A short YouTube monologue by Christina Hall (brand and web designer) describing how designers and clients can misunderstand subjective descriptors like “luxury” and “elegant.” She explains that multiple interpretations exist, miscommunication is built into the creative process, and that when clients dislike work the typical response is to revise, though she has experienced both constructive and problematic negative feedback.
Chapters
If you've ever worked with a designer or a service provider and you absolutely hated what they delivered to you, this is how you tell them that you're dissatisfied with their work. I am a brand and web designer and so I experienced this. Not a lot, but it happens. One thing I think people forget about the creative field is that there's a million different ways. There are a million different ways to interpret different things. For example, I will get a lot of the time people will tell me they want a luxury elegant look. But luxury and elegant can look and feel a million different ways. So how am I to know exactly what you mean by elegant and luxury versus what I feel elegant and luxury looks like versus what a hundred of my other clients have thought elegant and luxury looks like? It is inevitable that sometimes we are not very good at expressing what we believe elegant and luxury feels like and therefore I'm going to misinterpret what I do. It happens and it's completely built into my process. In the event someone dislikes what I've created for them, that we go back to the drawing board. But I have been on the receiving end of both good negative feedback and horri.