by David Harris
The customer is always right. That has been the universal business model since the caveman started his first wheel store. There are moments, however, in the design business where that simply is not true. How ever good the intentions of our beloved customers, sometimes a project can be stalled because of the tip-toeing we need to do as designers, to work around design “advise” we are getting from our clients.
Much of our work in the web design field is monitored by our brothers on the technical side of the web work equation, many of them highly astute in programming a web site to do everything from sending an email confirmation to starting the coffee maker. However, they are not designers. The problem arises when they cross that line and start providing design input and even samples that they mocked up. The task then becomes either denying the idea outright which usually leads to tension. Or, we take their ideas and try to “work them in” to a more legitimate design solution. The bottom line is, now efforts are not focused on the project as a whole but on making sure we can finalize things without alienating our customer. We have grown accustomed to this on the web side and have many techniques in place to deal with this issue, should it arise.
The more recent issue we have been dealing with however, is the logo design process. Customers will often have their idea of what they want the logo to look like. We encourage that. If their concept makes good design sense, we will work with it. The problem arises when they “create” something that is definitely not within the design strategy of a project or, worse yet, a logo that just simply is not good design. For whatever reason, we have discovered that customers will fight to the finish over really bad logo design using justification from “it needs to be more literal” to “that is my favorite shape and color.” We have gone back and forth on logo design, again trying to tip-toe around because we do not want to hurt the feelings of the very customers that are paying our bills. But, simply giving in would be a monumental mistake because the designs, at least the few that we have seen recently are not the professional image that we were hired to create for our customers.
Once they become set on an idea, there is no argument in the world that can sway them otherwise. Even showing them professional samples and demonstrating the fact that their design will not work, does not help.
We have been successful in getting around this issue with our “we will do what we do, while you do what you do” philosophy, but we are interested to see how you handle it. What are some situations you have encountered in logo design? Tell us your story and how you handled it. The ultimate objective of course is to provide our customers with a corporate identification solution that is both professional and appropriate to their business.
Onward.