Design Challenges

At what point does a designer becomes a salesman? Well, today I found out that in order to be a successful designer you have to be a great salesman. I have suspected this for many years, but today I came to this final conclusion and realization.

The client is often happy if you present a design better than what they previously had or have shown you. Easier said than done. I recently redesigned my company's Web site and everybody has been ranting and raving about how great it is, this and that... blah blah blah; until today when one of our sponsor threaten to pull out because they now have to share placement with other companies where they use to be number one on the list.

Excuse me, but what they failed to tell us is that they are now running a competitive campaign against ours and the numbers have decrease from our part. Well, sherlock, what were you expecting, double the traffic for a saturated market of the same viewers?

As a designer you have to be prepare to explain why your design is the way it is and why it is better than what they think it should be, after all we are trained professionals. You don't see me running into my dentist office telling him that he should fill cavities with crystalize sugar because it will be sweeter for the patient and it'll look nicer than some silver filling.

BTW - Bagels weren't that great today :-( (see previous post for details)