Heather Locklear Design

Recently I read an interesting post from Jason Santa Maria about working with clients that have difficulty seeing our vision...

"I’m a bit of a stalwart optimist and I’ve always considered that I need bad or, more appropriately, challenging clients. I’m not talking about clients that withhold respect, try to do my job, or undermine recommendations based on fear. No one wants those kinds. I mean clients that push us to create better things and to be better designers. Clients that want to learn, and want to question."

Now I have of course worked with a wide variety of clients just like Jason has. And I certainly have had my share of challenging ones. And the truth of the matter is, every time I get overly excited about one particular design I have done, the client never sees it the way I do. But I ask you... just as Jason has asked... is that a bad thing?

I recently did a design that I really felt would push the envelope for the area this particular client was focused on. The other sites in this arena were plain and simple. We really wanted to elevate this client's site and take it to a new level well beyond where its competitors were. It was a risk to present this kind of design to this particular client, because they were probably expecting something more in line with their industy's standard. However, we presented 4 designs, ranging from very simple and clean to a very intense, graphically dynamic one.

As a designer, I was drawn to the graphically intense one for many reasons. And I started praying almost immediately that they would choose that one. Of course they didn't. However, they DID choose one that will still be a fine addition to our portfolio and is much better than anything else their competitors have to offer.

My question is this. How do we keep pushing the "design envelope" and hoping our clients "get it" while almost always they are unwilling or unable to take the risk involved? Do we keep pushing ourselves to do designs we know they won't approve? How do we keep our intensity level up?

For me, I think it is just the possibility that one day, a visionary client will come in and say... "YES! WE GET IT! GO FOR IT!". But this is like me waiting for Heather Locklear to call me. I mean, I have been waiting for like 30 years now.. and still nothing.

It keeps me waking up in the morning. Not Heather, but the possibility that each day holds at my job. Doing something innovative, cool, a new idea, a never been done before design solution.

One day, the Heather Locklear of clients will call. In the meantime... Heather, please call me.