Commercial Art VS. Fine Art
| posted by Shawn DavisSo the other day we had a client ask for some changes to their project that…well, went against our better design judgement. We went through the customary defense of the design, why it works and why their idea was less than optimal in achieving the goals set for the piece. All that said, we did what the client wanted because we are Commercial Artists.
The term Commercial Artist was really used prior to the introduction of computers in the design world. This was back in the days when we were tradesman and what we did was a craft. Then came computers, desktop publishing and all the good and bad therein. Somewhere along the line the word “commercial” got dropped…and forgotten.
Now I’m all good with the name change, but the problem comes when designers forget. How many times have we all seen a designer making their masterpiece come before the goals of the project. “Oh, I saw this great technique in C.A.”, they’d say…or “I have been dying to use PMS 130 in a project, I’ll use it here.”
Ultimately we like to make our projects look as good as they can. We want them to be art. But at the end of the day this is supposed to be a business. We offer our professional opinion, the client takes that in and makes the final decision. I’m not saying to just cave on a design, but we do need to keep in mind that clients are renting our time and we can’t realistically explore every option under the sun.
There are some things you can do as a designer to minimize the stress associated with a difficult client such as writing a creative brief prior to any design work. Get the client to agree on the goals for the project and THEN do your designs. It’s much easier to explain how your design meets these goals…that you both agreed upon…than it is to simply present the creative.
I want to make my projects as cool as they can be. But I also understand that if I want complete creative freedom then I’ll work on my fine art projects at home.
I know that there is a lot more to be said regarding this topic, and I’ll probably write more about it in the future. I’d love to hear from other people about their experiences in this struggle.
