Pie in the Sky Design

If you’ve never heard the phrase, “pie in the sky” it was supposedly coined by an American man named Joe Hill in 1911 and was made popular during the second world war where it began to be used figuratively to refer to any prospect of future happiness which was unlikely to ever be realized.

About.com defines graphic design as: “the process and art of combining text and graphics and communicating an effective message in the design of logos, graphics, brochures, newsletters, posters, signs, and any other type of visual communication.”  I’m quite sure the basic definition is the same for web design, except for the usability and interface aspects.

Following along so far or are you asking the question, “What do pies in the sky have to do with design at all?”

Floating Islands

Say you’re fresh out of design school or have a natural talent and have decided to go into the profession of graphic design. You feel ready to take on the challenge of any project and work creative wonders for your upcoming clients. You have amassed a small portfolio that showcases just how creative you can be and flaunts your skills. You manage to land that first project and during that process the client has rejected every one of your fantastic and creative ideas because it, “doesn’t speak” to them, “doesn’t resonate” with their brand, “doesn’t communicate” their message successfully, or they simply can’t understand why you have created a marketing piece for a financial advisor’s website that has a floating island in the middle of the page with paint splatters, a vector office building and birds flying out of it.

This is pie in the sky design – a design that lets you happily explore your creativity and come up with an out-of-the-box concept for a client – that they’ll never use in a million years. And they’ll never use it because instead of actually paying attention, you have just made a pretty picture that doesn’t fit your client at all. Your design, like the pie in the sky, will never be realized. The worst part is if you don’t realize the reasons why it was an absolute failure in a real-word, business and user-interface situation.

If you don’t learn from a scenario like this, you will not evolve into a great designer. At worst, you’ll be upset at the client or discouraged that the client is holding you back from your full potential. Well guess what? Although I do not subscribe to, “the client is ALWAYS right” theory, I realized a long time ago that it is the client who is engaging and paying for the services of the designer. They are paying a designer for their expertise and skills to help visually market their company, product, service or themselves.

So what’s a poor, downtrodden design rock star to do?

If you feel like you’re just not getting the “right” clients or the “right” projects, you might need to change your approach. Until you get some of that real-world experience behind you, it’s hard to know where to start with clients and it’s hard to morph your pie in the sky ideals of design into concepts that are effective.

I recently had someone “critique” (and I use that word loosely) a web design we had done for a client. This particular client’s market consists mainly of teens and young adults who were already aware of the company (or rather the people behind it). We worked very closely with the client to create a finished piece that worked for them and that “spoke to” as well as entertained and engaged their market (for example, their message board is so successful that they had to be moved to a virtual dedicated server). The colors are bright, the graphics are fun and the layout is creative, but not to the point of losing visitors with obtuse or ambiguous navigation. The “critique” was that it was a horrible design that this person couldn’t imagine anyone ever wanting to look at – that it wasn’t “good design” at all. Unfortunately for them, they seem to have never been acquainted with working with real-world clients who need design solutions to meet their needs (not to mention the fact they gave their opinion, not a constructive critique, but I digress). A great, or even just a good designer will use their skills, expertise and talent to find a creative solution to whatever problem the client poses.

There is a way to make a floating island work, but you have to know when and you can’t circumvent one of the most important steps in the real-world design process …

Getting to Know Your Client

A lot of young or inexperienced designers have a tendency to want to jump right in and start creating. While this type of passion and enthusiasm is a great quality to have and will benefit you in the long term, you do need to stop and listen to your client. Get to know them and their business. Ask questions. Find out who their customers, viewers, etc. are and then find out all you can about that particular target market. Your floating island might work for a theme park or even a landscaping company, but it’s not going to get off the ground with a target market of folks who are 45-65 and looking for retirement solutions.

Have Pie … and Eat it Too

It is possible to use your full creative potential and realize project happiness. Take the pie out of the sky and share a slice of it with your client. Here’s how:

• Get to know your client, their business, product, or service as well as the target market they are trying to reach. Find out their goals and expectations. Explore their past – what’s worked and what hasn’t. Go on a fact-finding mission and do research on your own. This is actually part of the process folks, it’s not just making pretty pictures all day long.

• Once the process starts, don’t lock yourself away to create your masterpiece. Keep an open line of communication with your client. After really getting to know everything about them from point one you should be in a really good place to get close to the mark with your concepts. If you don’t, reevaluate and make sure to get good feedback from the client on why the design failed to meet their needs.

• Don’t be afraid to say no or to make suggestions – but back them up with solid explanations. If a client asked for blinking red text or a black background with bright white text on their website, you should know exactly why these things are rather unsavory in web design and explain why in language they can understand. This is also part of your job.

Over time, you will find ways to incorporate all of your best creativity. You will breathe life into the most “unexciting” projects through creative problem solving and your passion to design something that brings happiness to all parties involved. Good luck, and enjoy the process.

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