Thoughts on Design

I found an interesting post by the Grammar Girl’s called Correcting Other People’s Grammar today. One aspect of graphic design that is always underestimated by designers and clients alike is corrections. Clients always think that their supplied copy is perfect, graphic designers know better. Graphic designers know that our design is flawless, customers disagree. Grammar Girl’s suggestions for making grammar corrections could just as easily be applied to getting corrections done on graphic design projects.

In any other case, you must ask yourself if the person you wish to correct would actually like to be corrected. If the answer is”no”, then you should keep it to yourself. One exception to this is if you are putting together a work product, and there is a grammatical error that would make you or your company look bad. In this case, you should just suggest the edit and your reasoning behind the correction and refrain from delivering a grammar lesson.

Whether you use this method or another, there will always be corrections. It’s the nature of the business. Being prepared for them, and dealing with them in an organized an appropriate fashion will save yo time, and clients. Sure, clients don’t want to be corrected, but they don’t want to look bad either. It may be awkward pointing out a problem to a client, but it’s better to do it yourself before the project is completed, than to have someone else inform the client of it after it’s completed.