If it’s ugly, blame the designer. Not the client.

Making beautiful work matters to design legend, Saul Bass*, and it matters to me.

“You can get much more quickly to an answer if you don’t worry about those things [making it beautiful]. It costs every designer money to make it beautiful. It means you have to spend more time, you have to futz with it, you have to noodle, you have to push, you have to pull, you have to try, you have to do. And that’s all money. You’re eating up your budget. But, that’s a commitment you either make, or you don’t make.”

— Saul Bass

Watch the full 2-minute  clip here:

I found this video clip via Jacob Cass’s blog over at Just Creative Design. View his post here.

Family and friends always ask why I don’t just leave a design project alone once it hits that “good enough” level. It looks fine. The client would be satisfied. But, it’s not beautiful. Yet.

Those extra steps are for me. Sure, the client benefits from it … but wanting and needing to take the extra steps between “good enough” and beautiful is why I’m in business for myself. It’s why I come to work each day.

Clients hire designers to take care of the aesthetics. We’re the experts. It’s up to us to make it beautiful.