When I first started learning about design and developing my own aesthetic, I thought it was best to create and master one style and then replicate it. All of my layouts, typography, and visual choices became a large safety net of things that I would return to and regurgitate across various projects. In my eyes this wasn’t a bad way to begin — I found a style that worked and I kept using it, isn’t that what designers do?
I stuck with this mindset until after I left university, where I hit my first wall very quickly — immediately my go-to style was challenged.
I realised that I am not doing the work for myself anymore, I am responsible to a business and I am working for a client. Every client requires a different approach to visuals, typography, and layout… And not to mention that each person or client has a different way of working and communicating.
Instead of bringing a set style to a client, I learned to bring empathy and understanding. It is an approach that makes it easier to grasp exactly the intention, style or ideas the client requires or it can help you, as the designer, discover what you believe will work for them — while providing a framework that allows for open dialogue and reciprocation.
“The goal of a designer is to listen, observe, understand, sympathize, empathize, synthesize, and glean insights that enable him or her to ‘make the invisible visible.”
— Hillman Curtis
There are a few exceptions to this rule however, some designers have a style and stick with it. Clients know what they can do and hire them based on that. Illustrators are a great example, they have a style of drawing or creating and replicate it for every client. Yes, some variation takes place, but overall it is kept very close — it is their aesthetic, their brand, and it is what clients pay for.
“Styles come and go. Good design is a language, not a style.”
— Massimo Vignelli
So what happens if you don’t agree with what the client wants?
Don’t be afraid to disagree, at the end of the day they want your opinion on the way to do things, otherwise, they wouldn’t have hired a designer. If you don’t agree, provide alternative ideas and solutions. Show them exactly why you were worth hiring. Just do it in a way that doesn’t undermine them or the job they have hired you for.
Don’t fall short in your design because of what a client wants at the start. Always strive to produce the best work you can, you can’t progress both skill wise and industry wise if your work stays the same, if you don’t learn new techniques or new ways of producing outcomes. Never settle with the mindset that “this will do” or this is “good enough”.
“Recognizing the need is the primary condition for design.”
— Charles Eames
In the end, it is your job. You may not always agree on something, but they have hired you as a designer for a reason. More often than not, clients are open to being pitched approaches that differ from what they had in mind, but that ultimately achieves the same thing, expanding their options and solutions is what you should do. They may be focused on one idea and solution, but when shown another they may prefer it more. The back and forth communication is what fuels the best outcomes for the client. Where a happy endpoint can be achieved for both the client and you.
“Do not seek praise. Seek criticism”
— Paul Arden
