Athyrius (bio)

Why designers have to spend so much time and energy convincing, cajoling and teaching clients, copywriters, and others how to avert these disasters is a mystery. It's kind of like having a patient try to tell his doctor how to perform surgery. 'No Doc, I want you to cut right here, not over there!"

Here are a couple of examples of Design Disasters and what I did (or couldn't do) about them.

Example 1:
A site catering to and providing clinical assistance to those with HIV and their families.

I assisted as far as I could in design – but the &%*# at the ad agency who had originally designed their logo and print materials (brochures, etc) did all of it in Scarlet Red and Grays. Apparently he/she learned in Design 101 that red attacts immediate attention. Yes it does. But where it goes from there depends on the mind of the person viewing it, and that is the critical element. Red subconciously generates fear in those already fearful. Grays can promote depression the same way.

This client was dealing with people who are in various stages of depression, or scared out of their minds. So the agency starkly colored their fear and depression and threw it in their faces instead of providing comfort and a sense of security.

One of the images chosen for the home page was of a man walking completely alone, head down, hands in his pockets, under a dull gray overcast sky – all done in grayscale – like he was walking to his grave. It was depressing for me to look at, I can only imagine the negative impact on the poor patients and families.

As I was designing through the agency, using their materials, and had no client contact- there was nothing I could do to remedy the situation and had to just let it go. Needless to say, I no longer have any dealings with this agency and they are still out there, fumbling along and looking for a designer.

Example 2:
A community portal site catering to an upscale, physically active, younger demographic (20 to 40) that would be heavily advertising for several major clothing companies. I was deeply involved in it’s inception from day one.

I open the site one day to check traffic and scan through only to see in screaming 18pt type this headline: “(anonymous) rounded up the chicks for a hot photo shoot!” ….Oh boy.

'..rounded up the Chicks'- like you round up cattle?

By the last demographic study I read over 53% of online sales were to women age 24-45. This demographic is expected to grow very quickly. Online sales are now catching up with store sales – which show that 61% of brick & mortar purchases cover the same feminine demographic. And these women are not buying for themselves either- most of their purchases are for family members, husbands, boyfriends etc.

The last major social study I read (done by Princeton of over 8,000 women, aged 20–45)) showed that over 87% of women are offended by language such as ‘chick’ and the use of the words ‘hot’ in relation to their sex, ie: hotty, etc. Beyond that some 35% of males are offended by the usage as well – and even more in relation to their wives, daughters or girlfriends.

So, on the front page of this site we had language that would immediately piss off over 50% - at minimum - of possible future clients to major advertisers that we were trying to attract and who I knew know their own demographic.

Yes it was a young guy who put the language on there, probably thinking it would be cool to other young guys. But young guys are not the major sales demographic on the internet -in any area, or in brick & mortar stores. When a credit card gets used to purchase items online, mens or womens, or in stores, most of the time it gets pulled out of a purse.

Fortunately we were able to correct this one pretty quickly, but not before there was a post made about it (by a man) on the forum, strongly expressing displeasure.

I'm sure there are a lot of designers out there who have stories like these and worse. Fortunately most of us are able to create and generate vibe, mojo and edge and generate wins for our clients and others, and fend off disaster, even if sometimes we have to fight for it.