Creative Reaction

In  The Perfectly-Designed Office, we contrasted offices that foster creativity and those which portray the idea of creativity. The pristine, image-conscious agencies want to look creative, yet what better way is there to woo new clients than to let them see your (often messy) creative process at work?

From Leland Maschmeyer (in this morning’s linked-to post), “Imagine being a prospective client walking into an agency… As you tour the office you’re inundated with ideas wherever you look. The energy of the agency being so vibrant and intoxicating that you feel the need to jump in on a project. And as you marvel at the prolific thinking swirling around you, you can’t shake the notion that maybe – just maybe - you are standing in the womb of creativity… Wow – what a great feeling to leave a prospective client with.”

Which brings us to our segue quote from earlier, “Clients who value your designs are good. Clients who also value your design process are better”.

The essay from which the above quote comes, details how Tupperware choose Frog Design to create Tupperware’s FlatOut! line of storage containers. “Tupperware liked what Frog had created for other clients (in other industries), but they also recognized that Frog’s design process was at the core of all those great designs. And most important, Tupperware understood how that process would benefit them.”

“Many clients don’t fully understand how designers create. And if your clients don’t understand it, or even know about it, then they won’t value it.”

Likewise, many clients do not fully understand how advertising agencies and production companies create.

Those who don’t, need to be taught. Those who do are more likely to trust agencies with their business without rounds of reviews and business pitches.

What You Expect From Your Clients is What You Will Get, though from a programmer’s standpoint, perfectly parallels the creative business world, where many speak ill of their clients, claiming “they don’t get it” and often looking down at them. It’s simply absurd; without clients, business would cease. The problem is most rampant where both parties have several layers of bureaucracy; the creative process is stripped of almost all personal interaction and communication breaks down. 

Perhaps it’s stating the obvious that as long as clients are impersonalized as “them” and “they”, good communication and good service simply will not happen, and creative businesses depend on both.