{Editorial NOTE: This is the last blog written by Brandon Haskins (RIP 7/8/10) that was just discovered in our company archives. I hope the design/creative community is encouraged by his last words on creative leadership. Please feel free to share.}

Over the past ten years, society has dramatically come to know the world of design. Led by both design firms, such as IDEO, Pentagram, Wolff Olins, and Interbrand, and sensational in-house teams (Coca-Cola, Intel, Disney/Pixar and McDonald's all qualify here), the worlds of product design, promotional design, packaging, and web design/UI/UX have become ingrained in the public repertoire.

The flipside of that is that everyone, it seems, is now a design critic.

Design and art are closely connected, and with the passionate emotional connection one has with art, it is not much of a imaginative stretch to understand why people engage in design critique.

Where the difficultly lies for creative directors, art directors, senior designers and other creative managers is most often in convincing their client—whether through persuasion and/or analysis—to accept their expertise. When clients come through the doors, they're always looking for one of two things: design that looks just like the competition, or design that looks nothing like the competition. Some clients will trust their designers to bring the right look and feel, but often—due to the proliferation and saturation of design within our culture—designers have to deal with the expectations their client brings to the table.

How can design managers allay client concerns, while still maintaining sanity, pride and creativity?

In the daily flow of work, I find myself putting to rest the concerns of other designers/illustrators, authors, editors, printers and corporate leaders. In my experience, giving each party options, maintaining adaptability and actively remaining flexible works every time. Design managers can invite designers to create another sketch, illustrators can be given a fresh inspiration, editors can be encouraged to research the genre's general look and feel, managers can sit down with printers to find solutions and corporate leaders can be given analysis' that make sense to their brains as to why Option A is better than Option B.

Of all skills most practiced by design managers, adaptability must be at the forefront.

Written by: Brandon Haskins (1988-2010)