10 Questions for Designers to Ask Their Clients Before Starting a Project

Starting a new client project? Here’s the essential list of questions for designers to ask before kicking off a project.

Have you ever been in a situation where you think you’re ready to sign off on a client project, but just as you send them project_file_FINAL.pdf, you get a reply asking for more edits, extending the deadline into the far distance?

If that scenario is common for almost all of your design projects, there’s a good chance that you’re not asking the right questions right from the off.

The reality of virtually all design projects is that the more work you put in upfront – the more research you conduct before getting down and dirty with the whole design thing – the easier the process will be later down the road.

The discovery phase of the project, whether that’s over a phone call or via email, is the time to drop all assumptions about the client. It’s the time to ask questions, and more importantly, LISTEN to their answers.

Here are ten questions that you should make a key part of your discovery process:

1. Describe your business from a bird’s eye perspective

The idea with this question is to get a top-down understanding of your client’s business or brand. Big picture stuff. Get them to list their services or products, the audience they serve, and their typical customer. These questions all you to get the broad strokes of their business.

If there’s something you want to know more about from what they say, you can then drill down a bit deeper into specifics. What I tend to do is make a note and then ask it at the end of the discovery call.

2. Where do you see your business in 1, 5, 10, and 20 years?

A part of the job as a graphic designer is to create brands that will stand the test of time, and remain relevant across industries. Because of this, it’s important to know the long-term vision that the client has for their business.

Do they plan to move into a new market? Do they have the goal to move into a new industry? Or create a new line of products/services? These are things you need to know to make a design product that’ll remain relevant for years and years to come.

3. What’s the biggest challenge you face as a company?

Another key role of a graphic designer – especially ones that work project to project – is to solve problems, not just make pretty pictures. By asking this question, you can get a deeper understanding of how you can help your client through the design and creative process.

This is also an excellent time to take notes about the primary challenges your client is facing to use for later. If you can figure out how to fix something else they brought up? Well, that’s a great way of providing more value. And the more value you can provide, the more likely a client will be to recommend your services to others.

4. Describe your brand in 5 single words

If you create a mood board during your creative process, these descriptions will be hugely beneficial, and something you’ll want to refer back to. Is their business playful or serious? Is it cost-effective or luxurious? The more descriptions you can get of the client’s business, the better.

5. What problems are you solving?

Why do people spend money with your client? This is the core of their business, and the main reason that they’re able to attract and keep customers. You’ll likely hear the answer to this question throughout your discovery session, but it’s also important to ask it individually so you can get a clear, direct answer.

Throughout the creative process, you should keep their answer to this question front of mind, as it’ll allow you to create a design project that accurately reflects your client’s unique selling points.

6. What functional and/or emotional benefits do you offer your customers?

Most likely, this will be covered in question five, however, if you feel like there’s a little bit more you need to know about the brand and why people buy with it, this can be a good route to take.

Drill down into what it is your client offers. Not in terms of products or services, but what emotional problem they’re solving for their clients. Are they helping people to be less stressed? Does their service help them save time?

Emotional selling points can be incredibly powerful tools, and essential to keep in mind when selecting colours, fonts, and any other visual element.

7. Why does the client do what they do?

Getting people emotionally invested in a brand often comes down to storytelling. Potential clients want to know why the founder started the company. They want to know why they care about what they do.

By understanding this, you can craft a compelling story behind the branding you create, helping to get potential customers invested in your client’s brand.

BONUS: To attract clients, you need to showcase your skills. And writing killer case studies is an excellent way of doing just this!

8. Who is your target audience?

What you’ll often find is that when you ask this question, you’ll get a response similar to “everyone, everyone is my target audience.” This is where you have to do your very best to get the client to narrow their target audience down as much as possible.

Do they have an accounting software? If so, who’s the primary demographic that they want to hit? Whether it’s the medical industry, or automotive industry, or something else, you need to find out exactly who it is their target audience is.

This information will be hugely beneficial when it comes to brainstorming and testing out design ideas, so the more granular you can get, the better.

9. What are your customers saying about your business?

You should ask to see the feedback that the business has received, both positive and negative. What their customers are saying about them will give you more information about what resonates with their target audience more than anything else.

Through this feedback, you’ll be able to identify the brand’s strengths, giving you things to double down on, and also their weaknesses, showing you where most of your design time should be spent. Assuming the design can address some of the criticisms the brand has received.

Tip: If you’re working with your new client on an ongoing/long-term basis, keeping this information to hand, and adding to it when you see notable feedback about the business, will be hugely helpful when working on your different design products. A simple Word Document or Notion page will work.

10. Who are your competitors?

"There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope.”
– Mark Twain

When working with a brand, you need to know about their competitors. There’s a good chance that the other businesses in the same market as your client have already developed several design products. People have already developed and refined the ideas for those businesses, which means they’ve put in a huge amount of the legwork for you.

Look at their competitors and see the most common things that appear across the board. These become the standards, and something that should be used during the creative process. Make a note of those things, then be sure to factor them in when it comes to making designs for your client.

A Roundup of the Questions

Each of these questions will give you a deeper understanding of your client’s business and allow you to create more effective design solutions. Each of these questions purposely avoids discussing anything related to graphic design, and this is for good reason!

If you go into the discovery process asking what logos they like, what colours they like, and what other brands they like the look of, you’ll end up only creating something that emulates another business.

Of course, you’ll discuss designs and aesthetics as you get a bit deeper into working with the client. But for the initial discovery session, whether that’s a call or a string of emails, try to avoid an outright discussion of design.

To save you from scrolling all through the page, here are the questions all in one list:

1. Describe your business from a bird’s eye perspective

2. Where do you see your business in 1, 5, 10, and 20 years?

3. What’s the biggest challenge you face as a company?

4. Describe your brand in 5 single words

5. What problems are you solving?

6. What functional and/or emotional benefits do you offer your customers?

7. Why does the client do what they do?

8. Who is your target audience?

9. What are your customers saying about your business?

10. Who are your competitors?

Conclusion

And there you have it! With those ten questions, you’ll be able to discover everything you need to know about your new client to create a killer design product for them!

Whether it’s a whole branding package, a poster, or even a humble business card, these questions will set you up with the knowledge that’ll allow you to succeed when you get down and dirty with the creative process.

If you’re looking for some interesting ways to sharpen your design skills, these six design projects are exactly what you need!

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