Thanks for your thoughtful questions and observations @cryptogee! First to answer your last paragraph, my process can also be very disjointed and not pretty! I used to be completely resistant and afraid to show my process partially because I don't always feel great about how things are going and partially because it felt personal and precious and I didn't want to "give it away" (people have often tried and sometimes in underhanded ways to get a "class" from me for free to learn how to do this work). Through posting on steemit though, I'm learning how to show my process in new ways that feel better to me and feel win-win.

Many if not most of my clients aren't local and I've always kept in touch with them during the making phase by sending photos, but now my relating of my process has expanded with them too as a result of what I've learned posting and I'm more transparent, light-hearted and confident about showing more.

And your question and comment -

how do you interpret the client's desires into your own creative process; and how frustrating is this stage?

I'd imagine quite a lot of people are not like your 'dream client' and often aren't sure what they want. So it's fascinating for me when you somehow take their indecision and start to create something they want.

This IS the challenge always and has a lot to do the success of a piece! It's also a good subject for a post ;-), but the short answer is that I love collaborating so creating a vision and a concept together can be really fun to do with a client but is MUCH easier when we have an easy connection. The design process always involves stop and start - I take a step and check to see if I'm barking up the right tree and if so take another few and check again. I used to fully complete several options in watercolor before showing a client anything and whew, what a lot of work and before I even got the project! Now I feel more confident about my simple and sometimes crappy thumbnail sketches and am willing to bring the client into my process more fully which is more fun for everyone. I get better all the time at the mind-reading and asking the right questions but the best pieces are usually a result of a client who trusts me.

Answering your questions really shows me just how much creating posts for steemit has helped me build more of an ease and confidence in how I relate to others in terms of my work - really invaluable!! Thanks so much for asking!