So today I got this question sent my way via Facebook Messenger:

“How do your practices differ when creating a commissioned design project to creating art for yourself, i.e do you feel constrained by the perceived difference between design and art?”

Really good question. For a while there I truly intended to give my clients my best. Sometimes I’d stay up till 3am working on client work, with my fave music up, in my PJ’s, only to have the secretary the next day in the client meeting say she doesn’t like yellow, and eventually having the client have me change things, which in turn makes my work ugly.

This hurts.

A few years of this crap; design by committee (when you present your work to clients and the client gathers opinions from their business partners, secretaries and mothers), uneducated clients (not everyone gets good design), clients who fail to trust me as a designer, it was enough for me to always design with compromise in mind. IE: I never give my clients everything I’ve got anymore. I only put my everything into my own work, which in this case you can call “art”.

So I very rarely do design work for others anymore these days. I suppose I’ve taken being my own boss to new heights?!

Whilst I understand not everyone’s on the same level (I like to think that I’ve done my time). I’m curious to hear thoughts on this. Opinions, experiences etc. Leave them in the comments below!

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Justin Fox

I’m the founder of Zen Garage, Australian INfront, JDM Style Tuning and VWGolf.net.au. I like to create things. I’m into everything Cars, Bikes and Design. In the 80′s I was into skating, mountain biking, and metal.

7 Responses

  1. Youngy Reply

    As a designer you should probably expect the client to make changes. If they are paying you then they don’t need to trust you as a designer.

    They just need to be happy with what they get post their changes etc.

    Sounds like you are too attached to your designs – or too arrogant.

  2. Whoshot Reply

    With the logic above, the client should design it and just hire a builder.

    Most people don’t know how to design and can only discuss others work in post. Saying things like, if I would have done this, and the like. When in reality they needed some one with talent to give them the work to talk about in the first place, due to lack of talent or balls.

    If the client is an artist on the other hand….

  3. Ryan Reply

    I’ve worked in digital advertising for 10 years now, starting life as a designer and moving on to more of a Creative leadership style role. Honestly I think that had I remained designing all day I would have quit long ago.

    I fully understand your mindset with this, continually having people with no prior knowledge of a practice making big calls that shapes the end result of a piece of work that hand on heart, you as the designer are not really happy with. Not happy to see it go live, not happy to put it in your folio or put your name to it. I’d say in my early years this would happen to 7 of 10 pieces as it took a while to learn how to argue your reasoning in clear and agreeable manor, allowing the client to feel like they had had a hand in the final results – effectively that’s all they want, to take it to their superior and be able to say ‘I did this, it’s good because of me’ – and sometime it’s better to let them have what they think is their say, and just be happy that your design is how you want it to be.

    I have been known to design something how I feel is ‘correct’ and then change the colours, knowing that my know-it-all client will ask to change them to the ones I really want… Feels good inside!

    My new challenge is that as a Creative Director, I’m becoming more and more aggravated with how this superficial industry of advertising is a giant machine that allows an overpaid media industry to continually feed itself… Maybe is a personal thing but the feeling of coming to work everyday and trying to change the brand of toothpaste or instant coffee people use, is fully soul destroying. I’m currently in the process of trying to set up a community that empowers Creatives that work in advertising to try and guide their clients into ideas that use their brand money to make an actual difference in the world, i.e the American Express campaign that started small business Saturday, or Virgin Mobile’s ‘a meal for a meal’…

    Would be interested to hear your thoughts.

    • Justin Fox
      Justin Fox Reply

      Bang on with the notion of a client feeling like they’ve gotten their money’s worth by chipping in feedback, and seeing you change it. IE: They feel better that they didn’t just approve your initial designs, and feel better for making you work harder. They’re also happy that it becomes more of a collab, one that they feel better with (but sadly it compromises your design).

      In regards to changing the world… that’s 100% respectable, but trying to do it through/with corporates?! The thought of the amount of red tape just freaks me right out!

      • Ryan Reply

        Sure, I get the concern for red tape etc and fully agree it’s an issue. My point is (and I’m stepping away from design a bit here) that as Creative thinkers that guide the output of a brand, and therefore what they spend their money on, do we not have a duty as human beings to try and guide that money in a direction that does something good? Do we really need our names on Coke bottles? Or would that money have been better saved for the launch of Coca-Cola ‘Life’ with some huge ‘green’ campaign helping the agricultural landscape of a country? It’s a much bigger conversation and an example out of thin air, I appreciate that – but even from a brand / corporates perspective, that would do more positive than negative to their image.

        I feel like I’ve thread jacked… you initial post just pushed my buttons, in a good way. The first comment on this article is the best… I tell my architect what to do and change, because with my complete lack of training I’m sure that balsa wood can get the job done.

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