Sometimes the only way to get on the same page with a client is to learn their language. There is a lot of jargon in design and marketing that clients don’t always use correctly. It can lead to confusion if you aren’t digging deeper to find out why they want something.
Apparently, I don’t speak college recruiter. We were meeting with the recruitment team and they had come prepared with printed samples from competitors. I could see what they were asking for but I didn't understand why. Design should have a purpose. So I asked when the next college fair was going to be and if I could attend.
At the college fair, I collected samples, watched students interact with materials, took photos of the booths, and took it all back to our marketing team. Then we spread it all out and discussed which college pieces were the strongest. We pointed out the trends we noticed. We learned the language of recruitment fairs and applied it to the new designs. We used our war room to test the new concepts and see how they stacked up. I was really pleased with the results.