i believe it was jean paul sartre who said:

“hell is clients”

just kidding.

i think there are a lot of reasons for this.

1/ they are generally paying a good deal of money, for which they
are somehow responsible (their job or the success of the company)

2/ design has an inherently subjective component, so there will
always be room for debate (as opposed to other professional
relationships, e.g. if my construction manager tells me i need a
certain kind of concrete to carry the load, i am unlikely to argue)

3/ design - especially with the advent of DTP - always feels
somewhat “graspable” by clients, i.e. the feeling that they can
do it themselves - it’s often difficult to quantify the value of
our experience, expertise, and intuition.

sometimes i think about finding a small, oceanfront town in italy
where there is an old man who builds boats by hand and has no
apprentice because no one wants to do it anymore. i’d become his
apprentice and make wooden boats by hand and drink a lot of wine.

then i wouldn’t have to deal with clients anymore. ;)

Where did I recently read that all designers want—not fame or fortune—is to be respected.

If someone comes to us for design, we expect them to treat us as any they would any specialist and to know that what decisions we make are in their best interest and also that of the design.

She’s a fickle mistress, this imaginary boundary. The one between doing what is right for the design and fighting for it to all ends or doing what the client wants and turning a blind eye to what isn’t appropriate for the design. Some designers are graced with the ability to make the client believe that they’re making all the decisions, but in reality the designer is making all the decisions. Alas, we aren’t all blessed with this soothsayer talent.

I feel your pain.

There’s usually 2 issues:

What the client wants vs. What they need

To resolve this, I think there are 3 necessary roles:

The designer
The client
The person that can communicate between the two

From experience, I think that 3rd role is the key, and is often what is missing. For better or worse, that role is often best played by a person with good ’sales’ personality.

Hmm, I think in that town you will find someone who tell you to write something like “Mari del Sud” in Comic Sans 720pt just on the stern of your wooden boat.

while jarrod says, “design has an inherently subjective component,” it’s possibility more important to remember that it primarily has an objective component at its heart. to some degree, we’re making shirts, and we have to keep in mind that we’re not the ones who will have to wear them. the client will be wearing them, and they are the ones who should feel the most comfortable.

Indeed, that 3rd role I mentioned really requires someone who is good at communicating and bringing the objective criteria to the forefront, and then explaining the subjective criteria in a way that’s easy for both sides to digest.

i think a good designer does those things.

personally, the more layers i have between me and the
client, the more difficult i find it.

@Daniele-
i will provide the boats as is, and if they want to
carve Comic Sans in, they will be free to do so. =)

I’ve found great designers aren’t necessarily great salespeople, and vice versa. Thats in general, of course.

KNOWING when you need to bring in another person to fulfill are particular role is the key.

That’s kinda how the print house I used is set up, I don’t ever speak directly to the printing staff, just one woman. She’s an account consultant, the middle person between me and the printers, if I have any questions she fields them all. I haven’t been in a position to yell at her, but I imagine that she’d do a very good job of smoothing things over and calming me down.