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One design proposal
When designing for clients, I make one design proposal. This quote from an interview with Steve Jobs about Paul Rand does a good job at explaining why: (view on YouTube, skip to 2:40):
“In particular, working with him (…) he is one of the most professional people I’ve ever worked with. In the sense that, he thought through all of the formal relationship between a client and a professional such as himself. Obviously, very deep thoughts about this and, therefore he had very clear conclusions about what the relationship meant to both parties and how it should be conducted.
For example, I asked him if he would come up with a few options. And he said ‘No, I will solve your problem for you, and you’ll pay me. And you don’t have to use the solution. If you want options, go talk to other people. But I’ll solve your problem for you the best way I know how, and you use it or not, that’s up to you, you’re the client, but you’ll pay me’.
And there was a clarity about the relationship that was refreshing.”
A healty client-designer relationship is about trust. There needs to be a good degree of trust between the client and me [the designer] in order for the end result to shine. The initial design proposal points in one direction. The direction that I thought solved the problem best.
Multiple design proposals would mean that I tried to solve the problem at hand in three different ways, and I didn’t really know what was best, so I just proposed all three. A blurred vision like this leads to distrust in the client-designer relationship, and ultimately to a Frankenstein-style combination of different directions.
I got reminded of this draft while reading part three of the excellent Working with Blue Flavor series - in which they also mention the Steve Jobs interview. I can totally relate to almost everything Keith Robinson writes in these posts. Be sure to read the section on giving feedback - web design as opposed to logo design does benefit from a feedback round.
[...] via “In particular, working with him (…) he is one of the most professional people I’ve ever worked with. In the sense that, he thought through all of the formal relationship between a client and a professional such as himself. Obviously, very deep thoughts about this and, therefore he had very clear conclusions about what the relationship meant to both parties and how it should be conducted. [...]
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:29 ∞