Focus and the Art of Collaboration
Posted in Design, General on December 15th, 2010 by webmaster – 1 Comment
Image credit to 1stwebdesigner.com
There is no such thing as a perfect client. And, as much as you might like to think so, a perfect designer/consultant/idea/friend/parent doesn’t exist either. If after reading that statement you’re saying “whaddya’ mean? I’m damn near as perfect as it gets..”, you and your business/job are already probably already in trouble.
Thankfully I’m offering up some advice. It won’t be perfect, but with a sprinkle of links and references to folks who have played and succeeded in our space, along with some of my personal anecdotes, maybe you’ll see the error in some of your ways and brainstorm some ways you may go about fixing them.
I’ve talked about how the clear conveyance of instructions by and to a client and/or design firm (or any other business for that matter) is critical to a project’s success in the past. My views on the subject certainly haven’t changed much in the year or so that’s gone by, but neither has many of our new clients’ approaches to job specifications and direction when it comes to a design job.
Over on the Duct Tape Marketing Blog, John Jantsch offers up some excellent points in a post titled: How to Collaborate with a Designer. There is no such thing as too much information when it comes to collaborating with a designer/developer – unless you’re relaying fluff (make this “pop”, or “jazz” this up, etc…). Concrete examples work best – visual if possible.