In this two-part article, we’ll look at how the ongoing evolution of the design profession has made it necessary for creative firms to rethink how they’re structured and how they describe their services to potential clients.

The last 20 years have brought many changes to the field of graphic design. The nature of our work has evolved and the size of our community has grown. More colleges are teaching design and a greater percentage of working professionals now hold BFA and MFA degrees in design. We’ve felt the impact of many new technologies and we’ve been active participants in the ongoing development of the web.

One of the most important changes for graphic designers has been the gradual expansion of our offerings to clients beyond the production of tangible artifacts. Today, leading creative firms provide not just “graphic” design, but design in a much larger sense— design as problem-solving, as innovation, and as a way to generate significant social and economic value. This increased scope and diversity presents many challenges to us as design managers and business owners.

Our old way of doing business was more limited. Until the 1990s, most corporate clients tended to purchase design-related services in a disconnected way from several companies. Projects were sorted out according to each firm’s particular specialty, such as identity design, industrial design, exhibit design, advertising, etc. Different things would be purchased at different times from different providers. This meant that someone within the client organization had to manage multiple relationships and make sure there was some consistency in the disparate elements being produced.

During the ’90s, however, the strength of the U.S. economy led to the phenomenon of the “one-stop” shop. Many clients were launching startup companies, particularly in the tech sector. They had substantial amounts of venture capital available to them, but not much time to become established in the marketplace. Their new companies needed everything at once. It was natural for them to want to simplify their lives by doing one-stop shopping. In response to this economic opportunity, many creative firms expanded beyond their original niches to become “full service” firms. Through new hires, mergers, and acquisitions, they brought a wide range of specialists under one roof. With one multidisciplinary team creating all aspects of a brand, startups could be launched more quickly and efficiently, and busy clients only had one relationship to manage instead of many.

As long as the overall economy remained strong, full-service firms thrived. However, the U.S. economy stalled in 2000, and then went into a dramatic downturn. Venture capital dried up and the need for one-stop shopping went away. Sprawling, multidisciplinary design firms were forced to lay off employees and shrink back into their original specialties in order to survive.

Today, the majority of design businesses again operate in a clearly defined niche, but with a difference. All of us, including clients, have a heightened awareness of the importance of integrated strategy, consistent execution across all media, and effective collaboration across design disciplines. This is how strong client brands are created and maintained. An umbrella term has come into use for this comprehensive approach: experience design.

Although our firms may be smaller now than they were just a few years ago, we must still look at each client project in the largest possible context. Though we specialize in specific design disciplines, our thinking cannot be compartmentalized. We must take a holistic view of each situation and provide our clients with big-picture thinking. This is a serious challenge and, in practice, some firms are much better at it than others.

Next time, we’ll take a look at what it takes to be successful in this demanding environment.