Although I’m not a frequent visitor to many design blogs or sites, I do try to poke my head in every now and then to try and keep my finger on the pulse of design styles and trends. Grunge styles, watercolor brushes, crazy fonts, the latest in gradient technology; it’s all fun to look at and mess with, but is it usable in the life of an actual website designer?
In fact, how much of the information contained on these design blogs is actually used in the real world of commercial designing? In the real world does style and design always matter most?
The answer in 99% of situations is no, and as a designer that is a sad truth. When I was in school I imagined the life of a designer being filled with clients who just put money on the table and said “Give me a website,” but the cold reality is that this isn’t the case. In the real world of Web Design designers are frequently required to work with one arm behind their back. Whether it be time restraints, budget issues, or even clients who have such a strong vision that they box the designer in, there are far more cases where a designer is asked to produce an image in a person’s head and not an image from the designer’s imagination.
For newcomers to the design business, this can be a slap in the face. The cold realization that you are not there to make something look good but rather there to please the customer can be a tough pill to swallow. This is why I draw a line between artists and designers. Artists have creative control over what they create. They operate only by guidelines they set for themselves. Designers, on the other hand, usually operate within predefined outlines. Clients typically have a vision of what they want, and it’s up to the designer to do the following:
- Have the client explain what they see in their head
- Extract from the client what they expect to have in the end
- Merge the client’s expectations with good design techniques
- Present the concept in a way that proves you met their requirements, but also shows your expertise in the field.
- Be ready to explain why you vetoed bad design ideas they presented, but always show you’re willing to “Try it their way”
This can be a lot to handle for a designer. You have to be a designer, psychologist, linguist, and sales man all in a single breath. You must know when to stand up and when to bend over. Simultaneously you have to be the client’s boss and their client.
For some this dichotomy is too much to handle and they choose one side. This typically makes them appear to be either an unrelenting design guru or a web philanthropist who wants to give away the next amazon.com for free. Both are dangerous labels.
As someone who has been involved in Web Design for over 10 years, has a degree in Communications, and has worked three years as a full time, commercial Web Designer, I’ve come to the conclusion that I enjoy the juggling of these roles. I feel that having only one aspect to my job would bore me, and that the excitement comes from having to work between the lines. This is where the fun happens.
The fun of being a designer is not in making a box with a black background because the client wanted it, the fun is giving them a black box with a slight gradient they never knew they wanted. Or a dark gray box with three rounded edges. Or a dark blue box with a faint background pattern. These are examples of when the job is not only fun, but exciting. Who knows, you may even find a place for a grunge brush.
Overall it’s a very interesting and rewarding process that occurs when designing someone’s website. And while it’s something that anyone with HTML knowledge can do, I believe that the truly great designers wear their design hat underneath their client helmet.
