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?