One of the first websites I ever made was for a good friend and college roommate who is a personal trainer. Right now you’re probably imagining a yoked-out, meathead in an extra medium tank top screaming “ONE MORE!” till their neck veins pop, but you’d be wrong. In fact, my roommate was the exact opposite.
At the time I was working on his site, he was in grad school studying molecular physiology and working at an immunology lab part time while also personal training. He currently holds a Ph.D in biomedical science and has been traveling the world for the last couple of years giving presentations on his research findings from his dissertation*. He accounts for less than 10% of personal trainers nationwide who can legally give you medical advice.
His academic accomplishments aside, what really makes him a cut above the rest in my opinion is his clientele. Typically, trainers like to take on clients that make themselves look good. The better your clients look, the better perceived results you offer, and subsequently, the more client inquiries you’ll receive. But again, my friend has a somewhat different approach.
He purposefully chooses to take on difficult clients; people with physical or mental disabilities, people in rehabilitation from injury or illness, people who are obese/significantly overweight. He makes it a personal mission to help clients that need it the most because that’s where he has the most impact to positively affect lives.
To this day, I respect him most because of that over all of his other accomplishments.
As a designer, it is very easy to blame a bad project on a difficult client. We say things like “They just don’t understand good design”. Or we knowingly give a client a shitty solution just so they will shut up, and say to ourselves “Fuck it, that’s what they asked for.” And then we make a mental note to stay away from clients like that.
“… clients like that” = difficult clients.
The thing is, those clients obviously don’t understand good design. They don’t know what they’re asking for or the impact it will have in the end. Those clients need help. And herein lies the difference between good and great designers.
If we judge ourselves as designers and our client work only by the end result, then we’re missing a significantly important part of the picture. The road that it takes to get a client from concept to creation is just as significant as the destination. If we choose to take on easy projects just to have a nice portfolio piece in the end, then we’re not serving anyone but ourselves. And that’s just shitty.
Good designers flock to easy projects with easy clients. It’s understandable; it makes you feel like a better designer based on your past experiences.
Great designers go where design is needed the most and has the greatest impact to change lives. Educating & empathizing with difficult clients is just a part of the job.
“Making things is the easy part. The hard part is determining what to make and how to make it, then convincing someone else that your suggestions are right. That’s design.” — Mike Monteiro
*Without getting too technical, my friend’s dissertation was on how being unhealthy & overweight makes you sick at a cellular level.
