Brutal Honesty in Design
It's that time of year when we start working on the annual Dynamic Graphics magazine Makeover issue [June/July]. For those of you unfamiliar with the issue, let me bring you up to speed.
Once a year we ask our readers to submit projects that need a "makeover". Categories include logos, newsletters, websites, brochures, packaging, advertising, menus and direct mail. We choose between 15 and 30 projects to redesign and then we run the "makeovers" in our June/July issue [on newsstands May 26]. Over the next few days 20 "lucky" readers will be contacted and told they won. Woowhoo.
Invariably when I do these makeovers I find that often the problem goes much deeper than a mere facelift will fix.
If, for instance, a brochure isn't well thought out or the copy is weak a redesign can only fix so much. But because the editoral focus of the articles can't be "hire a better copywriter" we minimize those non-design issues and focus instead on the design. But graphic design is a business and that business is communication, so if someone is spending a ton of money on great paper but their photos suck—they need to know that, or they complain that their newsletter has no white space, but 75% of their writing is drivel—they need to know that too. That's why I always push to have the non-design issues at least touched on in these articles. It's important for designers to look critically at all aspects of a project, see how those issues affect the final design and then share that information with the client. Be honest.
In the past this approach has prompted participants to comment on how brutal I was. Sorry.
This year I have a logo, a newsletter and a packaging project on my makeover list, and I don't plan to pull any punches. I also hope to share some of those observations with you.
I wonder if this year I'll make anybody cry.
The client hires you to do a specific job - to make his appearance to the world as effective as possible so he may sell more of his product and make more money. End of story. If there are things he's doing that stand in the way of you achieving what he's hired you to do for him, then it's absolutely stupid to fail to point out the weaknesses that need to be corrected. We are professionals, are we not? We can do this in one of two ways: (1) tactfully, or, (2) honestly. Note that honestly doesn't automatically imply brutally. There are two types of pressure we can use when making a sales pitch (which this is, but it's for ourselves, not for them): Acceptable pressure and unacceptable pressure. We wouldn't suffer being subjected to unacceptable pressure. Why would we think they would?