Graphic Designers Get Snarky Revenge By Illustrating Client Feedback

Excellent. This is pretty much the reason I chose not to go into graphic design. Nobody knows what they want!

Oh god, this is painful. As a graphic designer, I can say just about all of this is true.

I once had a client that told me he wanted his site to look like a children’s book, but not childish, and then proceded to send me the most random images that had essentially nothing in common. Minimalistic logos, watercolor paintings, sketches, ink drawings. “Something like this.”

“I’ll know what I want when I see it” FFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUU

My personal favorite was the [undisclosed city] chamber of commerce president who had a problem with the lovely professional stock photo of a mom-dad-two-kids-and-dog family I’d put on their site redesign. She seemed to feel that nice professional stock photo of a mom-dad-two-kids-and-dog family wasn’t appropriate. I can only guess that she had an issue with the family in the photograph being Hispanic, because she spent five solid minutes trying to say “use a white family” without actually saying “use a white family.”

“Can you make them, um… look more like us? You know… *vague gesturing* like us? Their clothes are fine, they just don’t look……~like us.~”

Oh man. I don’t think I could have resisted trying to make that conversation as long and awkward as possible, just to see if she would finally break down and say it.

“Oh, do you want a different breed of dog? No? It’s the glasses, isn’t it. They should be wearing glasses. No?”

Arrrrrgh!!! So far, three are true to my experience!

Yep. Been there. That’s why I eventually transitioned into IT. It didn’t help much.

Yep. Been there. That’s why I eventually transitioned into IT. It didn’t help much.

Development isn’t much better, at least not whenever you end up also dealing with end-users. Sure, many are great, but for every 10 wonderful users, there’ll be one who makes you wonder what the hell was put in the gene pool and why they’re so determined to crush what faith and optimism about the human race you might still possess.

And somehow, that one sticks with you far longer than all the good ones.

Hilarious, Bri. That’s hilarious!

Yep. Totally agree. Stupid people (who think they know more than they do) are everywhere.

Once had a client tell me — with a smile on their face — that they kind of thought my logo design looked “throw-uppy.” It was in front of two co-workers no less. I literally let out a loud, single laugh and said “I guess I don’t have any response to that!”

that’s exactly the reason why I am done with gd after 10 years!..I just couldn’t take it anymore

I’m a writer, and I’ve gotten the same thing from producers.

This is why I don’t miss advertising at all. I love it when I draw Caribbean looking people on story boards (where I live) and the client wants white people and asks for “more aspirational” characters.

oh that elephant one. I designed decorative windows/doors for a few years and every 5th customer had a picture of a hummingbird in their paws when they walked in. “My neighbor has a hummingbird on his front door, and I want one…. but not the same one.”

The upside: They turned the drivel feedback usually consists of into truly wonderful works of art. Creativity will find an outlet somehow no matter the thumb it’s usually under.

hahaha. Sara, next time please do what Bri suggests. :)

Way to not credit the artists.

http://sharpsuits.net/

Dick.

If you were viewing all on one page you might have missed this sentence from the main article (with link) – “The series Sharp Suits was born out of a bunch of Irish designers’ frustrations with that aspect of the field – clients talking complete and utter nonsense.”

“aspirational?” What the devil does that even mean?

Whoa! MOBY DICK!

I’m no graphic artist, and I’m not in advertising, so I don’t have any funny stories to relate, BUT I just wanted to say these are all brilliantly clever and funny! “Red isn’t really Christmas” is totally my favorite!

Oh man, I did this stuff for over 4 years and it’s all true. I did album art for cds and you would not believe some of the things I heard. It was ridiculous!

Being an illustrator, I have gotten many of the same alliterations from a client. I hope these were done in some fun, and not mean spirited. I mean, some of the clients comment are just unprofessional and completely not helpful. But, I get when a client says, “make the sandwich more playful”. It sounds like a ridiculous requet, but sometimes those are the right adjectives to get the right style.

They’re trying to subtly say that they think that… Caribbean and Hispanic people don’t work hard or try to be leaders. Yeah.