"The Customer is Always Right."

I  received direction today on the Fiesta Medal which was the focus of my blog on February 4^th.

Believe it or not, the choice was not even a version that I submitted. The decision was to use the medal created last year and just change the date to 2011. I didn’t create this medal but I have the logo to set up the file.

This reminds me of other projects that I feel took a wrong turn. Of course that’s my opinion. As I mentioned in the earlier blog  “ in the end it isn’t my choice.”  I wanted to share a few other projects that fell off the deep end. But I’ll spare you and just share one.

First, let me add the images of last year’s medal and the one I preferred.

Six years ago, I was contracted to develop the materials for a United Cerebral Palsy fundraising campaign. The campaign’s theme was “Tapestry of Life.”  The logos went through so many versions from a diamond shaped cloth look to a silhouetted tree symbol inside an solid color oval that flowed out into the negative space. The client was attached to using the images taken of the people that benefitted from their programs.  Most of the time, I would say that’s the way to go because it is more compelling to see images of people. It gives a warm inviting feel which we used on the brochure. But I didn’t agree that the images needed to be used  in the logo. This type of logo is difficult to reproduce and has other limitations.  The logo I preferred was symbolic of fabric threads interlacing. This could be used on promotional items and had more flexibility on the sizes that it could be used without losing readability. The word, tapestry is what inspired me to create the “preferred logo.” I envisioned the interlocking strands in fabric that were symbolic of the many people that touched and made UCP what it had become in the City of Birmingham.  (UCP logos included below)

But in the end the client was happy and that’s what is important.