A new breed of client.
Go play with your colours.
More and more these days, when dealing with client requests for design, I'm finding that people (non-designers) are a great deal more aware of what they want. For many years it's been the case that clients have said "here's my information, go play with your colours and make it look pretty" (rants on comments like these may come later) but increasingly I am receiving full briefs from clients who have made considered decisions relating to their design requirements. Now I'm not saying these are educated decisions or even good decisions but none the less more and more people are starting to consider the value of design before approaching designers.
Whilst this is obviously a good thing from any point of view you have to wonder why this is occurring. Now within the web industry this is of course apparent and relevant, but the rest of the world is starting to catch up and it's hard to pin point a clear reason for this shift in importance. I can't help but wonder if it is a direct result of the increase in the quality work found on the web these days. I've been involved in designing interfaces for web professionally since 2000 (blimey that's ten years now) and naturally as technology expands and progresses you would see an equal rise in quality web experiences. It's quite apparent that good quality web design is breeding competition between rival businesses much like any other aspect of business such as price or products. We're starting to see companies competing in "web wars" who would never have considered this important 5 or so years ago. More than that it's not just about how many products you have or how easy your shopping experience is. These things are clearly important don't get me wrong, but we're also seeing effective and relevant graphic design come into play here. Whilst one might argue that this serves to assist the experience (of course it does) a good experience isn't dependent on artwork and never has been, it's simply tool to enhance it. This is of course not a revelation, I'm not saying things here that we don't already know. It is however important to highlight the fact that you needn't always assume that the client that approaches you knows nothing about what they want or need. More and more prospective clients I meet out there are experienced in web, have had a presence for many years and know what works and what doesn't. New experience.
More recently I've had the experience of dealing with a client that has clear and precise ideas around their design requirements, even to the point of instructing me on every aspect of their brief. This is because they had educated themselves on best practices and modern techniques but lacked the actual design skills to produce the end result themselves. This was a very new experience for me and was initially hard to get to grips with. Soon enough I adapted my methods to fit in with their uncommon approach but this left me feeling stifled creatively. The project was a success and they did look for me to influence them on final design decisions and luckily were quite open to any disagreements I had with certain choices, but this was very new ground for me. I had moved from a position of 'creative designer' to 'pixel pusher'. My question is...
... Are we moving into a new world where people like me who typically cater for SME's are not invited to the table as a creative person who can create your public image, but rather a technician who has the skills to colour inside the lines?
