Two stories/same thing:
One
We had finished a week of discovery workshops and our client (board member of financial institution) said ‘it’s been very good – it’s strange – you guys aren’t much like other designers’.
I had been here before. I said, ‘In what way?’
Client: ‘Well, you know . . .’
Me: ‘What? Dumb?’
Client: (Laughed, relieved I hadn’t taken it personally) ‘Yes, just a bit thick.’
Two
In the BBC comedy Twenty Twelve about an imaginary ‘Olympics Deliverance’ division, the head of said area goes to their design firm to see the new Olympics website. Said leader, the affable Hugh Bonneville, is fairly impressed but he looks closer.
HB: ‘Oh look, you have spelt it O-lyp-mics.’
Designer: (dead eyes) ‘You can change it whenever you like.’
Both stories tell you who we hire.
Our clients are smart and their domains are complex. They expect us to engage on an advanced intellectual level with their issues. What we cannot bring in expertise we bring in empathy and respect. There are designers out there who do care and don’t care. We want the ones who care.