Just like the song by Andy Williams
Where do I begin, to tell the story of how painful this could be... Where do I start ?
I am talking about how painful "MIND READING" can get if you don't do your scouting properly... today I'd love to talk commissioned design work for wedding invitations as there is a big misconception when it comes to defining the job of the designer againts the bride's expectation.
Every morning after my cuppa coffee, I take a breath... (long one...) and rush my self to open and read messages from all my brides ("mis novias" les llamo) queuing with a bunch of requests to change some details or even the complete graphic work (which usually takes a few days to develop) and that is fine with me, that's our job right?
I just sometimes don't know how to make them aware of all the work that is behind each graphic proposal and the importance of defining what they want before wasting precious time and resources designing something they are not even sure about...
So through the years I've learned to guide them through the creative design process as I now understand that it is not their duty to know a thing about designing a wedding invitation right? This is the first time (most cases) they are getting married...
So if this could help anyone... my action plan goes usually like this :
1: Collect all the info and take notes about the event... wedding theme, concepts, colours, textures and the overall message that they want to transmit to guests ( like minimal, luxurious, relaxed and so on )
2: Ask them for a couple of inspiration images or if there is something that they know for sure is exactly what they're after...
3: Create a WhatsApp group with the bride the groom, me and everyone involved in the decision making to avoid blaming on the "mother in law" or "the fiancé" for dramatic changes... "oh sorry my fiancé's mother wants something completely different, can we please do everything from scratch?"
...and only once I have all these 3 gathered I will put my hands to work!
My best advice is: Don't ever play "The Mind Reader" you rather dig deep, scrutinize every single detail of what they have in mind... and ask for the actual meaning of ambiguous words; for example if they ask for something "super classy and elegant" then you ask: "Could you please send me an image of what ELEGANT means to you?" and then you might be surprised at how many meanings a single word can have from bride to bride...
Good luck with that!
love
dk
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