We’ll take it.

There’s some truth behind the description. Over the years, we’ve worked with schools, colleges, institutes, departments, research programs, administrative units, and other groups across the university. At almost any given moment, there’s a pretty good chance something U-M related is moving through our studio.

But the real value of that relationship isn’t simply the amount of work we’ve done. It’s how much we’ve learned by doing it.

We understand the university’s visual identity and standards, but we also understand that applying them well requires judgment. We’ve learned about its audiences, approval processes, accessibility expectations, institutional culture, and the peculiarities that come with communicating inside an enormous and complex organization.

So when a new project arrives, we’re already bringing a lot to the first conversation.

We still ask questions. We still need to understand what’s different this time. But instead of spending the early stages getting acquainted with the organization, we can concentrate on the new challenge.

Experience gives us a better place to begin.

Long-term client relationships have a rhythm of their own.

At U-M, that rhythm can shift quickly. There are stretches when projects arrive fast, deadlines overlap, and everyone seems to need something at once. Then things settle down. A few weeks or months later, the pace picks up again.

After years of working together, we’ve learned to work within that cycle.

When things get busy, our clients don’t need to spend valuable time bringing us up to speed on how U-M works. We already understand the environment, the standards, the audiences, and many of the processes involved. We can concentrate on the assignment and move.

During quieter periods, that knowledge stays with us, ready for the next surge.

Sometimes the greatest value of an outside creative partner isn’t simply adding another set of hands. It’s having experienced hands that are already up to speed.

Long-term doesn’t necessarily mean continuous.

We’ve had clients who once relied on WTW for a significant amount of their day-to-day creative work and eventually hired people internally to handle much of it. That’s a natural evolution, and often exactly what a growing organization needs.

Our role changes along with it.

Months or even years later, we may hear from them because something different has landed on someone’s desk. A major website needs to be rebuilt. A new initiative needs an identity. A complicated publication needs to come together. A video requires capabilities the internal team doesn’t have. Or an already busy communications staff simply doesn’t have the capacity to take on one more substantial assignment.

That’s when the history of the relationship becomes particularly valuable.

We already know the organization. They know us. We can quickly learn what’s changed, understand the new problem, and get to work.

It’s a little like having an experienced member of your creative team who doesn’t need a desk.

There’s another funny thing about long client relationships: clients don’t necessarily know us for everything we do.

For one organization, we’re the video people. Another calls us when there’s a website to build. Somewhere else, we’ve spent years designing flyers, booklets, reports, and event materials. Only a handful of clients consistently use the full range of WTW’s capabilities. And that’s perfectly fine.

Over time, a creative partner can become closely associated with a particular need simply because the relationship works. The client knows who to call. We understand what they expect. There’s less uncertainty on both sides, and the next project gets moving quickly.

Sometimes that relationship expands. A client who has known us for video discovers that we build websites. A design assignment leads to branding. A website becomes an ongoing communications relationship. Other times, the lane stays surprisingly narrow for years.

The value of the relationship isn’t determined by how many services a client uses. It’s knowing that when a particular need arises, there’s already a trusted team that understands the organization and can step in.

Eventually, clients don’t have to explain everything.

We remember why something was handled a particular way three projects ago. We understand what someone means when they say, “It needs to feel more like us.” We know which questions need to be answered early and which decisions can wait.

Clients learn how we work, too. They know what information helps us get started. They become comfortable bringing us into a project before everything has been figured out. Feedback becomes more candid. Conversations become easier.

That shorthand isn’t about taking shortcuts. It’s about trust reducing friction. And the time saved explaining how to work together can instead be spent figuring out what the work needs to accomplish.

There is a potential downside to knowing a client well: experience can turn into assumptions.

Organizations change. Leadership changes. Audiences change. Technology changes. Priorities change. The solution that worked five years ago may be exactly the wrong solution today. That’s why a productive long-term relationship needs more than familiarity. It needs curiosity.

An established creative partner should continue asking questions, challenging assumptions, introducing new possibilities, and noticing when something has changed. Institutional knowledge should provide a better starting point rather than predetermine the destination.

Experience is most valuable when you keep adding to it.

Sometimes we work with a client every week. Sometimes we don’t hear from them for months. Some know us for nearly everything we do. Others call us for exactly one thing. The relationship can be constant, occasional, highly specialized, or somewhere in between.

What those relationships have in common isn’t frequency or volume. It’s accumulated understanding.

Every project adds context. Every conversation teaches us something. Every challenge gives us a better understanding of the organization and the people within it. Then, when the next project arrives, we’re able to spend less time learning what we already know and more time understanding what’s new.

That’s the real advantage of a creative relationship that grows over time.

With the right relationship, every new project starts from experience.

Decades of working with U-M have given us the opportunity to take on an incredible variety of creative challenges. Here are three projects that stand out to us, each different in its audience, purpose, and execution, and each shaped by the experience that came before it.