Comments on: Democracy in Design http://spirit3design.com/pixelgawker/2008/09/20/democracy-in-design/ Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:11:33 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Travis Fields http://spirit3design.com/pixelgawker/2008/09/20/democracy-in-design/comment-page-1/#comment-247 Travis Fields Sat, 27 Sep 2008 02:19:47 +0000 http://spirit3design.com/pixelgawker/?p=68#comment-247 Oh wow how true is that last line of the post. I had thee same exact experience with a client in high school. I was redesigning a relatively new company's logo, product label, and website so as to help them develop a better identity before the general public became used to the original logo. The reason i said i had the same exact experience was because i did in fact present a series of logos. Some of which were good, some were bad and some were VERY bad. Who would have thought that the client would decide upon the worst design out of the six. Even after carefully explaining my reasons for liking the choice logos, he was still firm on his decision. Needless to say i learned the same valuable lesson. I was not sure on the lesser of the designs so i should not have presented them. I believe to a certain level that the client should have say in the final designs chosen. It should also be the responsibility of the designer to make sure the client understands why one may be better than the other. After all we are the right brained thinkers and those on the opposite side of the table are the left brained ones. Oh wow how true is that last line of the post. I had thee same exact experience with a client in high school. I was redesigning a relatively new company’s logo, product label, and website so as to help them develop a better identity before the general public became used to the original logo. The reason i said i had the same exact experience was because i did in fact present a series of logos. Some of which were good, some were bad and some were VERY bad. Who would have thought that the client would decide upon the worst design out of the six. Even after carefully explaining my reasons for liking the choice logos, he was still firm on his decision.

Needless to say i learned the same valuable lesson. I was not sure on the lesser of the designs so i should not have presented them.

I believe to a certain level that the client should have say in the final designs chosen. It should also be the responsibility of the designer to make sure the client understands why one may be better than the other. After all we are the right brained thinkers and those on the opposite side of the table are the left brained ones.

]]> By: chad reichert http://spirit3design.com/pixelgawker/2008/09/20/democracy-in-design/comment-page-1/#comment-246 chad reichert Sun, 21 Sep 2008 19:10:05 +0000 http://spirit3design.com/pixelgawker/?p=68#comment-246 the reality of client work for students entering the workforce can be very sobering. i often hear students talk about their experiences with clients and often it's not flattering. a phase that all designers must go thru is learning to work with clients while educating them on what we do and how we do it. for example: i had a similar experience a couple years out of school working in a design office. i was developing an identity for a start-up company and presented them a tremendous amount of work; one direction in particular was very exciting and in my opinion, unique. after the presentation or massacre, as i like to call it, i found myself looking at the results of the discussion disappointed that they didn't like anything i viewed as progressive or appropriate. rather, the client walked away excited about something that the design director had poorly thrown together at the last minute. demoralizing? yes. but i realized at that moment that it wasn't what i was showing but rather, how i was talking about it. the design director knew the questions to ask and the answers to give. i thought i had been clear about the objectives and successful in presenting ideas that were relevant to the given problem. but, in reality i didn't help the client understand why my work was the best solution for their needs. i also failed to successfully educate them on why certain choices were better or worse. we often talk about how designers must learn to clearly articulate their work to clients. what we sometimes forget is that as designers must also learn how to empower the client into making wise decisions. if we learn to educate our clients about design and work collaboratively to execute solutions, we certainly won't eliminate all the problems, but we will narrow the gap of understanding. seeing eye to eye with a client is tough and takes practice. client relationships will always be a challenge, but the quicker a designer can learn to adapt to situations, the better the outcome. the reality of client work for students entering the workforce can be very sobering. i often hear students talk about their experiences with clients and often it’s not flattering. a phase that all designers must go thru is learning to work with clients while educating them on what we do and how we do it.

for example: i had a similar experience a couple years out of school working in a design office. i was developing an identity for a start-up company and presented them a tremendous amount of work; one direction in particular was very exciting and in my opinion, unique. after the presentation or massacre, as i like to call it, i found myself looking at the results of the discussion disappointed that they didn’t like anything i viewed as progressive or appropriate. rather, the client walked away excited about something that the design director had poorly thrown together at the last minute. demoralizing? yes. but i realized at that moment that it wasn’t what i was showing but rather, how i was talking about it. the design director knew the questions to ask and the answers to give. i thought i had been clear about the objectives and successful in presenting ideas that were relevant to the given problem. but, in reality i didn’t help the client understand why my work was the best solution for their needs. i also failed to successfully educate them on why certain choices were better or worse.

we often talk about how designers must learn to clearly articulate their work to clients. what we sometimes forget is that as designers must also learn how to empower the client into making wise decisions. if we learn to educate our clients about design and work collaboratively to execute solutions, we certainly won’t eliminate all the problems, but we will narrow the gap of understanding. seeing eye to eye with a client is tough and takes practice. client relationships will always be a challenge, but the quicker a designer can learn to adapt to situations, the better the outcome.

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