The conversation has changed

Fewer clients are asking designers to solve ‘easy’ problems, mainly because they’re more easily solved in-house — by marketing grads, by the growing number of in-house studios, and by clients DIY. It’s ‘more easy’ because the clients are not questioned about what they really need, there’s little or no budget involved and the result(s) are rarely questioned.

Interestingly — regardless of what many creatives assume — most clients are not (yet) using by AI to do the creative. More on that later.

All this means the conversations with clients must change. The topic is no longer about ‘easy’ problems and, perhaps more importantly, the conversation is less likely to be initiated by your client.

The first change in conversation  

Research continually finds when RFQ are posted, the agency invited to pitch will be firmly in the client’s radar. (Read Just turn up)

It is highly unlikely any good-sized project will be briefed into an unknown design agency regardless of how creative their thinking.

This means we are no longer in the business of selling design.
We are in the business of risk management: mitigating risk by proving we’re a safe pair of hands.
That’s the first change in the conversation.

The second change in conversation

The 2025 Up to the Light survey found more than half of all clients know they should use AI but they don’t have the time nor the talent to work out how. The most common tasks used for AI are content generation, language translation and product descriptions, not design.

86% of clients agreed AI is not a replacement
for strategic thinking and original creativity.

So, we are no longer in the business of selling design.
We are in the business of selling human judgement in an AI world.
That’s the second change in the conversation.

About the conversation

Clients are no longer initiating a conversation about ‘the easy’ design problems because – rightly or wrongly, good or bad – they can get a solution inhouse.

This means three things:

1. Firstly, designers are being forced into initiating conversations
2. Secondly, the approach must move further up the value chain, away from the ‘easy’ aesthetic design solutions toward proactively identifying strategic communication gaps.
3. Finally, the design process starts at research, making good research skills are crucial. The research skills to find the client /market sector most suited to your skillset and then, to find the pains facing that client.

Design skills are valuable

This is a change of mindset.
It is not about abandoning design skills,  it’s about positioning and using them strategically.

The design agencies thriving will not be the ones who have honed the best website, they’ll be the ones who can talk confidently to prospective clients about risk, retention, and revenue.

The shift starts with your next client conversation: instead of waiting to be briefed, be proactive. Research clients to suit your knowledge base so you can lead with questions about business challenges.

The objective is unchanged –create brilliant designs — but the conversation is around the impact those designs will have socially, environmentally and economically.

(em dashes introduced by me 😊

 

What do you think? Got any problems/questions? As always, happy to discuss further, just email Carol.

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Carol Mackay

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About Carol

After 30+ years running a design studio, I accumulated a pretty special network of fellow designers. One thing most have in common: a need for more information about the ‘business’ side of design. Most are impatient with any task competing for time spent doing what they love – designing so they wanted more info about how to work more efficiently and effectively.

Not me. I love that intersection between design and business. I built a career working with Ombudsman schemes, the Emergency Services sector and the Courts. My special power has always been an ability to use design to translate the difficult to understand or the unpalatable message.

I now use exactly the same skills with creative business owners. I translate the indigestible into bite-sized chunks of information. I share insights, introduce tools and embed processes to help others build confidence business decision-making skills. More confidence makes it easier to grasp opportunities. More confidence makes it easier to recognise a good client from the bad.

Outside DBC I have mentored with Womentor, AGDA The Aunties, and most recently Regional Arts NSW.
And I’m a proud volunteer and board member of Never Not Creative.

Always happy to chat, I can be contacted here.