How to deal when they hate your design
By Marnie B (@marnieb) in Workflow » Starting Out
Even before I began designing professionally, I was always very offended when someone criticized my work. Whether it was a wallpaper design I put up on DeviantArt, a sketch in my A3 sketchpad or a painting on my wall, I took it personally when it was suggested that I could have done something better.
When I started getting paid for my work, it got much harder. Us designers pour our heart and soul into our designs, wouldn’t you agree? We spend hours researching, even more hours sketching, and once the design is finished, we spend just as much time working on the way we’re going to present it to the client. So it’s no wonder it’s hard to hear, “It’s just not what we’re looking for.”
Unfortunately this is just part of the job.
We all know as designers we have big egos. We all secretly criticize the work of other designers and know that we could’ve done better ourselves. Cough. But what do you do when a client openly criticizes your work? Eventually you learn to deal with it, but it’s always good to remind yourself of a few things, no matter how long you’ve been designing.
It’s not you, it’s them
The first thing to remember is that, in most cases, the client is not criticizing you or your design skills, they’re critiquing what might be the new face of their business. They have to love their new logo with everything they have and if they don’t, it’s best that they tell you.
Don’t take it personally. The client will think far more of you if they tell you and you work with them to come up with something better, rather than resenting you down the track because they gave you their money and you gave them something they hate.
Don’t dismiss feedback
The worst thing you could do is say okay and scrap the design. Even if after speaking about it both you and the client agree the design won’t work, it’s important to find out why the client didn’t like the design. Getting feedback on where they think you went wrong will help avoid the same outcome with the next concept.
Is it really what’s best for the client?
Do you honestly believe that what you’ve come up with will work best for the client and their needs, or do you just think it looks good? If you really think the design will work, don’t just scrap it because the client has said so.
Pick up the phone (if you can) and talk to the client about your reasoning behind choosing this design. Explain how you think it will work. Clients don’t always understand why their idea of a bright red heart with an ugly slab serif typeface isn’t the best thing for an elegant bridal shoppe. An open discussion about the design might just be what the client needs to be convinced, but it could also open your eyes and make you realize that perhaps it isn’t the best design you could have come up with.
These are just a couple of things I do when a client isn’t absolutely thrilled with the concept I’ve put together for them, and I find they work well for me. I’d love to hear how you handle negative feedback on your designs.
By Marnie Bergan
Marnie B is a graphic designer based in Australia. She blogs about design when she's not designing or sleeping, and loves cupcakes, her iPhone and tweeting.
You can find out more about Marnie here or you can catch up with her online via Twitter or Facebook.
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Great advice Marnie! You hit the nail on the head with this. Scrapping the design is the worst thing you could you, all your work goes to waist! The designer should base the concept on the clients guidance so anything that is created should be on the right track if you’ve interpreted the guidance correctly.You are better off working through it and maybe making some adjustments based on their feedback. Eventually you’ll get there.
Getting offended is just counter productive. Use the clients negative comments to create a better design next time.
Justin – Big Click Studios
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Thanks Justin! My thoughts exactly – if you follow the brief, you’ll usually nail it. I’ve had a few instances though where the client hasn’t given a correct brief. If I hadn’t taken the opportunity to ask them why they hated the design, I wouldn’t have found out what I was working to was no longer right.
Thanks for the comment.
M
I agree, great advice! I’m not a designer but I do know what it’s like when you’ve put so much work in for a client and they either don’t ‘get it’ or it’s just not ‘to their taste’. While it doesn’t happen often, I do get that with the occasional resume client from time to time. I think your advice on how to deal with this is spot on.
Anything like design (or in my case, writing) is subjective and everyone does have different taste – still I find that what works best for me is picking up the phone and explaining why I chose to use that font, and why I recommend they don’t put their resume on blue paper with clouds in the background, or why I chose to pick up on a certain point and not another, they usually turn around and start looking at it from their target audience’s POV, not their own!
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Great tips, Marnie. Empathy for the client is one of a designer’s most important tools.
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Thanks Kirsty and David.
Kirsty, how do you handle it with your resume clients? Do you run through a similar process?
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Great post, Marnie. The key is communication. If there is an open dialogue between the designer and the client throughout the process, the likely hood of the client absolutely hating your work will be minimized.
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Great article! That’s one of the things people prefer not to talk about. But it happens to everyone.
Thanks for the comments guys.
Silviya, you’re absolutely right. You can’t get every design right every time – it’d get boring if it worked that way, don’t you think?