Designers: don’t let emotion take over

Last week I was in the logo designing stage of a brand identity. I had gone through my normal process already and it was now time for the best part.

The Logo Designing stage.

This story isn’t about how to design a logo, but how to deal with what happens when a concept is rejected.

I usually do just one concept. The information I gather at the beginning of the project is enough to help create a logo that hits differently.

As a result, I’ve never actually had to deal with rejection like this.

I was on a tight deadline to deliver the logo and yet, I had no ideas.

I had scribbled a few marks here and there on a sheet of paper but non seem to fit what I wanted— minimalism.

I continued trying with no result.
I decided to sleep on it. Keeping the sheet of paper by my bed because that’s when I get ideas like crazy.

Still, it didn’t come.
So, the next day, I kept the paper aside and tried some concepts from there on screen until I arrived at a point where I felt a bit happy.

I thought, this could work!
Not being satisfied with what I had done, I kept on experimenting with this concept that I felt a bit happy with and then it hit me.

It was perfect.
It was modern.
It was minimal.
I was on top of the world, because I had designed this killer logo.

Quickly I wrapped up the logo presentation, as I was running out of time already, and I sent it over.

Three days later, I got a response.

I could sum it up to: “the logo is good but…”

The worst thing any designer would want to hear. At that time, I felt angry, I felt unappreciated, I felt like I’m not good enough.

This is where I wanted to get to by telling you this story.

The first time isn’t always going to hit the nail. I read, if you want to be creative, you can’t be certain.

It’s our job to know how to manage feedback.
I can’t say it shouldn’t hurt, but don’t let your emotions take over.

I get that it’s your work, but don’t get too attached to it.
Even the best designers still do revisions when needed.

I got myself from feeling emotional about the demise of “my killer logo” to feeling like I can do this again.

I got that sense of excitement from before.

After receiving feedback, I get a video from the client explaining what they had in mind. I watched it and I thought, I did come across this somewhere(my sheet of paper).

Instead of getting emotionally down because my work got turned down, I asked myself; “what would Abi Connick say to me right now?”

Her smile, her advice, her truthfulness, all hit me at once.

In a second, I heard her say “Submitting your first logo design to a client won’t always work out, and that’s just the way it goes.”

Then I snapped out of feeling bad because I knew that this is okay.
Not everything you do is going to get accepted the first time.

Take a breath and think, don’t let emotions take over when your work gets turned down.

In another context, the question I asked myself was “what would my heroes think about this situation?”

Answer: It’s normal, it happens even to me once in a while.

The point I’m making is, as a designer, don’t let emotion control you.
Be logical, use emotion when needed.

Bye!