Client: “We’ve decided we need a warmer blue in our logo.”
Me: “Blue is a cool color.”
Client: “Well, just make it warmer, whatever that takes.”
Me: “It’s impossible. Blue either becomes green or purple.”
Client: “We don’t like either of those options. Just do your best to warm it up without changing it dramatically. You’re the designer. We know you can do it.”
to be fair, the designer could have dug a little deeper to find out what the client meant by “warmer” rather than just assuming its art-dictionary definition.
there was obviously an end result partially-visualized in the client’s mind, perhaps the current blue was a loud, bright turqoise. changing it to a richer, cobalt blue or indigo could easily be seen as ‘warming’ up the blue (as in making it friendly and more inviting)
is this like design pragmatics?
I think this is an interesting concept. Clients can be difficult, certainly, but it’s also important to remember that they’re often not very knowledgeable about what designers do (which is why they hired one, right?). It’s easy to take the “my client is an idiot, I have it so hard” approach just because the client doesn’t speak the same language. Design is an abstract thing, it’s difficult to describe in words for someone who does it every day, much less someone who knows nothing about it.
