When doing client work there is a fine line between what the client wants and what we, as designers, would like to deliver; balanced on that line is what the client truly needs, and achieving it takes more than talent – it takes self-restraint and great communication skills.

Every designer has, at some point, been faced with that client who has a need to micromanage every aspect of the design, who relentlessly attempts to relegate the designer to the same role one would a keyboard or a mouse. This is a talk about the design process, about the pitfalls that lie in bowing to the client’s wants instead of tirelessly seeking the answer to their needs, and about the other fine line in this equation – the one between subservience and ego.