One of my frus­tra­tions as a cre­ative pro­fes­sion has been a lack of respect (or interest) in my cre­ative ideas. Part of this has to do with the type of com­pany I work for. It also has some­thing to do with the clients I work for. Mostly it has to do with the way that I have con­ceived and pre­sented my ideas in the past.

Graphic design is about iden­ti­fying the problem, gen­er­ating a solu­tion based on knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence with visual solu­tions, and then selling that idea to the client. It is this last task, this art of sales­man­ship, that isn’t really ever taught. School can help you figure out how to under­stand prob­lems and craft solu­tions. Being able to artic­u­late those ideas, and to do so con­vinc­ingly, is some­thing I’ve had to learn by expe­ri­ence – with a lot of trial and (it seems) even more error.

I used to rely on instinct to deter­mine visual solu­tions. I have a pretty good eye for things. But instinct and per­sonal opinion is not some­thing you can sell to a client. Per­versely, I am always annoyed when clients dic­tate to me based on their own instincts and per­sonal opin­ions – as if my posi­tion as a designer somehow grants my view cre­dence. I know now that’s the wrong approach.

Problem solving in design is a lot like any other kind of problem solving. You work with an estab­lished set of tools to achieve a desired result. In math and sci­ence, the tools were the­o­ries and equa­tions. In design there is visual per­cep­tion and the com­po­si­tional vari­ables that are used to influ­ence it: bal­ance, con­trast, color, tex­ture, etc. A sys­tem­atic approach to a problem yields a solu­tion based on ideas, backed up by the schol­arly and artistic work of others. It’s much easier to sell an idea to a client when there’s good rea­sons to sup­port your solution.

Of course, this doesn’t mean a client is any more likely to be influ­enced. This is true even if you’ve become a good design sales­person. Some­times there are other, better ideas. Some­times a client is stub­born. This hap­pens and over the years I’ve come to accept that. Even if my ideas aren’t embraced, I find an enor­mous sat­is­fac­tion in having made the effort.

If I’ve care­fully con­sid­ered the problem and deter­mined a good solu­tion, if I’ve made the best pos­sible pitch to the client in sup­port of that solu­tion, then my oblig­a­tion as a cre­ative pro­fes­sional (at least in the first phase of a project) has been ful­filled. At that point I can say I’ve done my best to con­tribute to a suc­cessful project. The job is not always to “win” – to have your ideas embraced and loved.

I feel that way today. The cre­ative thinking part of a project I’m working on has come to a con­clu­sion. I did my best, devel­oping and pre­senting good solu­tions. Not all my ideas were accepted, but I am sat­is­fied nonetheless.