Communicating with Non-Creatives By Tom Vanlerberghe

Posted: April 5, 2009 at 5.42 pm
Posted by Tom Vanlerberghe in Guest, Opinions, creativity

Guest Post by Tom Vanlerberghe
Follow Tom on Twitter - @KursaalTom

Communicating with Non-Creatives

A great post by Sarah Whinnem about the pain and sorrow that comes with dealing with non-creatives.  But there are always two sides, so here it goes… and if you decide to send hatemail, please send it to georgebush@retirement.com.

Treat me like an infant.

A lot of designers expect non-creatives to have a basic knowledge about design.  When should I forward a pdf file, when a jpg?  The difference between RGB and CMYK?  But the sad truth is that a lot of people don’t know these basic things.  As a designer you can argument that a certain level of knowledge should be appropriate, but since the client is footing the bill, the initiative should come from the designer rather than the client.  Having a ‘you stupid cow’-attitude won’t help smoothening communications between the two of you.

Be stubborn.

Creative types want to make pretty things, designs they like and what they hope their peers will like.  But chances are slim that this is the most important thing for your client.  Sure they’ll tell you they want a flyer that looks great, but the reason why they print the flyer is probably because of a 50% sale or something.  As a result you have to ‘defile’ the design with a very noticeable (and ugly) 50% off sign.  Stubborn designers always try to talk non-creatives into approving a design that doesn’t suit their needs.  As a result, client not happy because the design doesn’t work.  Designer not happy because he ‘defiled’ the design.

Dare to say no.

Since a lot of creatives are individual freelancers they hardly ever say ‘no’.  Especially when work has been slow they say ‘yes’ to almost anything.  But just like in any other profession there are designers who are better in corporate design, some in interior design, webdesign,… If you know that you won’t be able to do something as good as what you do normally, why do it?  You’ll get frustrated because you probably underestimated it, the clients will get frustrated because he probably overestimated you.

Talk.

It’s never a bad reason asking a client why he chose you.  Maybe he did it for the wrong reasons?  It’s like asking an interior designer you admire to create your new folder, or asking your favorite webdesigner if he can create your shop display.  It might work, chances are it won’t.  So talk about it.  Be honest and let the client know it’s the first time you’ll be doing this.  You can convince him you’re really motivated to do the job, but give him a fair chance to look for someone who’s more specialized.

Should be great to hear your comments on this one and remember… I love designers… that’s why I’m guest posting here (and because Graham has an even worse spellchecker than I have :) ) {ED. You mean I’m meant to spell check this as well as posting it? Bah}