Sometimes (a lot of times), a client comes to you with a job and has some very odd requests: “Oh I want the background to be purple, then at the base let there be a green line, with two yellow circles in the middle. I want the theme of the event to be in blood red and veeeeery big with black outline. Then at the corners, I want to have a picture of three men praying. Yes, at all four corners”. And you try to imagine that and your brain starts sending you error messages because what is supposed to be a design for a business seminar flyer is now looking like the work of a primary school child. Either way you do what you can but you try to make it look as professional as possible by taking a few creative liberties with the work. Then you present it to the client and he/she is like “errrrr, where are the praying men at the corners? And why doesn’t the theme have a black outline? It’s nice but I don’t really like it.”

Even worse are scenarios where the client gives you absolutely no idea about what they want. They just give you a bunch of text to put on the design and tell you to get creative with it. And you do get creative with it. And when you show them the product of countless hours involving sleepless nights, they go “….ehnnn, you could have made the title font pink. Then this circle here, let it be bigger. And remove that line…..”

The worst are those who work in fields that relates to design or graphics. “Young man/lady/Bobrisky-like-person, I’m an architect. I know what I’m talking about. I spent five years in the university and two years doing my masters and ….” And you’re still not a graphics designer.

It can get pretty annoying when a client is giving you, the designer advice. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes, clients do have good ideas. However, as the designer, you are the one that knows exactly why your design is the way it is and how people would see it. It’s something you do everyday. You understand the tenets of arrangement of graphic elements and design principles. Which is why when your client is trying to play designer, you might want to calm them down, gently remind them that they’ve not changed careers and point out exactly why you think what they want may not be the best idea for the job at hand.

“But why do I have to convince the client to go with my design?”, I hear some graphics designers mutter. “Some clients are extremely difficult and would argue without end that their idea is the best way to do things and the only reason they’re not doing it themselves is because they don’t have the skills. Why not just do what they want, collect their money and live a peaceful existence?”

Well, it’s the same reason your doctor would advise you to live healthy and exercise instead of just giving you a prescription and telling you that drinking herbal supplements is all you need. You owe it to your clients. Sure, they feel they know better but they don’t understand that design is not just about being visually appealing but also about being functional at passing across information. You owe it to them to educate them on why you make certain choices with the designs you create for them because, quite frankly, most of them don’t know. And it wouldn’t do to leave them in the dark.

More importantly, however, each graphic design work is a product and an extension of the graphic designer same way an artwork is a product and extension of an artist. Your design carries your signature. Anyone who sees it would see a product of your creative process and, if you keep letting clients pick how your work turns out willy-nilly, then can you truly call it your work? Besides, each work you put out is an advertisement for yourself. If it’s terrible due to client input, guess who won’t call you to design their later. Pretty much anyone that sees it, that’s who.

So next time your client wants you to put the picture of a praying mantis wearing a wedding dress while covered in engine oil with the title font in lemon green and brown, tell them: “Yhhhh……no.”


https://pixelsandlensnigeria./2017/01/13/why-you-shouldnt-allow-your-clients-dictate-your-designs/