Today is not only the birthday of Icograda, AND the first day of Design Week: Design Currency in Vancouver, but also World Graphics Day around the globe.  Suffice to say, there is plenty of action going on in the design world on this very day.

"World Graphics Day has been celebrated annually on 27 April since 1995 as an occasion for designers to reflect and hope that Icograda's global network can contribute to greater understanding between people and help build bridges where divides and inequities exist." - Icograda.org

David Coates FGDC describes his philosophy on the opportunities presented to us, not only on World Graphics Day, but every day:

"As a young profession, we have a unique opportunity to define what it is to be a professional graphic designer and to take steps toward positive change in the world. I don't have to tell you that graphic design is everywhere you look, and that design plays a huge role in defining culture, but largely and until recently, we, as an industry have done simply what our clients have asked of us. We are now in a unique position to make real change - to guide our clients in the right direction - because they are listening!"

Read David's full blog post about the Black Collar Worker and World Graphics Day - I think that you will agree - it is an inspiring post. No doubt there will be more discussion of World Graphics Day at Design Currency.

Speaking of which, Design Currency 2010 begins today; pre-registration starts at 5:30 which is literally only a matter of hours and minutes away. Make sure you are familiar with the Design Currency schedule.  What does World Graphics Day mean to you? How do you see general awareness of design? Is it increasing or decreasing? What do you see as the biggest challenges for design in general and how do we overcome those challenges?

We're in Vancouver at the GDC AGM for 2010.  This year's AGM has a fairly familiar structure compared to last year's event in Winnipeg - so if you were there, you know the kind of things we are talking about. This year, Sunday's hot topics include Sustainability, Sponsorship, Branding, and Membership as well as associated Membership Processes.  See some more photos of the meeting on the GDC AGM 2010 flickr pool.

All too often we designers can get caught up in a battle of egos with our clients. Raise your hand if you've ever said the following, "but the client hired US because WE'RE the experts! They should listen to us!" Yeah, me too.

But here's something we can stand to be reminded of: our clients are the experts in THEIR field, and part of our job should be using that to our mutual advantage. They know their audience better than we do, and while we shouldn't allow ourselves to be made into pixel-pushers, we often have to learn how to better collaborate.

Paul Boag, of Boagworld and Headscape, presented a fantastic session at SxSWi this year that I was fortunate enough to attend (you can listen to the whole talk if you've got a spare 40 minutes). While Paul's examples are website-based, I feel that any designer (or anyone that deals with clients, actually) can benefit from Boag's principles of collaboration.

• Ensure the client understands their role in the process. Their job is to find problems, and yours as the designer, is to find solutions.

When a client tries to give you a solution (for example, the infamous "make the logo bigger"), you must ask "Why?" to get to the root of the problem and reinforce the outlined roles. Once you know the "why", it's that much easier to react and provide a solution that accommodates their need and your design goals.

• Make sure they have ownership in the project by involving them in the process often and early.

• Educate them about the decisions you've made. Yep, give 'em Design 101. Explain the miracle of white space, explain what makes your font choices appropriate for the project, etc etc.

• Ask for specific types of feedback. Instead of leading with "What do you think?" (which can be fairly intimidating if a client doesn't know what they should be saying in order to be helpful), try asking how their audience will react or if it meets their project objectives.

• Avoid saying no. Instead of responding negatively when met with an unreasonable request, show them the consequences of their choice (the time required to implement such a choice, the impression it might leave their audience with, etc.). Let them be the one to say "no" instead.

If we can focus on working with the client instead of against them (because really, in the end don't we all want something that everyone can be happy with?) we can expect the following results: happy, confident clients (about the project, its process and about you as a designer), less frustration and by extension, less battles.

How do you deal with frustrating projects? What are your methods of coping with a client that just "doesn't get it."?