The Design Blockers

In the past, I worked directly with the client. For any design project, I would come up with the best solution to present to the client. I would make the change if the client’s feedback is valid or I would explain to the client the reason behind my decision. The approach was effective and time-saving.

Recently I was asked by a freelancer to update a header. It was supposed to be a quick job since I just needed to update the photo. It turned out that the freelancer sent it to the director. The director emailed back to the freelancer asking me to come up with several more designs to give the client a few choices to pick from. I understand that the director is new and desperate to please the client. I was not going to provide any additional versions, but it was a quick job and didn’t want to be seemed as difficult to work with. As a result, I did another version.

The freelancer came back to me and told me that the director wanted a few more variations of the second version in Arial and in different fonts. At this point, I had no choice, but to straighten them out. My job as a designer is to provide my client the best choice possible and then go from there. Asking me to substitute Arial for a branded typeface, which is Myriad Pro, is not helping. If my client has to choose between Arial and Myriad Pro, what is my role for? That is the type of decision I should be making instead of my client. If the client can choose between one over the other than the client doesn’t need my design expertise.

It doesn’t make any sense to go through people who do not make the decision before getting the feedback from the decision maker. It is such a waste of time and resource to go through the middle people. They are not designer and their mission to to please the client instead of helping the client to make the best decision. I can’t deal with the design blockers.