Relationship Advice

Fear not, Trisha or Jeremy Kyle aren’t in the Toucan studio, this post is about the Creative - Client relationship (thankfully)!

Having just watched a very interesting talk by Mike Monteiro of Mule Design Studio in San Francisco called ‘F*ck You, Pay Me’ I thought I’d summarise what I’d got out of it, in the hope that it might help designers and clients forge more solid working relationships and avoid the situations where Mike’s words might have cause to be uttered.

Now, as you may guess, Mike talked about various problem phrases that creative agencies often face after design work has been commissioned. These included:

“We ended up not using the work”

“We got some-one internal to do it instead”

“It’s not what we wanted after all”

“The project is being cancelled”

And the list goes on…

So how do projects end up getting to this stage? Here, we need to remember that people enter into a relationship with the best of intentions, no-one purposefully sets out to be difficult.  The fact is people change, markets fluctuate and ultimately project goal posts move. What we really need to consider as creative designers and clients is how to deal with this upfront and make sure mechanisms are in place to cover these issues.

Here, Mike ‘lawyers up’ and cannot suggest strongly enough that we do too. The contract is his best friend, and you can’t argue with the logic of having a contract in place when it protects both parties. A contract can cover those awkward eventualities but with the benefit of being negotiable at the outset.

Having a contract in place for projects demonstrates professional forethought and the willingness to set out clear definitions and expectations for each project.

We all need to understand what we’re agreeing to when working on a job, and this clarifies specifics and highlights questions that need to be asked sooner rather than later.

The ‘F*ck You, Pay Me’ approach obviously comes from the perspective of a service provider, however, the following positive points can be harnessed to ensure relationships on both sides are built up and preserved, leaving professionals to get on with what they actually love doing (well in our case anyway!) and avoiding getting to the bitter stage:

·      Get contracts in place

·      Make allies where possible

·      Listen to professional advisors where appropriate

·      Take the time to actually talk (face to face or on the phone, summarise conversations by email if you need clarification in writing)

Confidence in a working relationship can often be made or restored over a cup of coffee and an honest chat. This is a business relationship, both sides know it, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be open and approachable. Taking the time to tick the ‘business’ boxes at the start of a project, just ensures that design resources are utilised where they are most needed in the critical stages of a project.

Now, that’s a basic summary of my take on Mike’s advice (minus the profanity) for people on both sides of the business relationship… see what you think here:

http://adesignmafia.com/fck-you-pay-me-mike-monteiro/