Design Practice - The Designer/Client Relationship

This weeks tutorial focused on the designer – client relationship and the importance of interpreting client needs. The client could be one person but there are usually many stakeholders involved in the process including the end user.   In this project many interested parties could benefit from this proposed application, such as businesses, beach users and safety awareness groups, however the designer relationship will be focused with the client – the RNLI.  In this journal post, the creative brief is discussed and how it can help or hinder the design process, which affects the designer – client relationship.

Client - Designer Relationships Are Often Integrated - Stock Image.

The Creative Brief

The relationship between the designer and the client will be determined on the nature of the creative brief and the role that they each play in the creative process.  There is also the consideration of the end user, which can affect the relationship dynamic.   Taffe (2015) depicts three scenarios where the design focus changes the working relationship: designing for the end user, user centred design and co-design.  In designing for the end user, the design is being created for them with user testing toward the end of the project.  In user-centred design, end user experience is gained throughout the design with iterative testing and co-design is where the end user co-creates the product or service with the client and designers in collaboration throughout the design stages.

The creative brief can also be limited by constraints – this is invariably through time, budget and resource allocations, however it can also be through the expectations of the client.  Mandelbaum (2021) intimates that proposed solutions in creative briefs can hinder creativity and unpredictability in providing breakthrough ideas, which means the designer becomes a facilitator, rather than a creator.  Please view at: https://www.imaginarycloud.com/blog/the-good-brief/   

How Do Creatives Think?

The thought process of the designer will also determine the interpretation of the brief.  Convergent and divergent thinking are dual processes that affect the creation process (Barr, 2018).  Guilford (1950) conceptualised creativity in these forms of thinking, which can be utilised in two stages.  Divergent thinking is used in the early stages of design when ideas and new concepts are being explored.  This may be viewed as ‘thinking outside the box’ for something novel and unexplored and is witnessed in brainstorming and mind mapping.  As these ideas and concepts are evaluated the designer adopts convergent thinking to determine a solution for the purpose required,  rationalising the concept for its feasibility.   However there are studies that reveal creative students perform better with divergent thinking tasks (Tran et al., 2020; Rao et al., 2021) suggesting that the rationale and feasibility of design may need to be developed, especially in business, marketing and commerce that have economic complications.

What Designers Think of Creative Briefs

Below are some examples of what designers think and feel about creative briefs from Bassett and Partners.  The video is available at: https://vimeo.com/107567840

This weeks blog revealed an interesting insight into the creative brief and what to be aware of as a designer.  It is important that the design provides a solution to the problem statement, whilst allowing enough scope for the designer to follow several design avenues for creative ideas.  It is also a good idea to formulate the terms of the client – designer relationship, so each knows what to expect through the design process.

References

Barr, N. (2018) Intuition, Reason, and Creativity: an Integrative Dual-Process Perspective, in The New Reflectionism in Cognitive Psychology. (Routledge) pp. 99–124.

Guilford, J. P. (1950) Creativity. Am. Psychol. 5, pp. 444–454. 

Mandelbaum, (2021) The Importance of The Design Brief.  Available at:  The importance of the design brief (imaginarycloud.com) Accessed: 16.10.2023.

Rao, H., Puranam, P., and Singh, J. (2021) Does Design Thinking Training Increase Creativity? Results from a Field Experiment with Middle-School Students. Innovation Organisational Management. pp. 1–18.

Tran, K. N., Kudrowitz, B., and Koutstaal, W. (2020) Fostering Creative Minds: What Predicts and Boosts Design Competence in the Classroom? Int. J. Technol. Des. Educ., 1–32.