Hasta La Ideas

Michael Bierut’s Hack2Work Special piece was a big hit in the tweetspace last week, but in case you were too busy catching up on this or that, here’s a nice taste:

There is one surefire way to make your client’s logo bigger without actually making their logo bigger, but it is reserved for only the most desperate situations. You must have exhausted all other possibilities. Moreover, you must have run out of any patience, respect for your client, and scruples. Here’s how it works.

You present the work with the too-small logo, and the client explains that its size must be increased. Don’t argue. Instead, listen very carefully, nodding, drawing out detail and nuance. Make it clear that this is a matter of importance and complexity, and the client is right to focus on it. Finally, announce, as if it’s just then occurring to you, that there is only one way to get this exactly right, to make sure that the client is absolutely pleased. You will prepare not one, but five options, changing the size of the logo on each one just ever so slightly. In this way, and in this way alone, can a reliable decision be made. Take my word for it: no client will turn down this offer, since the one thing these kind of people like more than arguing about logo sizes is looking at lots of options. Take the work away and promise to return to the next meeting with this exercise ready for review.

>> Read the rest of Michael’s piece here
>> Check out more more shortcuts & advice from Hack2Work: Essential Tips for the Design Professional

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