Last year I took a branding course
on Domestika with a very well-established designer. This is the advice he gave me: Never depend on anyone but yourself to design your work.
He was referring to a designer’s relationship with a client and was most likely specifically saying that a designer should not allow a client’s opinion to alter what the designer feels is his/her best work, especially regarding which design the designer feels best communicates the concepts the client has chosen for his/her brand identity.
When creating, iteration is important. Nobody can produce their best work on their first try. It may happen from time to time by accident, but generally speaking, even a good idea and a good design can be improved through iteration (producing many ideas through varied techniques and processes).
This means that eventually one has to narrow his/her ideas down to a final version. Sometimes it’s a fairly easy process, but often it isn’t.
When taking into consideration the advice above, I often wonder if it’s a good idea to ask others for their opinions about my work. At the same time, I often find valuable insight into the opinions and values that I have through my reaction to those of others.
On my own, I may waver between option A and option B, but when I ask someone for their thoughts, and they choose option A, I tend to react in one of two ways. Either I think, Yes, you’re right. It’s definitely option A. Or, I think, Really? Option A? I prefer option B.
Other times, I get a suggestion that leads me down a slightly different path to an alternative option that is still of my own making, but that I probably would not have come across if I hadn’t asked for help in making a decision.
Recently, I have been arranging a saying that I like: You can have anything you want, but you can’t have everything. I’ve arranged the words in various ways for a stencil that I’m making, but I also want to make a letterpress-like poster that I’m planning to print on a Risoh printer. I’m looking for smudges, imperfections, and possibly slightly transparent layered colorings in the final product.
I’ve narrowed the design down to the four versions you see featured in this post. Which do you like best, horizontal A, horizontal B, vertical A, or vertical B? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
Thanks!