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it's fine

Today I tried, for the last time (hopefully, because I even wrote it down this time -- don't fucking do that again), to explain the following graphic design problem: 
a) Rushed work is bad work. When the client rushes the job, the design suffers. In fact, when the client is just floundering around, desperate and frantic and talking crap, then there's really no design at all -- just something thrown together, and pushed out the door.
b) Bad work is not worth doing. The point of the entire exercise is almost completely defeated -- shitty-looking work, smeared with errors. And that's all that people will see. 
c) Actually, bad work is more like pee. For the graphic designer, it's like having to take the last open seat on the bus, only to discover that it's still damp with pee -- and this isn't just disheartening, but now you have to sit in it, and anyone within sniffing distance will stay the fuck away. Because that's who you are now. The guy soaked in pee. And it doesn't matter that it's not your fault.
Actually, I never got a chance to say (c), because once the person I was telling this to heard the phrase "bad work", all they could talk about was how we should never produce bad work. Or how it's not bad work at all, if that's what the client wants. Or how it's really a communication problem. Or a teamwork problem. At which point I started saying, "Yeah, you're right. It's good. You know what? It's fine. It's fine. It's all good. I don't even know why we're talking about it. It's fine."
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  1. lissa9:53 pm

    sometimes it depends who you asks. but I agreed with you, it's not easy to do good work if you don't have the time to even think.

    although, there are times it cannot be help, that you have to rush even if you don't want to. sometimes I just give in and say, if this is the time given, then this is the result, like or not, this is it. no more tweaking, no more changes, that's it!

    or so I would say in my head since it's best not to offend clients if you want to eat.

    hope your day is going well.

    ReplyDelete

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