In my third visit I went into Freedom House expecting to strictly do general labor again. I already had a sketch ready to come to fruition for Freedom House, so I was not looking for creative inspiration as I was during this last visit. For the first half of our visit we cleaned the bathrooms and the dining room. What was different this time was for the second half of our visit we met with Lydia who gave us some suggestions for our creative project. Mainly she wanted us to design a logo for the gallery of hope and create flyers. Even though I already knew what I was going to do and was not relevant to what she was asking, I still listened and took this as an opportunity to learn. During this time I gained insight on the human condition and what it might look like working with a client.
During the past few years I’ve heard over and over again someone saying I’m not creative or artistic. I find this to be terribly untrue. People are very creative and artistic. Sure, if you pick up a pen for the first time and try to create a hyper realistic illustration it is unlikely that it will be a masterpiece, but like anything art takes practice. What makes art a particular challenge is when you do fail it is permanent and visual and at times it can be discouraging, but if people accept that it is ok to fail and use there failure to drive them to create better stuff then eventually through practice and time one can create a masterpiece. When we were meeting with Lydia she kept saying she was not creative or artistic in any way. I beg to differ. She definitely had an opinion on what she thought was a good or bad logo. I feel that she kept saying that our of fear of being judged by us who are art students. This self-deprecation seemed like a form of self-defense in the face of anxiety.
This meeting with Lydia gave me a keen insight on what it would look like to work with a client. She did not know what she wanted which makes coming up with a design a challenge. What Lydia did know was that she wanted something different. She gave us examples of designs from the past few years of what she thought was not successful or moderately successful. Through this, I learned that clients may or may not give you a lot of direction. That being said it is up to us as designers to do some research on the organization or event and accurately create a design that encompasses their mission and purpose.
