Problem: Your Clients Don’t Understand the Context…

Below is a story about how I showed my offensive artwork to a colleague and the crazy reaction I got!

Context is everything.

I remember the first time I showed my illustration work to a new colleague, he was a sales guy.

I got a funny (not funny haha) reaction.

Super lovely dude.

What I didn’t realize was two things.

One he’d had no experience whatsoever with lowbrow illustration.

He didn’t know who Ron English was, who Alex Pardee was, who Robert Crumb was.

So when he saw my ‘art’ it was completely out of context and he was like wow that's different.

It’s a bit offensive to me!

(at the time I was heavily influenced by Alexander Heir, Skinner and Russian Criminal Tattoo - google them and you’ll see what I mean).

Secondly, I didn’t realize that he was a devoutly religious man, so he was seeing my art work through that lens.

Of course he was polite about it, but I knew it changed how he saw me as a person.

I felt like I was put in that box of ‘weird’ ‘i don’t get you’.

You’re that weird tattooed dude who draws gross pictures.

It can be the same with our clients.

Out of context a logo is just a drawing.

Why should I pay $2000+++++ for a drawing?

When any drawing would do, as long as it has my business name on it right?

A Lot of our market don’t get what we do.

They don’t know who Paul Rand is, who Pentagram are, they haven’t ever read an epic Draplin blog post.

It’s up to us to put what we do in a context the client understands.

So they make a connection between the ‘weird’ things that we take hours to make and overcharge for (obviously) and a business solution.

The better you can frame your creative solution through the lens of the business owner, the easier it will be to find the right clients, articulate your value and sell your services.