Being a Graphic designer, it is sometime very difficult to understand the client’s mind. What if he himself is not clear about his idea? What if he is just trying to give the job for the sake of job? I mean if you are hired full time or in retainership he himself becomes pressurized to keep you in pressure. Because, he thinks, he is wasting money on you. What if he is just happy to show your design to anyone and get comment from each of them to integrate? What if he pretends to be different for the sake of difference and keep changing? What if he is not the right person to take decision and just alluring you to possess his power? These are just few situations from many which are soaking your energy, tempering your brain and sometime to make you think, get the hell out of this profession.
If fact, designer means creativity. In commercial design, your creativity has to have certain direction or an objective. It is supposed to be a driven visual and lingual presentation to communicate with target audience. You learn (encode) language of design to understand this function and use it at the right place, right word, right size, right color and, everything right as far as you are able to decode. So, what it takes to be a good graphic designer? May be that passion, or some hunger to look at the same thing thousands of time, or listen anyone, anything that you come through, witness various circumstances with goods and bads, or simply be positive, adhere and observe the situation.
And, only observation and learning doesn’t make anyone a graphic designer. You have to be able to express, experiment and explain your design.
Express
Expression is such an art only a true graphic designer can do. It is not of everyone’s piece of cake. So, be proud. Think, you are a creator. You have everything in your hand. You know what you are going to make and for whom. You got ideas, you got skills and you got opportunity, and why would it bother to express your mind. But, think, everything you decide to do should just be the right amount. Not too big, not too small. Not too much, not too less.
Experiment
Why would you let anyone experiment your creativity? Experiment yourself. Find approachable candidate who you can trust and maintain secrecy. Show them your work and ask what do they understand? And, check is it exactly the same you wanted to communicate through the design? Do it multiple times and amend the true feedbacks. It will definitely guide you to the right approach.
Explain
If you are satisfied with your final creation, you got to explain it in a very positive note. Listen carefully both full of ears and eyes, while expressing yourself. I mean, it is not enough to listen only through ears (verbal communication); they might be giving you feedback also by non-verbal communications like facial expression or body language. It makes two-way communication and develops favorable conversation.
Yes, this is neither the formula nor any influence to people’s idea. Every graphic designer has his or her own style. This is our approach. Since, all clients are different, we must find our own way to deal with them. We cannot be judgmental to rate the client. We cannot even say sorry for the work. We are here to do design and it is our profession, our religion.
And, finally, we are here to facilitate them in realizing their idea through an enlivening communication.
