How to turn your client into the sharpest art director you've ever worked with

Healthcare, logistics, manufacturing, industrial... these industries have little exposure to the design world. They don't know what Pentagram is, and they certainly don't care about your little type defisions. Show a winery company a moodboard full of Swiss grids and watch them question your entire existence. BUT show them three competitors' labels, and suddenly they're the sharpest art director you've ever worked with. They know exactly what's wrong with each one. They have opinions on every detail. They can tell you which one sells, which one gets ignored, and exactly where each bottle sits on the shelf. Now you have actionable insights. When you’ll present the work, they already understand why every decision was made. One piece of advice though: show competitors they actually compete with, not not aspirational brands they'll never be compared against. Edit // I pushed it with the title, it’s just a simple way to get useful feedback from clients who don’t speak design.