As someone currently without one, I really appreciate people design managers, agents, and production managers.
I once worked with a really good ally, she was a DM but pretty much a PM, and in short, kept the bullies and users at bay while juggling the workload of the designers in the studio.
As an intern, I will never forget the day she told me that our boss, the person who hired us both, the Marketing Director, was a bad client.
This manager was always standing up for the designers, and advocated for research trips for them to join the rest of the team who got paid to fly out source materials/resources.
It’s hard for designers to find a place at the head of the table, where sometimes, they REALLY need to be apart of the conversation. Despite the partitions that keep creatives from the executive, these walls are getting shorter and shorter, and having roles and people that act as advocates for designers is something I really look for when interviewing for new positions.
Anyway, this is all to say that sometimes I struggle with working with clients, often have to bite my tongue (hard), and think, “what would [insert DM’s name] say"?”
Side note, I just quoted a project for 20k and I don’t think I’m going to get it. I only pray that they understood my breakdown of costs. Like I said, it’s hard to communicate your worth to people/value to projects, and if only I had that bridge, haha.