Do you feel valued?
September 12, 2011
“Yes, but what is the value of this work?” How many times has a potential client asked us this question? Almost always. What they are really asking is “Why does it cost this amount?”
And by asking this question, they fall into the age old trap of thinking that cost is the same as value. If the Spanish consortium that payed for the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao had thought that the cost of paying Mr. Gehry 10% of the total project cost or $12.7 million dollars, was to much, one of the most successful architectural projects of the last 40 years would never had been achieved.
14 years later this project is a paradigm of successful public architecture, not only from a design perspective, but from a business one.[1] Assessed against the billions that the project has reaped for the local area and the country the value is extraordinary compared to the design fees and total project cost of $127 million.
Let’s think about a more modest proposal; a client needs a Corporate Sustainability Report with estimated project costs of $15,000. Thinking that this is cost is prohibitive for this project the client chooses another vendor or freelancer for 1/2 or 1/3 of the price. Without the understanding of true value for this project, such as, increased brand strength, positioning as a thought leader, or well targeted audience-specific content then this becomes only a commodity transaction where the client opted for the choice of less cost. If designers can only differentiate on cost, then it becomes an ineveitable race to the bottom.
It might be much easier to stand in front of a new building and say “This is projected to have $50 million dollars in economic impact through job creation and tourism” rather than a new visual identity system or CSR, but designers have to accept the challenge. We must engage with clients from a value perspective; from our own experience we had the opportunity to design the case materials for The Hill Center and after research and identifying a unique design approach we were able to help them successfully realize a $12 million capital campaign.
Here is a very interesting recent article from Science Daily that expresses the quantitive value of well designed annual reports.
Don’t get paid for what you do, get paid what you are worth.