We’ve all been there before… We sit down with a new client and they start discussing their project. You discuss ideas and concepts you are excited about and then they hit you with, “Well we really want to get this right so make sure you take lots of time on this.” 

Initially this phrase feels reasonable. Who wouldn’t want the “ideal” design or product outcome from a project. No one would really ask for a mediocre product and rightfully so. 

The only problem is the dangerous reality of this phrase. The client is telling you already that they already have a high bar and will be second-guessing your every concept. Forget daring and original ideas. Well executed design concepts and sucessful creative solutions will never live up to the ideal design the client has in mind. 

And the reason this is a problem is that most of the time the client doesn’t know exactly what he or she is looking for. The client knows that the competition is doing and wants to make sure they can keep up. This is a bad habit because once you focus on “keeping up” you have to keep “keeping up”.

As you continue to hear about getting it right or really doing something “cool” take the opportunity to ask good questions about target audiences and project goals. Get the client thinking about what they could do. The competition probably has some good ideas but freeing people up from their initial concepts and ideas allows for unexpected and original work to take root further into the project.