officially spring?
According to the calendar, it is officially Spring. That means nothing in the Colorado mountains.
Spring at higher elevations may not look the same as Spring at sea level.
Ok, so ski resorts are closing up shop, and there are more days of concentrated sunshine. The daytime temperatures can rise in the (sweltering, lol) 60s and 70s. It can be amazing weather. But it can also be massive dumps of heavy, wet snow. The good news is that it melts quickly. The bad news is that while my Florida relatives are oohing and ahhing over their outdoor, colorful blooms, my plants will not set foot outside until after Mother’s Day.
The reason? Well, just when you think you’re over the snow and the weather is sunny and gorgeous, you’ll relax a little, forget that your plants are sunning on the front deck, and BAM…it snows overnight and everything dies.
I both love and hate Spring at 8500 feet.
What’s the point? Well, just as the calendar tells me it’s Spring now, and the big box stores put away snow shovels and bring out the pool toys, they are not necessarily in tune with my local vibe.
Design can be that way.
If you don’t take the time to get to know your clients, and you assume one formula works for each project, you may find yourself with dead plants and a tiny sand castle shovel to scoop away a foot of heavy snow.
You’ve got to listen.
I may think I know the newest trends and the best words to improve SEO, but if I don’t take the time to get to know my client, I may be completely missing the mark. Whether they know good design or where the Oxford comma goes doesn’t matter…they’ve most likely hired ME for those things…they have a business. They are invested in that business. They have expertise in their field. I need to listen.
Design is always a partnership. Art may not be. Hear me out…
If I want to create something artistic, and I don’t care who likes it or not, I can do that. I can ignore other opinions and go out on a limb. I can create simply for the joy of doing so. If I want to create design, however, I have to pay attention, in some measure, to others’ opinions. I have to be willing to create something I may not completely love, for the larger picture of capturing someone’s attention or selling a product. I definitely have expertise and opinions, and I hope that my client would value my input. But at the end of the day, I am not creating for just me. Design is art with a purpose. I don’t think that I have to give up my values or “sell out,” but I do have to acknowledge and accept the purpose of the design.
Spring is here, indeed, though it may look different from my living room window than yours. My goal is to be a designer that recognizes differences like that and uses them wisely to make a great design.