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Interpreting Design
By: Kevin Javid
We have all been to galleries and museums at some point in our lives or another, often as creatures of curiosity, tilting our heads in every direction imaginable in an attempt to give meaning to some obscure painting or sculpture. As a young adult, I often wondered if some of these very pieces were even worthy of the nail they hung from, let alone bearing a rather massive price-tag.
The question I often ask myself is: does design require such in-depth interpretation on levels beyond what it was intended for? In other words, do some clients or designers simply go overboard in reading meaning into a design piece which the ordinary end-user would never even consider
Answering this question is simple. Yes, some just read into every curve, every line, and every shade of color as if it was an ancient treasure map riddled with riddles.
As a designer with close to two decades of experience, and having worked with clients ranging from the local realtor to Fortune-500 media moguls, seemingly these over-interpreting clients are spread throughout the layers of industry no matter what the size of the company.
I will never forget my first such client, whom by the way ran off with the designs and never made a payment… He was a clean-cut fellow who approached me at Kinko’s, right across the street from NBC in Burbank, California. You see, back then I didn’t have an office and spent my days at the local Kinko’s between my morning weather gigs at NBC, designing logos for small businesses.
He hired me on the spot to design a logo for his record label, and expressed interest in utilizing a “sun” in the logo as his company was called “California Sunset Records.” He agreed to the terms and I proceeded to spend several days coming up with a handful of comps for his review.
A week later, I was ready to present him his initial options, so called him up and setup a meeting at the Starbucks right around the corner from Kinko’s… the “conference room” if you will. The client showed up and looked at the very first option, then reclined back in his chair, lifted his glasses and squinted more carefully at the artwork. By now a good minute or two had passed without even a grunt, which got me worried. I contemplated asking him what he was thinking, but figured to give him another few seconds just in case he was getting ready to say something meaningful and hated to break his train of thought.
Finally he leaned forward, placed the printout on the table, then grabbed a pen and began pointing to almost every element and making a comment. From what I recall, here is a summary of what he mentioned.
Seemingly everything had meaning beyond what it was… somehow the circle representing the sun was now being looked at as “too perfect”, and the rays were not symmetrical enough which may have given the end-users the impression that the company was not seeking perfection. The sun’s color was questioned, even though he had specifically said he wants a setting sun with all the glories of its breathtaking colors. Now the oranges and yellows were labeled as “too fun”, which meant the company took brakes too often and didn’t tend to its clients the way it should.
And don’t get me started on what he said when he flipped the paper and looked at it upside down!
By far this gentleman was the most difficult client as it related to interpreting meaning out of every single line. Even the colors of the sun which mimicked the yellows and oranges of the natural sun got him thinking of how that can be interpreted by a select few, confusing his company with the likes of Sesame Street.
Don’t get me wrong. I fully understand and respect color theory and the effects of color on the human psyche, but believe me this was beginning to be a bit ridiculous.
Regardless, from that point forward I have ran into many over-interpreters. Fortunately I have learned how to deal with them. Perhaps here are a few tips on how to deal with one of these clients who for lack of a better word, interpret your design to death.
First, understand your client and realize how picky they are. This can be as easy as having them mark a few logos they like in a magazine or bookmark them online from sites they have visited. Then while in your presence, ask them why they like each one of the logos and make sure to get detailed answers. Ask questions such as: “what do you like most about this shape?” and “does the symmetry appeal to you?” or “what do you like most about the overall coloring scheme?” The more you know upfront, the more you can gage your client as to how they interpret at logos. If you begin to realize they are too negative and struggle to find a positive then you know you will be dealing with a difficult client. However if your client is easy going and just loves everything about all the logos and seems to have a swayed position on certain things, then working with this person will most probably be a pleasure.
Second, once presenting your comps, make sure to print each logo out on an individual paper, mount it on black cardboard and go through them as slowly as possible, explaining every single line and curve with the utmost level of detail. Make sure to sound as though there is a reason behind the madness and that you have tried several ways but concluded this final method was the absolute best way to deliver the message. By explaining why you picked a certain color, font, and curve without first having your client open his mouth gives you and advantage because who can argue logic when it is presented to well?
Finally, and perhaps this is the most important, make sure your client understands changes and how that affects the final price. Sometimes it’s hard to discuss price too much, but believe me this will save you aggravation and hurt feelings in the long run. You work best when you know you’re getting paid for your time, not when you know you’re getting the short-end of the stick. Be upfront during the contract signing stage and highlight in yellow the particular clauses that relate to change hours and your fees. It is very important for the client to be reminded at every step of the way how many hours are left so that they don’t go overboard. Much like using a phone card where an annoying voice keeps reminding us of how many minutes are left, clients should be reminded that they’re consuming too many change hours and that they should begin wrapping up quickly before having to pay extra for more time.
As a designer don’t get your client used to too much interpretation. I agree that every piece of work has to have meaning, research, marketability and the target audience in mind, and that your work has to have a meaning and reason, but like everything else, moderation is key. Give thought to what you create but don’t make it seem that every dot has a hidden meaning and that changing even a shade of color will destroy the piece entirely.
Have fun with your designs, be creative, and design with a purpose. To most people, design is about how it makes them feel, not how they should interpret it so that it makes sense. Design differs from a painting because its usually a marketing piece, and marketing pieces shouldn't be too confusing, too complicated, or too cute.
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Kevin Javid is one of the co-founders of the American Design Awards, an international design awards organization with over 30,000 active annual participants based in San Diego, California.
Kevin is also the co-owner of Graphicwise, Inc. (with his twin brother Art) an Orange County, California-based creative design firm specializing in attractive and effective web design, corporate identity and packaging art since 1997.
Besides graphic design, Kevin has been responsible for co-illustrating 5 published children’s books for a Los Angeles area television personality, and enjoys playing basketball whenever time permits.
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