Thursday, June 5, 2014

"No" is Not A Bad Thing

Working with an illustrator, layout artist, designer, graphics specialist, or whatever can be a lot of fun. After all, you’re working with someone who can help you get that dream piece of art for your living room, or that customized presentation for aclient pitch, or those perfect illustrations for that children’s book.

And isn’t it great when you find a really, really good artist … you know the one who takes your ideas and does exactly what you say? Doesn’t that artist make it all SO easy? No headaches, no mess, no fuss. Just your vision, delivered right into your Outlookin-box.

No doubt, you’re investing your hard-earned money and your limited time into working with that artist you’ve hired and you want THE absolute best possible result. After all, the end result is, well, the end result. And you want it to be perfect. You wantit to carry your message, make your statement, support your pitch, tell your story. So, an artist who just listens, says “Yes Ma’am” and gives you what you asked for is perfect, right?

Uh, maybe not.

Remember, you hired that artist because you are not an artist. You hired that artist because she or he has experience, expertise, insight and knowledge that you don’t have. That, and that artist’s proven talent, is why you’re opening your check book. So,as long as you’re paying, you want to be sure you get every penny’s worth of your hard-earned cash and you want the best final result. And no offense intended, since you’re not an artist, you probably haven’t thought of everything imaginable to achieve yourdesired result. After all, that’s what the artist is supposed to do. You want an artist who will ask questions, who will make suggestions, who will come up with a new angle that had never occurred to you before … you want someone who bring a creative sparkto the work. What you really don’t want (even if you ARE a control freak with a vision carved in stone) is an artist who is just an order taker, someone who is a flesh-and-blood interface between you and the computer, or the paintbrush, or the pencil.  You’re paying for that knowledge, that perspective, the experience and the ideas. So use them.

The bottom line is, if the designer you’re working with never has any suggestions, feedback or new ideas, and if he or she is just carrying out your directives, you’re not getting your money’s worth and you’re almost certainly not getting the best endresult.

OK … but what about that artist who makes every part of every project a battle? Well, I’ll address that in my next post …

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