This is especially for Wildhoney whom I know reads reddit.

http://theoatmeal.com/story/reddit_how

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i <3 theoatmeal,

My personal favourite (I relate to it on so many levels):
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell

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Both are excellent reads, both are also true.

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Spoken like a guy who hasn't had these kinds of clients (either you're lucky, or you're well hidden). :)

I have had so many of those situations, "I LOVE IT! Can we change this?" to the point of dropping the graphical side of web design as a for-hire skill. Most people don't know what they want, and they don't know what is the best way to accomplish goals. As a designer you need to have the ability to say I'm sorry, but you're wrong (hopefully in a tactful way), otherwise I guarantee you will wind up wondering where you put that loaded gun...

The client is paying the designer for their expertise. If they don't want their moneys worth, than they should probably pick up a book and learn it themselves, simple as that.

I have more than once put out work that I refuse to have in my portfolio simply because I did what they want and knuckled under to what I knew was best for them. I don't do it anymore, and I'm making more money per job now, and my clients trust me.

The bottom line is the guy isn't an idiot. He sounds like one of us, and I can relate to it. There will always be times when a client pays you to do something you don't want to do, but that doesn't mean we can't have a good laugh at it privately amongst our own community.

Erm, Knight, clients pay designers, let me broaden that up - clients pay servicemen for any service that they themselves cannot or are not willing to preform.

Designers are creative and as such are tasked with the job of creating a design which will communicate the intentions and purpose of the business.

The client is effectively paying you to be creative. Unfortunately micromanagement to the nth degree stifles this creativity. Clients often do not know what they want but think they know how they want it. This is wrong, the latter cannot exist without the former.

In reality, clients generally only know what message and purpose they want the website not, as you're implying, what they want design wise. Yes, input it appreciated to better get a scope of the design should be like and ultimately the final decision belongs to the client but there is a line where the client is simply WRONG.

White, blues and light greys look nice together.
Red, Orange, Green & random splots highlighter pink purple do not.

From where am I pulling these assumptions? Dealing with clients on 6 and 7 figure projects every day at work.

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I suppose I can't speak for everybody here, but my clients pay me for more than just coding. They pay me for my experience, and knowledge of what works and what doesn't. Maybe I'm weird like that?

Oh and I would never suggest laughing at a client, or ridiculing them in any way. As a consultant, agency, or freelance whachamacallit, the ability to talk to a client is nearly as important as the work you can produce. I've spent hours on the phone discussing projects with people, for free, to land the next gig. I've been introduced to new technologies that I might not have discovered otherwise as a result of listening to them. At the same time I've had to tell quite a few that certain concepts of theirs are a bad idea and why. I've never lost any clients from doing this either.

The guy isn't an egotistical ass. He's just another guy who has made an exaggeration out of the kind of client we've all had to deal with, and fear the most. Take it for what it is, a good clean joke.

Quick question for you; How many clients of yours have gone to college for internet marketing? interactive media design? Spent endless hours reading books, following blogs and reading online documentation? Hell, how many of them have taken color theory?

I rest my case.

But however they do if the site is to be usable and accessible.

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