For “Make the logo bigger”

- all illustration credit goes to Alisha Jensen – you can check out her Insta, Pinterest and Society6 pages for more goodness.

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I know a lot of designers who want to get their opinion heard.
They want to talk to a client and have the client respect their thoughts on a piece.
They want to recommend their best approach to a client – and have it considered.

But most designers aren’t even at the table.
The feedback will come from an account manager.
Or directly from the client.
A client who won’t ask them. But will tell them what to do.

I’m fortunate enough to be asked.
Daily. At the cafe when we connect to a small business owner.
And at the board meeting when the CEO says to me “Kish, what do you think?”.

I want to share some skills that will help you get heard.

And skills that will get you an invite to that table.

1. Your knowledge.
As much as I like the visual world of “cool design” and Pinterest and gorgeous outcomes. I also appreciate the world of conversation that goes on behind the output.

I know simple things -

• a column layout saves more space than a full width page layout
• a novel is designed at a specific page width because that is far as we can expect readers to follow text in a line. It’s also one of the few scenarios where reading justified text is a-ok.
• a logo doesn’t always get made up as signage or embroidered onto a t-shirt. You can have a support logo which does that for you
• orange is a friendly colour while blues and reds are corporate colours which stand for professionalism – hence why we see them in so many flags
• a serif font is better for printed material reading, while a sans-serif font is better for digital reading
• if USA used Garamond instead of Times New Roman, they could save bajillions in ink costs

I’m sure you probably know a lot of these things as well.
But I doubt that your client manager knows them.
I doubt that your account manager knows them.

They just don’t understand why you chose the font you chose.

2. Your opinion.

Once you arm yourself with this kind of knowledge. It’s like an Issey Miyake bag.
You need to USE it.

Every time you use it, it says “I know my shit and that is why I’m worth it”.
That is why you NEED me at the table. 
That is why you NEED me to save this project. 
That is why your brief is in safe hands.

This is the biggest shortcoming I’ve seen in designers.
They’ll bitch till noon about the client not listening or respecting them.
But they never think about how they can gain that respect.
How to create value around their knowledge base.

Because they are too chicken to share their opinion.
And because they feel it should happen overnight.

It doesn’t.

It’s taken me years to get heard. In the meantime, I contributed to a book, developed a great LinkedIn, Twitter and blog following. I connected to people who then told other people about me.

I built a personal brand for myself.
Then people gave a shit about what I had to say.

I’m not saying you need to do all of these things.
But you need to make your personal brand worth it.

There is no right and wrong. It’s an opinion. It’s a way of thinking. That is what you’re sharing. Don’t feel like you need to be 100% right. You’re right based on the experience, education and knowledge you possess.

3. Your grace.

I know you. I get you. Sometimes you just want to use Bebas cause it’s gorgeous. Or a streak of hot pink cause it looks rad. Or calligraphy because you can.

I 100% understand this.

But this isn’t about you. Unless it’s your personal project.

This is about a company. A business. A new brand. A digital project.
There is money on the line. Time. Feedback. Critical feedback.

There are a lot of factors.

So say your piece. And respect the piece of another.

See the project beyond yourself. See it for everyone involved. And understand that appreciating your clients concerns and really factoring them in, is you doing the best you can do.

Be graceful about it. There will be douches. There will be bossy people. But there will also be people who place ALL their trust in your hands. And be grateful for those.

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