In earnest: The quiet magic of good clients

This week, it feels like gratitude has been quietly threading its way through our days.

On Monday we wrote about Jackie – one of the collaborators who makes our work better in a hundred small, invisible ways. Today feels like the natural bookend to that conversation, because this week has also marked the departure of one of our favourite clients.

Helen, we’re looking at you!

We’ve had the privilege of working alongside Helen for almost a decade now, which is long enough for a client relationship to quietly become something more like a shared chapter of life. In agency years, that’s basically a lifetime.

When we think about the work we’ve done together, we could list the projects. The campaigns. The videos. The brochures. The countless drafts, feedback loops and last-minute edits. But that’s never really been the point.

The real story has always been the people.

Because the best client relationships aren’t transactional. They’re built on trust, shared values and mutual understanding that the work matters because the people behind it matter.

Working with Helen has always felt like working with someone who genuinely cares – about the people she serves, the teams she supports, the communities she works in, and the stories they tell about care, dignity and connection. That kind of clarity of purpose makes our job not only easier, but deeply meaningful.

She has championed storytelling when it would have been easier to play it safe. Backed new ideas when the path wasn’t perfectly mapped. Trusted the process. Trusted us. And most importantly, trusted the power of honest, human communication.

And she’s been the kind of person we always look forward to seeing in real life – in the meetings where the agenda gets covered, but the laughter does too. The kind of person who finds the humour in the everyday as readily as we do.

Those things are not small gifts. They are the quiet magic that makes creative work sing.

This week has been a gentle reminder that behind every phone call, every project, every email thread, every meeting invite, there are people choosing to work together. To trust each other. To care about the outcome.

We don’t ever take that lightly.

So, this is a small, heartfelt thank you – to Helen, and to all the clients and collaborators who make this feel less like work and more like shared purpose.

Here’s to bloody good people.
And the privilege of getting to work alongside them.

Peita