Most of the conflict that arises between a graphic designer and their client comes from a situation where the client is thinking ‘I’m paying for this, so it’s going to be whatever colour I want!’ and the designer is thinking ‘I’m a professional graphic designer, and I know that will look horrible, so I ain’t doin’ it!’ So which one of them is right? Get ready for this… Neither.
What both parties tend to forget is that their own preferences don’t really matter. The work is intended to catch the attention of the client’s customer who will have their own likes and dislikes. And whilst the designer might think that small grey text on a white background is very chic, and his client may like the idea of a wild west font on a purple background, if the target audience is women in their 70s with sight problems then they’ve both missed the point.
Hopefully you can see what I’m getting at, clients need to convey a message to a specific group and it’s the designer’s job to help them do that. Personal preferences shouldn’t really come into it – decisions on style need to be based on an understanding of who is actually going to be looking at the poster / brochure / website etc. Making an appropriate decision on things like colour or typeface require careful consideration.
Clients need to think about who their target audience is and give the designer as much information about this group as possible. Designers need to ask the client for this information and then use it! Ultimately the goals of the client and the designer overlap, to produce a good looking piece of work that’s effective.
Pete Clark
Cogdon, Clark & Tranter