If you don’t subscribe to this principle stop reading now, as this post probably isn’t for you.

So let’s say that a client approaches you and needs 10 pieces, which are all variations of the same campaign in different formats. Try as you might to understand the objectives and differences between all of these pieces, you just can’t figure it out. In fact, some of them don’t even make sense to your client. He or she is just producing them because they were asked to, or because that is what they have “done in the past.” If the objectives don’t make sense to you, they aren’t going to make sense to the audience. Chances are they know even less about the client/brand/product than you do.

Don’t be afraid to steer the client away from these obligatory projects and towards what they really need—it’s your job. Cut the fat, get rid of those dopey secondary and tertiary pieces, and put the budget towards one big project that really makes a splash. Think about it. What makes bigger waves in a pond: a bunch of pebbles or a boulder?

Putting your client’s best interest at heart also means knowing when to say, “I think you might want to consider doing this instead.” Encourage them not to make garbage, but pieces people will want to hold onto. A client recently told me about some in-store easel cards they made years ago. Rather than the traditional paper ads, they used lenticular graphics which animated the ads. Even though it must have cost the client more to produce, it was well worth it in the long run because stores held onto the ads for years rather than the traditional life span of 1-2 months.

Don’t get greedy and think that those “10 pieces” are going to make you more money; honestly, one $10,000 project will be better for you than ten $1,000 projects. Plus, truly great projects are rarely handed to a designer, it’s all about what you make of the assignment. I’m sure the project brief for our client’s lenticular ads began with, “We need a standard paper easel card.”

This entry was posted on Monday, July 30th, 2007 at 6:48 am and is filed under Graphic Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.