

Freelancers should grow some balls - MrAlmostWrong
http://alpha.drawar.com/posts/Freelancers-should-grow-some-balls

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chrisclark1729
Yeah, because there's nothing better than working with someone who thinks they
know your business better than you do after being there for 5 minutes.

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_delirium
I'm not sure many people who aren't already as famous as Paul Rand could
deliver that Paul Rand ultimatum and still get business, though.

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bherms
I'm not a freelancer (anymore), but this applies to agencies as well.
Unfortunately it's not my call at this point, but there have been several
instances where we should have put our foot down and told the client that
we're the experts and we're giving them something that will produce results.
This can be hard though for some people to grasp. In several industries the
customer is always right, but in ones like this, the professionals are
generally always right.

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Encosia
On the other side of the table, giving in to that kind of swagger is
dangerous. Especially with something as subjective as design, that dynamic
clouds your judgement. Once you've accepted that the designer knows _all_ ,
your internal need for consistency will drive you to accept whatever they come
up with and defend it against valuable outside feedback.

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sosuke
I loved that little story about Steve Jobs and Paul Rand in the middle. If you
take control of your projects you'll likely be happier for it in the end
because you'll feel that what you've created is the best each and every time
you start a new project.

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mattmanser
I totally disagree with this article.

I always think of a web designer's site like the clothes seen on the catwalk
of fashion, they show the trends but no-one in their right mind would wear
them.

The clothes for the normal people copy the patterns and embellishments but are
still functional clothes.

Client websites actually have an obvious menu system, clear messages of what
their business actually does and sells, instead of a pretty bird flying around
the screen that takes you 20 seconds to figure out it's actually the menu
(exaggeration, but you know what I mean).

And that explains the difference, not that the designers have no balls.

