Friday, January 19, 2007
Real Clients of Genius
The saga continues... I won't go into detail because I might just become suicidal, but let's just say that I'm already three rounds of revisions farther than I was earlier today. And I've had to redraw the globe twice to make more and more continents fit on one side. I considered finding a picture of what scientists think pangea looked like, but what would be the point, really? And "can you make those crappy fonts we chose bolder so you can read them over the globe?" Well.... Hmm... Considering two of the fonts you chose only have one weight, the answer is no. But why don't I just add a stroke around it or fake bold it? Let's just break every rule in the book. And the best part of this is that it's not even a surprise. What did you expect when you asked me to put 10 point Times New Roman over a detailed map of the world?
Design Misadventures #2
Two posts in one day. I know, it's aMAZing.
What isn't amazing is how as a Graphic Designer I get treated like a monkey at a computer. They say that everyone is a critic. Apparently, everyone is also a designer. Or so they think...
So, client A hires us to design a logo for them. He has already found the "perfect inspiration" for the his logo on one of his Christmas cards, which he kindly scans and sends to us for reference. We design six logo options, each carefully considered and tested for readability on different backgrounds and color combinations, though we are already restricted by the client's well thought out inspiration.
"None of these designs are what we're looking for exactly," says the client's assistant who knows her boss' mind. "Let's try combining two completely incompatible logos. Oh, and can we also steal the colors from this website we found and liked?" Sure. No problem. (Note: In case you hadn't noticed, her statements have been heavily paraphrased and run through the "I think I know what I'm talking about but I have no idea" filter.)
While we are reworking the designs, the assistant of client A has a "brainstorm." "Why can't we just copy the logo from that website we liked too?" she wonders. We try this, grudgingly. But no, that's not quite right. It looks too original. She literally wants us to copy the logo style, colors, type treatment...everything. What a brainstorm.
We do it though it's obviously not going to look exactly the same. She shows her boss . He scraps everything and has his own brainstorm. What happens next makes my skin crawl. The "revisions" include taking a globe used on one of the logos from the first round, turning the earth so it shows more of Africa, and using the text verbatim that the assistant has created for us in Microsoft Word. The text (which is more of a paragraph than a business name and tagline) is to run OVER the globe. Brilliant. And here's the best part. The assistant, who is apparently well versed in typography, has chosen several truly distinguished and appropriate typefaces: Brush Script MT, Times New Roman and Imprint MT Shadow.
Why am I even here? What is the purpose of my job? Why did I spend all those years in school? I guess I did it so I can be a monkey. Where's my banana?
What isn't amazing is how as a Graphic Designer I get treated like a monkey at a computer. They say that everyone is a critic. Apparently, everyone is also a designer. Or so they think...
So, client A hires us to design a logo for them. He has already found the "perfect inspiration" for the his logo on one of his Christmas cards, which he kindly scans and sends to us for reference. We design six logo options, each carefully considered and tested for readability on different backgrounds and color combinations, though we are already restricted by the client's well thought out inspiration.
"None of these designs are what we're looking for exactly," says the client's assistant who knows her boss' mind. "Let's try combining two completely incompatible logos. Oh, and can we also steal the colors from this website we found and liked?" Sure. No problem. (Note: In case you hadn't noticed, her statements have been heavily paraphrased and run through the "I think I know what I'm talking about but I have no idea" filter.)
While we are reworking the designs, the assistant of client A has a "brainstorm." "Why can't we just copy the logo from that website we liked too?" she wonders. We try this, grudgingly. But no, that's not quite right. It looks too original. She literally wants us to copy the logo style, colors, type treatment...everything. What a brainstorm.
We do it though it's obviously not going to look exactly the same. She shows her boss . He scraps everything and has his own brainstorm. What happens next makes my skin crawl. The "revisions" include taking a globe used on one of the logos from the first round, turning the earth so it shows more of Africa, and using the text verbatim that the assistant has created for us in Microsoft Word. The text (which is more of a paragraph than a business name and tagline) is to run OVER the globe. Brilliant. And here's the best part. The assistant, who is apparently well versed in typography, has chosen several truly distinguished and appropriate typefaces: Brush Script MT, Times New Roman and Imprint MT Shadow.
Why am I even here? What is the purpose of my job? Why did I spend all those years in school? I guess I did it so I can be a monkey. Where's my banana?
Ch-ch-ch-changes...
The winds of change are blowing. I've been hearing them whisper in my ear for quite some time, but recently that whisper has turned into a howl. Unfortunately, the sound was so deafening I couldn't quite make out its meaning (but no, there were no sakura blossoms, so we needn't worry about poor little Subaru). Eventually the message became more clear. I knew I needed a change, but it took awhile for me to figure out which change to pursue first and how.
The conclusion I came to at long last was that I was ready to move out. I've been considering it for a long time, but there were a lot of reasons why a move didn't make logical sense. I debated over whether I wanted to buy a house or rent and apartment, and whether I could actually live alone since roommate opportunities were scarce. Then I got distracted by work and life in generally and time just kept moving while I kept standing still.
But I've been in a rut which has only grown deeper and wider during the last year. It's time for me to make a change. I made an arbitrary decision a long time ago, that if my life had not drastically changed and I still wasn't ready to buy a house, I would still move out when I was 25. Well, I've been 25 for half a year now, but I'm finally ready.
Many of you already know about this situation and how it all played out, but I thought I should make note of it on my blog regardless. And because (yes, I know BBD) I haven't written a post in a long time. But if you're wondering about my absence, this explains part of it at least. There's actually a lot more involved than that, but it's mostly the kind of emotionally exhausting stress and life/career/future decision making that you don't really want to think about too much until you have a little distance between you and the decisions.
Regardless, this decision has been made, and I will be moving into my new apartment on the first of February. Though I will be living alone, I have four friends already living in the apartment complex, so it shouldn't be too lonely.
The conclusion I came to at long last was that I was ready to move out. I've been considering it for a long time, but there were a lot of reasons why a move didn't make logical sense. I debated over whether I wanted to buy a house or rent and apartment, and whether I could actually live alone since roommate opportunities were scarce. Then I got distracted by work and life in generally and time just kept moving while I kept standing still.
But I've been in a rut which has only grown deeper and wider during the last year. It's time for me to make a change. I made an arbitrary decision a long time ago, that if my life had not drastically changed and I still wasn't ready to buy a house, I would still move out when I was 25. Well, I've been 25 for half a year now, but I'm finally ready.
Many of you already know about this situation and how it all played out, but I thought I should make note of it on my blog regardless. And because (yes, I know BBD) I haven't written a post in a long time. But if you're wondering about my absence, this explains part of it at least. There's actually a lot more involved than that, but it's mostly the kind of emotionally exhausting stress and life/career/future decision making that you don't really want to think about too much until you have a little distance between you and the decisions.
Regardless, this decision has been made, and I will be moving into my new apartment on the first of February. Though I will be living alone, I have four friends already living in the apartment complex, so it shouldn't be too lonely.
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