In this day in age, clients demand more than just graphic designers, they demand strategic partners. Gone are the days when you can sit back, “create for the sake of art” and walk away with happy clients. Today, with potential customers overexposed to thousands of marketing messages a day, it is essential for us to utilize our strong design backgrounds and apply it for the “commercial” space.

That means graphic designers need to develop competencies outside of the classically-trained core graphic skill set. I am a graduate of the Graphic Design department of the Rhode Island School of Design. Every day, since I graduated from RISD, I have applied my learnings. But if I only used what i learned from RISD, I would be designing materials for small-time clients.

If you want to compete on a global scale, servicing clients where budgets are in the tens of millions, not the thousands, you need to add some more tools in your tool box. These companies (and their marketing and advertising managers) demand results. With results they demand accountability in presentations, comprehension of target, legal compliance, and production efficiencies. And most importantly, they demand a creative partner. An egomaniac who designs for himself, not the client that is paying him, will be left with an empty list of client contacts.

Clients need to know why you did something and how you came up with it. This isn’t school anymore, guys, you can’t just say, “Because I like the color or the font is hot right now.” Presentations must include an overview of the design process, and a strategic reasoning for everything. In other words, “I chose this particular blue because, through your research, your target demographic makes $150k or more and is 55 years old. This color blue has a sophistication that your target will respond well to. I chose this typeface because it’s serifs are elegant and easy-to read when typeset in longer copy blocks. Also, due to the huge amounts of information that we need to communicate, we needed a typeface that had a flexibility in weights so we can develop a clear hierarchy in the typography.”

Compositions these days are more than just your concept. You need to accommodate logos, legal disclosures, and longer copy than you may hoped for. And that is where the challenge lies. To create a compelling composition, that pays off a strategic, on-brand customer promise, while satisfying all client assets is why we are designers! If there wasn’t a problem to solve for the good of the client, we might as well be painters.

Consider this, I once heard a quote from an advertising Creative Director:

When you create something, and 100 people see it, and they each take away something different from it…that’s called art. But when you create advertising, all 100 people needs to take away the same message.

To me, that is only half the story. because in this era of accountability, we need to take this one step further. We need to create something, 100 people need to take away the same message, and then needs to respond to the message in a measurable way. A phone call, a visit online, or a redeemed offer code: this type of measurable response will demonstrate the value and effectiveness of your work, and will only mean more work and bigger projects.

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