Photo by dobrych
I recently had the privilege of working as an in-house designer for a British newspaper. Although these jobs rarely come with the creative freedom designers strive for, there is a wealth of knowledge to be gained from such environments.
Whilst pretending to mind my own business I overheard a conversation between two of what I called the wordy people. They had out sourced a logo design project to a prestigious London design agency. They were very disappointed after receiving the first draft design and shared such disappointment with anyone who would listen. The wordy people felt it wasn’t “designery enough”. My ears perked! Did a wordy person just say that? My curiosity got the better of me and I was all-ears. The design floated around the office with mixed opinions. I caught a glimpse and of course loved it. Wordy 1 decided amends were in need. From what I could tell the design agency were at first very accommodating, it was only after multiple amendments they decided to speak up. Wordy 1 was outraged and not so subtly shared the side of the conversation that until now had remained in her headset.
Design agency: “With all due respect, you paid us for our expertise; our decisions were based on research gathered and extensive experience in this industry”
Wordy put down the phone and made her own statement, a statement that got me thinking.
Wordy: “At the end of the day we’re the client, they have to do what we tell them”
This brings me to my moral quandary; do designers know better? Or should they bow to client demands?
This entry was posted by Matt Rogers on Thursday, May 6th, 2010 at 11:15 pm and is filed under Miscellaneous. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Chris
June 11, 2010 at 4:46 pm
I think the magical solution is to nurture a relationship where both parties feel that they are being heard and valued. Sadly this isn’t always the case, as your example demonstrates.
If the designer and client respect each other and listen to each other’s points, the end product will inevitably be better than each of the individual parties would be able to achieve.
After all, as a designer if my design isn’t felt to be ‘right’ by my client, the person who best understands their business, it can’t be right, can it?
Matt
June 11, 2010 at 6:09 pm
You are right Chris its all about nurturing a good relationship with a client. Only start a project once you have listened and fully understood what it is they want from you. If you start without this understanding its only going to get worse.