Here are a few excerpts from AIGA's "A Client's Guide to Design: How to Get the Most Out of the Process", 2001 (but still relevant today)
The Value Proposition Design�good design�is not cheap. You would be better served to spend your money on something else if you don't place a high value on what it can achieve. There's a view in Buddhism that there's no "good" karma and no "bad" karma, there's just karma. The same can't be said for design. Karma is a universal condition. Design is a human act (which often affects conditions) and, therefore, subject to many variables. When the word design is used here, it is always in the context of good design. ... We live in a time of sensory assault. Competing for "eyeballs"�which is to say, customers�is more than just an Internet phenomenon. The challenge for companies everywhere is to attract customers to their products and services and keep them in the face of fickle markets. The answer to this challenge starts with each company's people, products and services, but it doesn't end there. How companies communicate to their markets and constituencies is becoming the primary means of differentiation today. Never in fact, has effective communication been more important in business. And it has increased the pressure within companies to establish environments and attitudes that support the success of creative endeavors, internally and externally. More often than not, companies that value design lead the pack. ... What Design Is and Isn't Design often has the properties of good looks, which perhaps is why it's often confused with style. But design is about the underlying structure of communicating�the idea, not merely the surface qualities. The late, great designer Saul Bass called this "idea nudity"�messages that stand on their unadorned own. Certainly, it's possible for a good idea to be poorly executed. But bad ideas can't be rescued. ... Design Costs Money As one very seasoned and gifted designer says, "There is always a budget," whether it is revealed to the design team or not. Clients often are hesitatant to announce how much they have to spend for fear if they do, the designer will design to that number when a different solution for less money might otherwise have been reached. This is a reasonable concern and yet, it's as risky to design in a budgetary vacuum as it is to design without a goal. If your utility vehicle budget stops at four cylinders, four gears and a radio, there's no point in looking at Range Rovers. If you have $100,000 to spend and you'd really like to dedicate $15,000 of it to something else, giving the design team that knowledge helps everyone. Then you won't get something that costs $110,000 that you want but cannot pay for. The trust factor is the 800-pound gorilla in the budgeting phase. Without trust, there isn't a basis for working together.
TO READ THE REST OF THIS GUIDE, VISIT AIGA.
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