Friday Chuckle
My writing chum Mike Sieber wrote a great rant about logos recently on his Adventures in Copywriting web log. Go on – read it. I’ll wait….
What made me laugh is that this is the same frustrating scenario we’ve all faced at one time or another. We have clients who, for whatever reason, focus their energies on one aspect of a project. Usually, it’s the wrong aspect. Sure, a nice logo is important, but if you aren’t clear in what you’re selling, it’s not really going to be much more than a cool graphic taking up space. Mike’s frustration is echoed by all. We’ve all faced the “I need the words ‘strategic partnership’ in the copy at least three times” requests. In these cases, it’s tough steering a client in the right direction – they’re fixated on what they deem to be the most necessary part of their project.
That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. For the man who wanted sales letters, and an envelope to go with, I tried explaining that too much copy on the outside of an envelope will cause that envelope to hit the trash can faster than the rest of the mail. No one wants to be screamed at. And an overabundance of copy is like a toddler stung by a bee – it demands tons of attention from people eager to flee the noise.
Sometimes the client wins. As it should be, for this is their project. You can either advise and let it go or advise and drop the project if it’s against your better judgment to continue. Just get your concerns written down should that client come back at you with accusations of incompetence once that nasty project with all its flaws comes up against the real-world critics.
Yep, yep, I’ve experienced this little gem before. Once, and the project ended up falling through anyway b/c the guy just couldn’t figure out how to communicate with my ANYTHING he wanted other than that one thing he kept obsessing over.
good idea to put one’s concerns in writing. thanks for the tip!
Thanks Lori!