Personally I find it hard to remain positive at all times. Especially if you have some kind of psychological background (IE: a traumatic experience) the memory of this could leave certain thought-patterns. These can shape the way you face society, very much.

One thing I was confronted with during my internship at Crabsalad, was the way I spoke. To be more precise; the words I used. One thing has to be utterly clear if you’re designing. The ideas you have, the concepts you create, are to be sold. The client invests in you and wants something in return. A great design.

Designing something can be an abstract process. Almost magic to an outsider such as a client. The results you produce you need to convey clearly. Everything you do should have a reason, otherwise the client could either lose confidence or start breaking down your ideas. You don’t have to tell him how you did it, but why you chose that font. That colorscheme or certain lighting. That grain or that texture. What it all means, what it breathes and why it fits the client’s wishes. If all your holes are plugged, all the client is left with is a floating great idea. And that is what he pays you for.

If all your holes are plugged, all the client is left with is a floating great idea. And that is what he pays you for.

There’s hardly a single designer who likes their clients to design with them. Subjective ideas like “I like green” or “that font (Comic Sans) is fun!” should be avoided at all cost. That is my humble opinion after having been through situations where the client sat down next to me and made design decisions for me, as I was finalizing. If you’re a designer with a bachelor degree or higher, such situations should make you wonder why you spent four years or more of your life becoming a specialist. You don’t do your dentist’s job either, do you?

Personally, I prefer a client to give me a good, open brief. Tell me what he wants, then tell me which things inspire him. Those sources of inspiration I can either use or ignore completely. Usually I produce more than one concept for a client. That way I get to have a couple of options, as does he. Follow his brief to the letter, let it go a little or ignore it completely. Or different approach altogether. In any case these concepts should allow enough space for you to move around in design-wise, and make the ideas clear to the client.

Now, how does staying positive fit into all of this? If you’re not positive you’re probably negative. Indifferent fits into that category too. Because you don’t care, apparently. And who likes to buy bread from a baker, who couldn’t give f* all? You’d go there, get a half-hearted greeting, served with a lot of sagging and sighing – not a positive thing. That’s not someone who enjoys getting paid, so why pay him? It can get worse. If your concepts are flawed and the client can easily punch holes in them – you are left with a problem…

…will you address this by saying you’re sorry? You’re the professional, aren’t you? Yet you don’t really have an answer. Or you think you do and you fix some kind of excuse. Ducttaping is what that’s called. These could be backfire, creating more questions than answers. Or you could shrug it off, basically saying that what the client asks doesn’t mean anything. You don’t care. Meh. Is that what your client is paying you for? To do a job with half a hammer and one-third of a screw?

And who likes to buy bread from a baker, who couldn’t give f* all?

Staying positive is all about words. Human communication is all about these conventions that we call languages. Basic agreements that certain sounds that eminate from our throats in certain orders, convey certain meanings. However some things can be interpreted in different ways. Written word is a tricky one. If I write “Wow.” or “Wow!” the exclamation mark makes a difference. The first is almost sarcastic, the second radiates a little more happiness.

The same goes with spoken word. The wow-example is just a small example. Imagine you’re having a meeting with a client and you’re presenting your concepts for a design. What he likes to see, is you eminating your enthusiasm about the assignment he gave you. He chose you to tackle this challenge, here you are presenting your solutions. That’s awesome, isn’t it?

Basically there are two parts to this story. 1) your idea has to be good. 2) the way you tell it, has to be good. Good as in positive. As in activating. Creating enthusiasm for ideas. If you know the brief, you can connect the client’s wishes to your design solutions (almost) directly. If you did a job really well, you should even be able to explain it without any notes for yourself. In such a case the design will help you explain it, once  you start talking about it.

If you, however, remain indifferent whilst explaining your ideas – or if you use words that have a more negative/deactivating meaning such as “I can’t”, “they won’t”, “we couldn’t” – you name it – the client will wonder why he is paying you. Why on earth would he give you another assignment next time, if this is how you deal with it? Apparently that client isn’t good enough or at all important to you. Nor is his assignment he’s granted you.

He chose you to tackle this challenge, here you are presenting your solutions. That’s awesome, isn’t it?

In the rest of your life it too helps, to stay positive. Ever since I was confronted with the fact that I was actually quite a pessimistic person, I started to notice what exactly I was saying. For starters, I used to blame myself for things that went wrong. Calling myself names whenever I dropped the ball. I used to end sentences trailing off with “or something like that…”. As if I myself wasn’t even clear about what I was actually saying.

It took a lot of training to get myself to filter out these words and habits. Basically it meant knowing what to look for when I was forming sentences in my head, talking to people or writing. Crossing out negative or deactivating words as I went along. Slowly but surely I started to communicate more clearly and suddenly I understood how conversations worked. It’s the activating part. Looking each other in the eyes, affirming, asking questions. Chuck a bad joke in there, sometimes.

All in all it has taken me almost a year now. I’m still training myself to think positive and to remain more open to people. More activating. A whole lot less afraid too, to talk. Just talk. Pick up the phone and take action. Have an idea? Know a person that could help? Give him a ring!

Now before it all gets too vague and “up there, man” – I would just like to point out this article isn’t a pamphlet to go about like maniacal yay-sayers. Nobody likes a suck up. And it’s okay to admit you made a mistake, instead of blaming – learn from it. Try to see problems as challenges, when it’s over you’ll have the tools to deal with similar problems later on.

Yawning is contageous, so is a smile.