WP Query - if/else using custom field - wordpress

Question

I have a WP query that is looping all my projects with the same code. It's working great, but now I need to change the code based on a custom taxonomy. I basically want to make an if/else loop where if the custom taxonomy contains a certain value, to have x code, and if the custom taxonomy does not contain that certain value, to have y code. Is there a way to add this if/else statement to the "if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) :" section? Or do I need to lay this out differently?
Thank you!
<?php
$paged = ( get_query_var( 'paged' ) ) ? get_query_var( 'paged' ) : 1;
$args = array(
'orderby' => 'title',
'order' => 'ASC',
'post_type' => 'projects',
'posts_per_page' => 24,
'paged' => $paged,
);
$the_query = new WP_Query($args);
if( $the_query->have_posts() ) : while ($the_query->have_posts() ) : $the_query->the_post();
?>
EDIT: FluffyKitten (great name) asked for more info so here it is.
My custom taxonomy is called "project_services" and I want all projects with the service "commercial-damages" to loop through with one code, and all other projects to loop through with another code. I tried my crack at it below, but know that my part in the if loop is extremely wrong. I'm really not sure how to add that if condition in there since it's a WP query.
<?php
$paged = ( get_query_var( 'paged' ) ) ? get_query_var( 'paged' ) : 1;
$args = array(
'orderby' => 'title',
'order' => 'ASC',
'post_type' => 'projects',
'posts_per_page' => 24,
'paged' => $paged,
);
$the_query = new WP_Query($args);
if( $the_query->have_posts() ) : while ($the_query->have_posts() ) : $the_query->the_post();
if (get_field('project_services') == 'commercial-damages'):
?>
<div class="projects-column">
<div class="project-image">
<?php $image = get_field('image');
if( !empty($image) ): ?>
<img src="<?php echo $image['url']; ?>" class="project-image-tester" alt="<?php echo $image['alt']; ?>" />
<?php endif; ?>
<div class="project-info">
<span class="proj-name" style="font-weight: bold;"><b><?php the_title(); ?></b></span>
</div>
<div class="project-onhover">
<span class="proj-title"><p><b><?php the_title(); ?></b></p></span>
<span class="proj-details">
<p><span style="font-weight: bold;">LOCATION: </span><?php the_field('location'); ?></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: bold;">CLAIM VALUE: </span><?php the_field('project_value'); ?></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: bold;">SERVICES: </span> <?php echo wp_strip_all_tags( get_the_term_list( $post->ID, 'project_services', '', ', ', '' ) ); ?> </p></span>
</div><!--projects-on-hover-tester -->
</div><!--project-image-->
</div><!--projects-column -->
<?php else: ?>
<div class="projects-column">
<div class="project-image">
<?php $image = get_field('image');
if( !empty($image) ): ?>
<img src="<?php echo $image['url']; ?>" class="project-image-tester" alt="<?php echo $image['alt']; ?>" />
<?php endif; ?>
<div class="project-info">
<span class="proj-name" style="font-weight: bold;"><b><?php the_title(); ?></b></span>
</div>
<div class="project-onhover">
<span class="proj-title"><p><b><?php the_title(); ?></b></p></span>
<span class="proj-details">
<p><span style="font-weight: bold;">LOCATION: </span><?php the_field('location'); ?></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: bold;">PROJECT VALUE: </span><?php the_field('project_value'); ?></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: bold;">SERVICES: </span> <?php echo wp_strip_all_tags( get_the_term_list( $post->ID, 'project_services', '', ', ', '' ) ); ?> </p></span>
</div><!--projects-on-hover-tester -->
</div><!--project-image-->
</div><!--projects-column -->
<?PHP endif; ?>
<?php
endwhile;
endif;
?>
<?php wp_reset_postdata(); ?>

Answer 1

You just want to change the way you are processing the post details in your loop, so you don't need to make any changes to the loop itself. What you want to do is check the custom field inside the loop and then decide what to do with it.
Also FYI, you are using the_field - this will display the result to the screen immediately. Instead, to use the value without automatically displaying it, use get_field
Take a look at this - there are additional comments to help explain what it happening:
<?php
$the_query = new WP_Query($args);
// Standard while loop to get each of the returned posts one by one -
// we don't care what the post type is here, we just load it into the global "post" so we can use it...
if( $the_query->have_posts(); while ($the_query->have_posts() ) : $the_query-
>the_post();
// Now the details of that post are loaded into the global "post",
// so we can check the values in that post
// Check if the current post in out loop has commercial-damages
if (get_field('project_services') === 'commercial-damages'):
?>
// do whatever you want with the commercial-damages posts...
<?php else: ?>
// do whatever you want with the other posts
<?php endif; ?>
<?php
endwhile;
endif;
?>

Answer 2

Thank you to FluffyKitten who helped me work through this. I wasn't able to get an if loop to work exactly how outlined in the question, but I tried a few other approaches and just got one to work. I created an if / else statement in the HTML that I am looping. There I put if this field is empty, use another which I created and labeled differently to solve my problem. Below is the code:
<?php if( get_field('project_value') ): ?><p><span style="font-weight: bold;">PROJECT VALUE: </span><?php the_field('project_value'); ?></p>
<?php else: ?>
<p><span style="font-weight: bold;">CLAIMS VALUE: </span><?php the_field('claims_value'); ?></p><?php endif; ?>