Why Client Work is so Stressful
By Levina Kusumadjaja
When you work with a client...
...do you feel a lot of stress?
...do you feel anxious when you receive a brief from a client?
...do you feel stuck creatively?
...do you feel overworked and overbooked?
If you said yes to all of the questions above, then you are not alone. Doing client work can be stressful and pressuring, especially when you come into the projects simply wanting to finish a client’s brief. Saying yes to all the client’s request and not knowing the goal of the project leads to a lot of assumptions because it is based on how much your client likes your work or not. It is this guesswork that creates anxiety. Sometimes it even feels like you’re selling solutions that won’t even work, it’s just that your clients insist on having those designs made.
But what if you can actually work alongside your client and help ensure that what you are designing will actually help solve your client’s problems? What if instead of receiving orders without question, you can actually ask questions and dive deep into the problem, so that your designs have purpose and meaning? This is totally possible, because this is where strategy comes in to bridge the gap. The thinking behind your design and the one thing that can turn your working relationship with your client into a collaboration is called strategy.
By default, your client comes to you because they have a goal in mind. They want to go somewhere, they are currently not there yet, and they haven’t been able to get there on their own. Bringing strategy into the process means you dive deep first before designing anything. It means you don’t leave the client to assume that your design will get them to their goals and the client doesn’t leave you to assume the kind of design that will help them. You both collaborate in the process. No more order takers and order givers, only collaborators and partners.
You come in as a strategist who are there to help your client understand their goals and uncover their problems. You both evaluate what are needed to actually overcome the challenges. Will a logo help them get there? Who are the customers they want to reach? What kind of visuals will connect the brand to their customers? And many more questions. The goal is to not just design for the sake of design, but to actually solve your client’s problem and give value to your client.
Can you see the difference? Can you see how valuable strategy really is for our creative work? For you, strategy helps you create meaningful, purposeful, and valuable designs. For your client, strategy helps them solve their problems. This is why strategy is necessary, because the thinking behind the design is more important than the design itself. While the strategic thinking doesn’t always lead to designing something as a solution, designing something without strategic thinking will lead to little to no solution at all.
Cheers!
Levina
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About the author:
Levina is a writer based in Indonesia. Because of Melinda Livsey, she recognized the power of brand strategy for every creative. She is sharing about her learnings as she goes to help creatives have fun in their growth and journey of building brands. Connect with her on LinkedIn and say hi!