Hit 15 revisions on a single logo project and finally saw the pattern

I had a client in Austin ask for 15 rounds of tweaks on their logo. The first 10 were tiny color shifts, the last 5 were total direction changes. I realized belatedly that they didn't actually know what they wanted and were just hoping I'd guess it. Has anyone else noticed that after a certain number of revisions the client's feedback gets more vague instead of more specific?

2 comments

2 Comments

josephb351d ago

Honestly that's the worst. I had one where after 12 rounds they literally said "make it pop more" and I wanted to scream. They get so lost in their own head they can't even tell you what's wrong anymore.

the_sage1d ago

I was just reading about this thing called "design by committee" and how it kills creativity... @josephb35 your story about the 12 rounds totally reminds me of that. Someone was saying that when clients can't articulate what they want, they start using vague terms like "pop" or "make it fresh" because they don't actually know what's wrong. It's like they're hoping you'll read their mind or something. I swear half the time they just want to feel like they contributed something to the process, even if it's just making you redo the whole layout for no reason.