Make clear agreements.

Design professionals do their best work when they can set distractions and concerns aside to focus on producing work. Settling timetable and financial terms early helps keep these things from becoming distractions later.  Clear agreements help create the conditions for a fruitful design development process.

The old saw, “Good fences make for good neighbors,” is sound advice. Clear, specific, and unambiguous agreements that govern the design and production process help prevent misunderstandings and the arguments and resentment that can ensue from them.

Nobody likes to borrow trouble, especially at the inception of a project. It can feel awkward to discuss challenges or issues that may arise during a project, but it is what responsible partners do. Getting over an imagined skirmish is much easier than healing the wounds from the real thing.

When particulars about scope of work and terms of service are left unaddressed, both parties are likely to advocate resolutions that are least costly and easiest for them. When projects go awry, somebody usually loses out. Given the up-down relationship dynamics between client and agency/design firm–it is often the agency/design firm that takes the loss. These things become an issue when nobody has planned for them, so plan for them. I make it a practice to create contingency lines in my budget so that I have some room to adjust fees upward if I think it’s the right thing to do.

Keep your agreements fresh, especially in established, long-term working relationships. The most fractious arguments that I’ve witnessed have occurred between people who both assume that a body of agreements has evolved over time that govern every project. Since some projects are much more straightforward than others, it’s a good idea to assess the relative ease or difficulty of a project before you discuss it with your design team. The more complex the assignment is, the more likely it is that you need to craft a specific project agreement.

If a resolution to a disagreement is unfair, don’t expect your design team or agency to feel good about the resolution or about you. Getting good creative products from your designers isn’t usually something that happens inside one project or one meeting; it happens over the period that describes the temporal arc of your relationship. Don’t forget that the fees you pay are not just for specific projects, they are also the means by which you maintain the relationship.

The most important variable you will negotiate concerns the number of development rounds you can expect over the project’s life. Establish the number of development and revision rounds that are included within project fees in advance. Agree on costs of additional development rounds, if necessary. 

Setting terms before a project begins helps ensure that disagreements or misunderstandings won’t create hard feelings later.  Arguing about process, budget, timetable, etc. during the design development process steals focus from creating an effective final product. Acrimony sucks the joy right out of the project for those who are doing the work. It is the very rare creative who crafts wonderful design projects in an atmosphere of resentment.