As a creative professional and a former grad student, I’ve had my fair share of tough critiques, failed presentations, annoyed clients and general bruises to my ego. Some of these memories still sting like hell, but mostly I’m at peace with the body of my failures. It’s easy to look back on mistakes and see what they taught me. I’ve also gotten more comfortable with receiving feedback. As long as it’s respectful, I’m all for hearing client suggestions on how to make the work better.

Despite these years of experience, the specter of a bad first presentation still looms large.

I don’t strive for perfection on a first round. It’s life affirming to nail a design on a first pass, but that isn’t the goal. Instead, I try to show as many different, conceptually sound ideas as possible, even if some are still rough. A successful first presentation should give clients enough fodder to respond to so we can hone in on the strongest direction. Healthy trial and error allows both me and the client to visualize what works best and why. At this early stage, the client should be excited and inspired by the potential of the project.

A failed first presentation disappoints clients, or worse, makes them question why they hired me. This happened recently when I showed a first draft of a home page design. I thought I was on the right track because I was riffing off of a logo that had already been approved. I assumed that the vibe I fleshed out in the home page made perfect sense, but my client didn’t agree. She felt that I’d missed the mark completely. The font choices, color palette, textures–everything I had chosen fell flat.

Sure, I could chalk up a good portion of her feedback to a subjective difference in taste. But the pangs of remorse were sharp. How could I get things so wrong? Did I gloss over hints about her likes and dislikes that I should’ve absorbed in our initial briefing? Did I rush the layout out the door when I should have taken more time to explore additional variations and judge them critically? It was probably a combination of all of the above.

So I got dinged. My client was good natured about it, and she stayed positive as she articulated why she wasn’t happy, but I know I rattled her confidence in me, and I certainly felt bad about myself. Not all clients are as patient with the process. And man, does it suck to get a barbed email from someone who wants to fire you on the spot and offers no chance of redemption. Either way, it takes extra work to regain the positive momentum we had going pre-lame presentation.

Design is always subjective. I have total confidence that, with enough rounds of review, I can deliver an excellent final design. But I can’t promise I’ll get it right in the first round. Even if I have a solid first presentation 90% of the time, I’m still going to miss once in a while. Sometimes the misses will be gloriously bad, and other times they’ll feel more like a dull ache. The journey between showing first attempts and finding the right track can be rocky. Powering through this ambiguity requires all the resolve that my years of experience have granted me.

I’m happy to report that I’ve revised the botched home page a few times, and now my client is thrilled with the work. I’m eternally grateful for the clients who trust the process like I do, and allow me the space to fail a bit and then try again.