participant are devaluing the profession of all participants. Those who participate in such contests are devaluing their own profession as well as that of others in their industry.

Professionals should always be compensated for their work. Professional work is inherently valuable and demands payment. Again, if someone chooses to give something of value (e.g. design, time, resources, money) to an organization, that is the right and choice of that person to do so. Because the company is receiving a donation from the individual they are acknowledging the inherent value of the donation.

Donating design, time, or resources to non-profits is NOT spec work

There is no such thing as “donating” your time to a spec work contest. The nature of speculative contest work is built upon the misguided belief that professional work is worthless unless “liked” or “chosen” by the contest holder. If you think that you are simply “donating” your time to these “contests”, you are sadly mistaken and do nothing more than declare the worth of your work as having no real value.

Are Legitimate Contests Possible Then?

Yes. There are legitimate contests, and not all contests are evil. In order to determine if a contest is legitimate and not spec work, you must find out who is benefitting from the collective work. If the answer is the contest holder, then it is spec work. If the answer is the community or industry as a whole and the contest holder does not benefit from the work, then it can be a contest.

A prime example of detrimental spec work was Moleskine’s Logo Contest. Because the contest holder, Moleskine, would benefit from the unpaid collective work, it was not a contest; it was spec work.

Update: Thanks to the upstanding folks in the design community, our outcry was heard and Moleskine conceded, apologizing for disrespecting the design community. For this, they are reconciled.

In contrast, Unmatched Style’s CSS Off exemplifies the ideal legitimate contest. In this case, the community gets the benefit from this contest rather than the contest holder. The contest holder values the entrants’ work and releases the work to the public under the Creative Commons License for educational and industry-benefitting purposes.

What Can I Do to Help?

The most obvious way is to refrain from participating in speculative work. By standing up for the inherent value of your work, you retain not only your own dignity and establish yourself as a professional, but also the dignity and reputation of those in your industry.

A more proactive approach to the issue would be to get involved in the AntiSpec campaign and put your face with the group that boldly says NO to spec work.

Discussion

Disagree or have something you want to say? Share your thoughts on the discussion thread.

The goal of design at its core is to promote a message. The design and its style should reflect the content and promote the message through the use of an appropriate style.

Two Design Approaches:

Almost every project is one of the following 2 situations:

• Scenario a: Client comes to the designer (who has a notorious style) and wants a website based on the designer’s style
• Scenario b: Client comes to the designer with specific goals and wants a website style that fits their content

a: Set Style

Neither position is more correct than the other 100% of the time. Establishing yourself as a designer who specializes in a specific style of design is a legitimate strategy. However, when it comes to design, one size does not fit all. In the same manner, one design style does not fit all messages.

If you deicide to design only with your own style, you must only take on jobs that fit your particular style. Otherwise, forcing your style onto content that is not a good fit for your style will be detrimental to the effectiveness of the design.

Again, there’s nothing wrong with being consistent in a single style. Clients know what to expect, and it can make things easier in some regards. Just don’t be tempted to force your style where it doesn’t belong. Either turn down the job, or be willing to design outside of your comfort zone.

b: Flexible Style

The alternative is the designer who does not have a set style but designs what is most effective and appropriate for the content type. You can easily recognize this type of designer by looking at their portfolio to see if there are a wide variety of styles. If all of their websites look similar, they likely stick to just that style.

In either scenario, the designer should craft a layout that fits to the content and accomplishes the desired goals. Don’t design without content. If you work backwards, the design will be less effective at best.

It’s the same with tailoring a suit. If you don’t have measurements, the fit will be poor. Working from measurements produces the best fit. Content and design work the same way.

How to Design from the Content:

• Analyize the content
• Find messages of great importance
• Arrange the elements in order of prominence
• Design a layout that promotes what is most important
• Establish a clear visual hierarchy
• Determine what content will be static and what will be dynamic
• Take stylistic advantage of what will be static
• Account for flexibility in the layout to accommodate dynamic content

Conclusion

Starting with the content and building outward produces an organic design that is centered around and founded upon a core message. This allows the message to speak without the design or aesthetics getting in the way. Style and form should be secondary to message and function.

Any artist can look at their work and see it as an extension of themselves, but designers don’t have that liberty.

—The Difference Between Design and Art

Table of Contents:

• Introduction to Enabling Successful Projects
• Pt1 Filtering With Your Questionnaire
• Pt2 Being Selective About Choosing Clients
• Pt3 Establishing a Process
• Pt4 Setting Client Expectations
• Pt5 Handling Client Revisions
• → Pt6 Letting the Content Dictate the Design

Revisions are not always bad. Your goal should always be to deliver your best on the first try, but learn to handle revisions properly and they can work for you instead of against you.

Define Acceptable Revisions Up Front

In your original agreement, you should establish what an acceptable revision looks like and define when revision requests are allowed.

Your proposal should cover everything that will be provided (this includes revisions). By anticipating revisions in your agreement, you are able to allow for an exact number of revisions and the criteria by which they are deemed acceptable.

Sample:

LOGO DESIGN:
• Industry, company, and competition research
• Optimized to be versatile for use on desired mediums
• 1 initial concept will be presented. Up to 3 revisions will be provided (revisions are optional).
• If a second concept is requested in lieu of the initial concept, the first revision can be replaced with a second concept. The final 2 revisions can then be applied toward the second concept.
• Revisions may alter the Project Time Frame

The above Logo Design sample clearly outlines the number of concepts and revisions that are provided and under what circumstances they are allowable. Beyond these details in your proposal, you should also explain the difference between a “revision” and an “addition” or “change” in your terms. Here is how Bold Perspective defines Changes:

[Keep in mind, I am not a lawyer so you should not consider this legal advice but just a sample of our terms]

Sample:

CHANGES:
• The Client must assume that all additions, alterations, changes in content, layout, concepts or process changes beyond the proposal requested by the customer, will alter the time and cost. The Client shall offer The Designer the first opportunity to make any changes. Any change requests may alter the completion date and/or Time Frame.

Prevent Unreasonable Revisions

Revisions are always optional. It should be made clear in your preliminary discussions with prospective clients that using up all allowable revisions does not automatically result in a better final product (in fact, the reverse more often holds true).

Explain that no decisions you make are based merely on personal preference but rather a series of calculated choices that were determined by the goals they they provided in order to accomplish them most effectively.

To reinforce that the design is not a result of personal preference, you must always be ready to back up every one of your design decisions. When you present your first concept or draft, thoroughly explain the process or steps that produced the result. If a client does not like the outcome, they must then address the calculated decisions that resulted in the outcome and logically counter them. Otherwise, the client will be irrationally dismissing your calculated decisions and insisting on a less effective revision.

Conclusion

If necessary, have a discussion with your client about the goals they came to you with. Simply convey that it is your understanding that they initially approached you with the intention of hiring you to design a final product that accomplished these goals. Explain that a design catered towards your client rather than towards their users will be counterproductive in accomplishing the goals they originally provided.

Finally, clarify that the emphasis should be on designing for the user rather than for the client themselves or even you as a designer for that matter.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction to Enabling Successful Projects
• Pt1 Filtering With Your Questionnaire
• Pt2 Being Selective About Choosing Clients
• Pt3 Establishing a Process
• Pt4 Setting Client Expectations
• → Pt5 Handling Client Revisions
• Pt6 Letting the Content Dictate the Design

When you take on a client, you are essentially partnering with the client by forming a team with them. It’s important to remember that you both now have the same goals and are working together to achieve them. Setting the client’s expectations is the most important factor in ensuring that the protect goes smoothly.

It’s your responsibility as the designer—and ultimately project leader—to lay out a game plan that covers what is going to happen when and who is going to take care of it. When everyone is on the same page and knows how things are going to go down, they can more effectively focus on the items assigned to them.

Having everyone on the same page will result in a better final product and keep things going smoothly.

Most Problems Arise from Unmet Expectations

If you analyze the projects you’ve had in the past were something went wrong, more often than not you’ll discover that the issue arose from misconstrued ideas of how things were going to pan out. Unmet expectations can very quickly turn nasty and no where else does the phrase “an ounce of prevention…” ring truer.

The solution is, of course, to set realistic expectations up front. You really can’t be too clear in this stage. Clarify every step beyond a shadow of a doubt. Make sure the client understands the order of events for this particular project.

You should have two layers outlining your process to establish client expectations:

1. Your General Process
   • This is a generic process that is (ideally) displayed on your website that covers a basic step-by-step process for most of your common projects. We covered generic processes in our previous article, Establishing a Process.
2. A Project-Specific Process
   • In addition to your General Process, you should also construct a similar list for each project. Tailor it to your client and their project and provide as an additional reference.

This 2-layered approach is a very efficient way to cover your bases and ensure that the client has a good idea of how things will work.

Ask The Client

It’s so simple it can easily be overlooked. Ask your client if they have any questions regarding the project or process. Assure them that you’d be happy to answer any questions they have regarding communication, concepts, approval, etc. Even if they have no questions they will take note of your efforts to communicate with them.

Project-Specific Milestones

Aside from establishing initial expectations, Milestones are by far the most helpful in ensuring that everyone knows what to expect.

We highly recommend Apollo as a Project Management System as it has an excellent Milestone feature. You can still inform a client of project Milestones via email, but a PMS makes it much easier.

Setting an initial Milestone is the very first thing you should do after starting a project with a new client. Immediately put them at ease by patiently letting them know exactly what to expect. If your first order of business is to wireframe and design a layout comp and this stage takes 2 weeks, set a Milestone for 2 weeks from now that lets the client know to expect a concept for their approval on this date.

As soon as a Milestone has been met establish the next Milestone. By providing the very next step, you reassure the client of what is to come without overwhelming them with the remaining 10 Milestones. By providing 1 Milestone at a time, it also allows you more flexibility if there are any unforseen delays in the project. The client will always have the original Project-Specific Outline that you provided them to refer to if they want to look ahead.

Conclusion

Smooth projects start with clear expectations and good communication. Remember, your client is a new-comer to your team. It’s your job to fill them in on everything they need to know. Invest in the relationship and you will be rewarded.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction to Enabling Successful Projects
• Pt1 Filtering With Your Questionnaire
• Pt2 Being Selective About Choosing Clients
• Pt3 Establishing a Process
• → Pt4 Setting Client Expectations
• Pt5 Handling Client Revisions
• Pt6 Letting the Content Dictate the Design

In order to have a smooth-rolling and successful project, it is imperative that the client have an established trust in the designer(s) as experts in their industry. You will witness the repeated success of projects seen through to effective completion when there is a strict adherence to a thoroughly outlined process.

If you have not yet established a design process, it would be a very good idea to do so. If you already have (give yourself a good pat on the back if this is the case), you may still find a few useful ideas that can strengthen your existing process.

Benefits of Displaying a Process

Written or not, all designers have a process they follow. Rather than store this is your head, it is a very healthy excerise to get this out onto paper. Even if you don’t display it on your website, transferring your process to a written format is very helpful in solidifying your process within your own mind and is exceedingly helpful for those that you do or might potentially work with.

Obviously each project has its own unique challenges. No two projects are alike and this is why its a good idea to have both a General Process as well as a Project Specific Process.

Your General Process should be generic enough to display on your website and cover at least the basics that typically apply to all of your projects. Displaying this process on your website can do a number of things for you:

• Adds Perceived Value to Your Services
  • Potential clients see your process broken down comprehensively and appreciate the level of investment you put into your work. Your attention to detail will come through the outline of your process and will help clients trust you more when they see how much attention is given to all of your projects (including theirs).
• Establishes You as Knowledgable in Your Industry
  • Anyone can say they build websites. It’s another thing to outline how you do it. For example: An architect who outlines his process of Schematic Design, Construction Drawings, etc. will instill more trust than one who does not.
• Sets Client Expectations
  • As we cover more in depth in the next article of this series, setting client expectations goes a long way in preventing future problems.

Break it Down

First, group the distinctly different sections of your process into several larger categories. We’ll use the Bold Perspective Design Process to illustrate. In this example, we have the steps grouped into 5 categories:

• Strategy
• Identity
• Web Design
• Development
• Launch

This is obviously not a definitive list; yours should vary depending on what services you provide. Nevertheless, it is a good starting point and should give you a good idea of how to begin crafting the steps of your own process.

Take the first of your larger categories and list the steps that category entails. In the Bold Perspective Process, each category has between 6–9 steps. For example, in the Strategy category, we have the following steps:

1. Assess Questionnaire
2. Research Industry
3. Present Proposal
4. Revise Proposal (if necessary)
5. Finalize Agreement
6. Plan Project

Each of these steps have a description and they are all of a similarly modest length. Most people won’t read everything, but for those that do go into to depth, you want to make sure the text will be something of value to them.

Make it Scan Friendly

Processes can be very extensive and many viewers will gloss over your process. For this reason, you should establish a few levels of clear hierarchy for the reader:

1. Categories
2. Steps
3. Descriptions

Depending on their level of interest, a reader will subconsciously pick one of these levels and read only the text in that level and the ones above it (thus skipping over any content of a lower hierarchical value than that of their interest). Make each one interesting.

Conclusion

These examples should give you enough to get your gears turning. Think of them as guidelines and be creative with your execution. The important thing is to make sure you have a process!

Table of Contents:

• Introduction to Enabling Successful Projects
• Pt1 Filtering With Your Questionnaire
• Pt2 Being Selective About Choosing Clients
• → Pt3 Establishing a Process
• Pt4 Setting Client Expectations
• Pt5 Handling Client Revisions
• Pt6 Letting the Content Dictate the Design

The type of clients you take on will define you as a designer. The clients you accept will determine the projects you receive. The projects you receive will establish what kind of portfolio you will have. It is obviously very important to place a large emphasis on who you choose to work with.

Are You a Professional or a Merchant?

You need to decide for yourself what you are as it will determine what type of clients you take on. A Professional is selective with clients whereas a Merchant is not.

Members of a profession exercise discrimination in choosing clients rather than simply accepting any interested party as a customer (as merchants do).

—Design Professionalism

Quality

Is the client going to allow you to produce quality work? Keep in mind that the client is approaching you based on the quality of work that you have displayed in your portfolio.

The ability to produce these effective final products is strcitly dependent on a refined and time-tested process that is strictly adhered to. The client agreement should contains terms that reflect your policy. Your policy is an important part of your process. All of these are interrelated and necessary to produce the desired outcome.

If a client puts an emphasis on designating how you should do your job then there is a problem. A client should not be in the position of dictator but should instead approach you with a clear list of goals and messages to achieve and broadcast respectively. You as the designer have the responsibility to then take that message and those goals and produce a design that effectively communicates the messages in order of prominenece while simoltaneously accomplishing the desired goals.

When a clients asserts themselves by explaining how you should design, they are assigning themselves the role of designer. If a client wishes to act as designer, then let them create it themselves (i.e. don’t accept them as a client). Working with such a client will always result in a less effective product at best and a disaster at worst.

The ideal client will be focused on goals and content while entrusting you with the design that they hired you to create.

Do Not Compromise

Once you learn how to spot red flags, you won’t be able to unsee them in future prospects. However, this is not the difficulty. The difficulty lies in refusing to allow yourself to compromise after you have already been made aware of the warning signs.

Compromise begets compromise and that is a poor characteristic for design work. So…don’t.

—Andy Rutedge

There will always be “reasons” to compromise and accept clients that are not a good fit. Many of the common reasons you will recognize: Money, Once-in-a-lifetime Opportunity, Would be a great Portfolio addition, the client is a “Big Name” client, among many others.

It’s all too easy to fall prey to such illusions in a moment of weakness. The best way to avoid them is to make the decision now before the opportunities even arise. Choose now not to compromise on projects with red flags in the future regardless of potential returns.

Likelihood of a Successful Project

Even if the client’s values align with yours and their qualities are up to your standards, you still need to ask yourself if the project they are presenting is able to be successful.

Be real with your clients. If their idea is not a good one, don’t just take their money. Counsel them, guide them, give them professional recommendations. If they are open to them, they are very likely a good client that you want to work with. Conversely, consider yourself lucky to find out early on that they are not open to your recommendations as they would not have been a client that you would have wanted to work with.

By investing in the success of your clients (even before beginning to work with them) you are showing them that you care about their project enough to tell them that it might not have a good chance of being successful. They will recognize this gesture and likely come back to you with a revised project or entirely new future projects. They will also be more inclined to recommend you to someone because you have established yourself as being trustworthy.

Associating yourself only with successful projects enables you to be successful. A portfolio full of flops does you no good. There have been many projects by “Big Names” that have failed too, so don’t assume that won’t be the case just because a well-known client approaches you.

Select projects that will result in successful products and you too will be successful.

Conclusion

We are in a unique industry that allows us to choose who we work with. Leveraging this opportunity by wisely choosing our clients gives us the ability to craft the very future of our own career.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction to Enabling Successful Projects
• Pt1 Filtering With Your Questionnaire
• → Pt2 Being Selective About Choosing Clients
• Pt3 Establishing a Process
• Pt4 Setting Client Expectations
• Pt5 Handling Client Revisions
• Pt6 Letting the Content Dictate the Design