Real Designers Sell a Process, Not the Result
To be successful in design, you MUST sell your process, not the result.
If you sell the result (a brochure, a website, a logo), then you commoditize yourself. You reduce what you do to a widget that can be interchanged with any other widget. Once something is reduced to a widget, all that matters is price, not quality.
Most clients are "design blind" and can't tell the difference between a great logo that is perfect for their brand, and a random font next to a random shape with a drop shadow (a widget). For those clients, if you are selling the result, then you are competing with anyone that can randomly throw elements together and make them look decent. Those people are mostly amateurs, overseas, or children goofing around, and you will go bankrupt.
If you sell the process, then you are selling the fact that you are going to sit down with the client, understand their needs and goals, research their market space, and craft a custom solution that provides a high return on their investment. You are selling the fact that they will work directly with you, go through multiple rounds of refinement, and have you on call if adjustments need to be made later.
A real designer does not sell pretty graphics, and does not compete with people that do. The pretty graphics are just the smallest side effect of what they really sell, which is the process of design.
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