Not all design goes as planned, so learn from the journey and gain new skills along the way …
This Logo/Business Card package didn’t exactly go as according to plan, but don’t sweat it when that happens. Your client often comes to you with a vision – not a visual, but an idea. As graphic designers, we visualize the ideas and start to plan the design in our heads. The client, on the other hand, often just has an idea of what they want to convey, but no idea of how it will look. As they begin to see the layouts and the ideas coming to life, they can be pleasantly surprised or once in a while – sadly disappointed. They may feel their message is not there or they may just be disheartened and feel you can’t produce what they want. My advice to you is to be flexible and willing to try again.
The local business man behind OceanRock Capital, met with me to discuss his Charleston business venture, and needed only a logo and business card to get started. He was not interested yet in a website or any social media visuals. He provided a logo he really liked, a painting done by his dad – and his ideas about what he wanted the logo to convey. We went one direction and tried a number of options and after seeing those, he was ready to throw in the towel. I convinced him to give it another try in a different direction and with a little trial and error, we got back on track in a brand new direction.
That leads me to a second bit of advice. When clients become discouraged and their ideas don’t look as they hoped they would – don’t let them walk away. Your job is to convince them that a new perspective might in order. Convince them to take a second shot and to trust you to try again. This logo began with a strong focus on the “rock” and we moved away from that with the final logo. This simple image, with a few tweaks to get the font and elements as he wanted them, resulted in a logo and business cards that the client was pleased with. It’s tough to put a lot of work into an image – what you felt was exactly what the client asked for and then start again from scratch. Tossing all your files isn’t the answer – archive them because you never know when those elements could be used again. Don’t look at it as time or effort wasted – look at it as opportunity to re-engage the client with a fresh look and a logo they can be proud of. Review the path and what you gained in the process. You probably learned something new in creating the first layouts and will learn more as you venture into a new design.
