We’ve all been there: a client asks for a banal change, like making the headline a few points larger or increasing the size of his logo. Yet as designers we often find ourselves cringing at such seemingly straightforward requests. What does it really matter whether a headline is set in 24pt extra bold extended instead of 21pt medium? After all it’s just a little insignificant detail… right? But that’s exactly where the problem lies.
The greater part of our job as graphic designers (as with any craft) is paying attention to all those seemingly insignificant details, that put together those details create a greater whole.
Try telling that to the client (or anyone remotely sane for that matter)! Unfortunately its very hard to make someone appreciate your reasoning behind using 21pt type instead of 24pt simply because they often don’t see any big difference apart from the obvious. So we quietly agree and make the change out of fear for being seen as some sort of obsessive compulsive who thinks way too much over things that aren’t really important.
Colloquial Italian has come up with a very charming definition for such obsessions: pippe mentali otherwise known as mental blowjobs. Whereas most people would regard the term as slightly derogatory (to say the least) we believe it is something to be proud of. After all we’re in the business of mental blowjobs. We believe they’re important and work hard at obsessing over every detail of a project in order to create a greater whole. And what’s wrong with that!
As such we couldn’t help but smile when reading the correspondence between two eminent type designers over the development of a serif companion for the ubiquitous typeface Meta Sans by Erik Spiekermann. Talk about a mental blowjob! Not that we’re pouring scorn or making fun of this exchange, quite the opposite. This little gem is a beautiful example of dedicated professionals paying meticulous attention to the details of their craft. And while some people will regard it as overindulgent obsession, we think its something to aspire to.
So have a read. If you’re a designer you’ll take pleasure in viewing the behind the scenes of a piece of quality graphic design, mental blowjobs and all. And if you’re a client you’ll gain an insight into the lengths we go to in order to make your project shine, even if you don’t understand them. And hopefully you wont ask us to change that headline to 24pt extra bold extended after all!
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