Making Client Design Inclusive
We live in bubbles of the information we like to consume and we have a bad habit of assuming everyone thinks like us. If you’re not thinking about inclusion or people in your world aren’t making a fuss about it, you might not be aware of the nuances of it or the importance of it. It’s hard to believe in 2017 that people might be blind to the necessity of inclusion, but consider the bubble they live in. Some people are truly, honestly, not exposed to situations where they need to think about being inclusive. Yes, that’s essentially the definition of privilege, and as a designer we have a direct line to making sure privilege isn’t the standard when we create.
Extend this out farther and think of your clients. I run a design studio where my typical client is one that is progressive, maybe is an artist or small business owner, and enough of a creative that design excites them. Not all of my clients are like that, and while there’s nothing wrong with having a range of client types and personalities, it brought up a point I had never thought about until a client made a pretty exclusive (and essentially racially offensive) design choice they wanted me to contribute work to.
The client had a website page that was promoting an upcoming outdoor retreat event for women artists. The header image of the page was a white woman in a native headdress. This, for the unfamiliar, is pretty blatant cultural appropriation. I immediately suggested they change that upon hiring me for promotional material and to say the client’s reaction was that of bewilderment is an understatement. They completely had no idea what I was talking about and why the image was problematic.
This won’t be the last time this situation will come up when designing for a client, and frankly could have been worse, but I’ve had to implement some tactics in my process to make sure we’re prioritizing inclusivity in client work as a result. Here are a few ways to make that happen for your projects.
It’s all about client education
Client education is essentially a huge chunk of our job as a designer anyway, but it warrants repeating that if you’re not incorporating education into your process with your client, then immediately stop taking clients and learn how to do so.
When you educate your clients you’re doing so at various parts in your process altogether; be it in strategy, concept development, or presenting your design. You’re the expert and your client hired you to fill a role they couldn’t do themselves, so be a professional and help them understand where your work is coming from. They don’t know everything, especially not everything in design. That’s your job. It’s also your job to stand up for what’s right especially if it’s creative work and extra especially if it’s work that’s going to make someone money (or compel people to spend their money for that matter). Educate them on your design choices, on how your work aligns with their brand goals, and why you made certain choices as they relate to diversity, accessibility, and inclusion. This entire article is essentially a call to arms for client education, so let’s make that clear first and foremost.
Make diversity and inclusion your priority
If you’re reading this you’re probably at lease vaguely familiar with or have an interest in inclusion and diversity, particularly how those topics relate to design. If you aren’t or do not, then please seek out other content on this topic and maybe follow some people/designers on Twitter that talk about inclusion. This article will not be addressing why diversity and inclusion in our work is important, but instead how to make sure that it is.
On that note, let’s talk about a great first step: incorporating diversity into your designs straight away, without waiting for a client directive to do so. A good, socially aware client will approach you about this first. Your average, or not particularly socially aware client, will not, and that’s where you come in.
By this I mean literally starting to include diverse people(s) in the photography you use, using language in all copy that is inclusive, making sure accessibility is a key part of your web design process, representing all variations of body types and skin colors in imagery and illustrative work, and so forth. Don’t wait for a client to ask, just do it. If everything you’ve made for a client up to this point includes stock photos of smiling, chipper white men, add in a woman or person of color. Include someone with a disability, use gender-neutral pronouns in copy, the diversity and inclusion sky is literally the limit here. And if the client gives push back, ask why. And if they can’t answer or their answer is discriminatory, educate. And if they still don’t get it, well we’ll get to that issue later. Fight for inclusion, even in the simplest visual representations or written word. Inclusion doesn’t have to be this big, bold, flashy statement. It starts with representation in our everyday media, and guess what? That’s exactly what you’re designing. Create for the diverse world around us, not the bubble of exclusion.
And for argument’s sake, of course, target market and audience should always factor into your design strategy, so adjust accordingly, but don’t be afraid to push boundaries here. Our target audience needs to have the ability to expand within the brand’s goals to allow for inclusion. Don’t use brand goals or company missions as an excuse for not being inclusive in the work you create.
Make sure your design team is diverse
If you’re in the position with your client where you lead a team for their project, make sure that team is diverse. If you’re hiring contracted designers/developers/hand letterers/whatever-ers, hire people from marginalized groups to fill those roles. If you’re not heading up a team or in charge of those decisions, advocate for it with the decision makers. The moral of the story is: have a diverse design team and your designs will reflect that. Ask for it to happen if it isn’t already.
Make it about the message (because it is anyway)
Design is a lot of things, the most prominent of which being a tool for effective communication. Of course we already know this; it’s what branding is at its core and why a brand strategy exists. The most organized and goal-focused brands have a brand strategy for a reason: it says something specific to the consumer on the other side; it connects consumers with the message of the brand to encourage action (purchasing an item, signing up for a newsletter, whatever the intended action).
So your job as a designer is making sure the message is communicated effectively and that its represented accurately and effectively in a visual sense in your client projects. If the design you’re creating has nothing to do with the brand message/mission/goals, you need to figure out how to make sure it is in alignment. And if the client pushes back, your responsibility is to educate them on messaging. Bring it back to the message and goals, because that’s the point anyway. We’re not designing for our health, we’re communicating. A good CEO/art director/marketing person will understand that.
The headdress example above is a prime one for this tip: does a white woman appropriating native culture fall in-line with that brand’s strategy? Spoiler alert: no it does not. Frankly, I can’t imagine a situation where it would. But the other issue here was that the designer and founder of the company putting this website together genuinely thought it did. To them, it was a photo of a woman really connecting to something natural and beautiful, and they perceived her as looking strong and confident as a result — the exact messaging they felt was on-target for their event. What it of course actually did was appropriate an entire culture for the sake of fashion and some kind of perceived glamor about wearing this “exotic” item.
This brand’s target market are women who are searching for spiritual/wellness-based guidance. It’s an easy stock photo choice to make based on that market definition. That’s why they chose it. To them, it represented the kind of woman they want to buy their stuff and come to their retreat. They didn’t think twice — you need to see that they do.
As a designer coming in to his situation, it was my job to educate them on why this was a bad route to go. I explained the connotations, the reason it was wrong, and encouraged a different direction. They ended up agreeing and we went another way with the design, but let’s say they didn’t. Let’s say they see no problem with this whatsoever. And we widen to reveal:
Should you be designing for this client in the first place?
What are you willing to work with? Who are you willing to work for? Who are you willing to collect money from knowing they will profit from your designs and their business will grow?
Now, maybe the headdress example doesn’t bother you much. OK, fine. What about the client that really for no particular reason whatsoever did not want you to use a photo of a person of color in that ad you designed for them? How about the one that wanted to cut your web project timeline to skip over all that accessibility testing?
It’s the modern-day choice of morality and conviction versus ease and profit. Did you delete Uber because of the Trump controversy? It’s the same idea here. If a client is not interested in creating work that prioritizes inclusion, you have to decide if it’s worth it to stay on with that client. Stand up for something, have conviction. It’s how change happens in the first place.
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We have two jobs here: work to correct bad design that is not inclusive (by every definition) and create our own content that incorporates inclusion.
We can lie to ourselves all day long about it not being a big deal, but when we create design that we claim helps to further a brand’s cause, widen customer reach, or increase profits and then turn a blind eye to (or actively participate in) questionable practices made by that brand, you are part of the problem. We as designers are creating the media others consume, and that’s how representation happens or it doesn’t. Find best practices or client education tools that work for you and use them. Contribute to the solution by being aware of your own design practices. Make your clients better, make the world better. We can make a difference, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
There is no job in the world I would take because I need to make money if the client’s values don’t align with my own or come from a place of discrimination. But that’s just me: you’re of course free to make your own choices. You’re the one creating in this world, so create something the world could use more of, not what will hold us back. If you work with a client and the end result of the project is not inclusive, discriminatory in any way, or works to perpetuate or promote ideas that are themselves discriminatory, that’s a pretty shitty thing to do as a human and it’s also just plain bad design. And it’s all your fault.
Understand what’s important to you and the rest will follow if you’re diligent.
