From Ron & Ari: Why we say the hard thing

Thirteen years of building things with someone teaches you a lot. Not just about design or business or clients — but about what it actually takes to do good work with another person over a long period of time.

Honesty is a skill

It sounds obvious. Be honest. Tell the truth. But in a creative partnership — especially one where you are also running a business, managing clients, and trying to keep the momentum going — honesty is something you have to actively choose. It is easier to let things go. To soften the feedback. To say “it’s good” when you mean “it’s not there yet.”

We do not do that. We never really have.

When Ari thinks something is not working, he says so. When I think we are heading in the wrong direction, I say so. Not loudly, not as a performance — just directly. Because we have both learned that the alternative is more expensive. You can either spend two minutes having an uncomfortable conversation or two weeks going down the wrong road. We choose the two minutes.

That is not a natural instinct for most people. It is something you build over time, with the right person, in the right environment.

What working with us actually looks like

A project at Griflan does not start with us telling you what we think you need. It starts with us figuring out what the real problem is — which is almost never the thing that was described in the first conversation.

Most clients come to us saying they need a new website. What they actually need is clarity about who they are and what they stand for. The website is just where that clarity has to live. Once we understand that — and once the client understands it too — the creative work becomes much more focused and much more effective.

That requires a certain kind of conversation. One where we are willing to say things that are not always easy to hear. Where we are pushing the client to make real choices rather than comfortable ones. That only works if there is trust. And trust only develops if both sides are willing to be honest.

Ari is particularly good at this. He has a way of asking a question that makes you think you arrived at the answer yourself. I am a little more direct. Between the two of us, we usually find the right level.

What we have learned

The creative work that we are most proud of — the projects that still make us stop and look — almost always came out of a process where someone said the hard thing at the right moment.

A direction that was not working and needed to change. A concept that was technically strong but emotionally flat. A client brief that was pointing us toward something safe when what the brand actually needed was something brave.

Those conversations are not comfortable. But they are the reason the work is good.

What we have learned after thirteen years is that the studios and partnerships that last are not the ones where everyone agrees. They are the ones where disagreement is safe. Where you can say what you actually think without it becoming personal. Where the goal is always the work, not about being right.

That is what we try to build with every client relationship too. Not a vendor and a buyer. A partnership where both sides are honest enough to make something worth being proud of.

— Ron Griffel Co-Founder, Griflan

This is part of an ongoing series. Read more from Ron & Ari in From the Founders.