Had an inkling about a project that came through my studio recently, and my initial feelings about it are looking as though they are going to pay off. I’m not mad, I just knew something was going to require tweaking, but didn’t know what, exactly, until after I had gone through the whole thing at least once. And it may just come down to the client wanting to add or subtract materials now that they’ve had some time to think about it, now that it’s out of their hands. Like realizing a statement you triple checked was off, but only after you’ve hit send. Nothing to be mad at. It happens to the best of us. With any luck it’ll be simple changes that make the item better as a whole. That’s worth it, on my end.
I haven’t lived, and breathed this event for a year. It graces my desk for a week to ten days, and then POOF! gone. So I welcome edits that make it a stronger document. Also since the client knows the audience better than I do (for this sort of study) I won’t knock them for having strategic image replacements needed, in order to thread the needle to achieve better, or more funding in the future. If you know who you’re playing to, you know how & when to pander just enough to elicit a positive emotional response. You’re the expect, I’ll follow your lead. I’m at your disposal.
I felt that type of interaction coming when I looked deeper into the study because it does NOT follow many of the structures of projects I have done which came before. When there’s an outlier like this you have to know going in, that it WILL require additional massaging to make every one happy. That’s ok. You do this stuff long enough and you get a sense of when that’s going to happen. I sensed it. It happened. All good. That’s learned in place, on the job type knowledge. Institutional knowledge that you would be hard pressed to write down in a manual.
As an aside: That’s the type of on the job learning that gets raises, and then gets you let go once your salary is too high and the C Suite wants to cut costs. But with it goes the unwritten in situ learning you carried, and then folks don’t plan for these additional steps, deadlines get missed, clients become angered, and jobs get sent away to other places. But I digress. That’s just an anecdote. See how easy a cost cutting measure can have wider, and farther reaching knock on effects!?! Do you see it now? Ha! Again, I digress.
So Thursday is here, and freezing rain is on the way. Might have to put tomorrow’s dog walk on hold. No biggie. Better safe than sorry. In other news a good portion of the middle east is trading missiles and destruction with one another. That’s not good. We celebrated a birthday recently which is nice. Closer to 50 than 40 now, which is frightening to think about. Both kids will be full blown teenagers by the time I turn fifty. Yikes!
Greatwall Studios Graphic Design 