client education
Creatives are service providers, and our effectiveness hinges on relationships with our clients. The more our clients understand what we do, the more they come to value it, and that’s one of the ways we can build trust. So I’ve learned to look at every opportunity to educate a client as a gift - for both of us. The better we understand one another, the better the results!
My company secured a multi-year contract with the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES) to brand and provide technical assistance for its signature annual event, the Principal Investigator’s Meeting, which drew 800+ attendees each year. At the first year’s project kickoff, I discovered that some client education was in order.
During the three annual design cycles for this conference, I strove to foster a positive relationship while providing effective project management. I established clear lines of communication, solved ahead for challenges and needs, and met or exceeded timeline expectations for every deliverable. While meeting to discuss each year’s design theme, I presented slide decks with examples, explained design concepts, strategies, and reasoning, and facilitated creative brainstorming discussions.
By treating each client interaction as a chance to educate as well as gather the data I needed, the quality of our collaboration, efficiency, and design improved year over year. For example, landing on a design direction took three presentation rounds in the first year; but in following years, an option from my first presentation round was selected.
My role: creative direction, project/task management, design of all event products each year.
fostering creative partnership
The annual program book and website were our client’s largest concern, since they both included a complex schedule of events. This meant introducing our client to a web-first approach and implementing a design system with multiple visual cues. Teaming with our web developers, I crafted a user interface design system (that would be re-used in future years) with color-coded, sortable agenda tracks, as well as time and date filters – and then carried it over into the program book, ensuring visual consistency across all touchpoints.
Below: webpage vs. print version agenda examples
Each year’s conference entailed a large number of print design products, including the 70+ page program book, signage, name badges, table tents, postcards and more. With a tight budget and a growing shift to digital, we continually explored ways to streamline costs and workflow. Firstly, all products created in our first year were designed to be used as templates for future years. Secondly, the printed program book was an obvious product to phase out - as design and manual remediation for 508 accessibility composed a huge amount of our allotted design budget.
We proposed a mobile app alternative to be implemented in our second contract year. Though our client and conference attendees weren’t ready to discontinue the print version immediately, we launched the app as a companion piece to demonstrate the value of this solution. In subsequent contracts, the printed book was eventually sunsetted. A few of our second year’s event products are shown below.
Below: design product samples from the third annual meeting.
