Back to the Drawing Board

We recently shared our designs with a client ahead of the deadline. After seeing what we had been working on, the client gave our AE some feedback, saying they liked some elements used by a few different designers, and wanted to incorporate them together into one design.

After investing so much in my first design, this was a bit of a hard blow for me. I looked over all the elements I had worked so hard to perfect, and realized I may have to scrap them completely. This was such a juxtaposition to what we have spent the last four years doing: drafting and completing assignments to receive a grade and some feedback that would never actually be applied to our work. I was at a complete loss of how to start over.

I came into class this week feeling defeated. And then, our fearless leader shared some wisdom that struck a chord inside me. He shared a story of another designer who spent time on design after design for a client, only to have them change their mind throughout the process.

Her advice to approaching the next draft: "Think of it as a brand new project."

Those words resonated deeply, shaking loose the fear and frustration that had taken root in me. I realized that this was no longer the project I had taken on initially, but something that had evolved into a more complex, developed, precise idea. Her feedback was not critical, but visionary. It saw the strengths in our designs, and saw how much stronger they could be. She was not condemning our efforts - she was offering us the opportunity to do better.

Jordyn Cooke

Creative at Fourth Avenue Design

jbcooke@stcloudstate.edu