Consultation is all well and good, but we are the experts

Wonderful piece on co-design (Comment, DW 17 April).

We’ve just lost an account because a client ran our creative past a public focus group, which rejected our concepts.

I put it down to the client’s lack of vision and a lack of confidence. How can you make an informed decision based on what someone likes? What the public often sees is the result of much R&D and trend prediction, but it is our role, as designers, to show clients we are the experts in our field.

Matt Wardle, Managing director, Black and Ginger, Liverpool L1 4DE