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Designer: These nine logo's come after the intro text...

Me: Wait... nine? How do we know the number of company logo's in that section is always nine?

Designer: Well that looks the best.

Me: That may be, but we're working with CMS content here. We cannot be sure that this company works for exactly nine clients.

Designer: What do you mean?

Me: In general the idea is that a CMS allows a customer to determine that for themselves. That is kind of what a Content Management System does.

Designer: But shouldn't I, the Designer, be in control of that? Nine logo's simply looks the best!

Me (trying to cope with the fact this guy's formal education is a joke compared to his ego): The reality is that the client being able to determine his own content is the reason we make this website. We will have to take into account the actual number of items in the CMS may be less or more. We could paginate it or randomize it if you want to use that grid of nine.

Designer: I don't see why I can't determine that.

Me: Designing around those constraints is what my boss hired you to do.

Comments
  • 5
    "So, you own the website then? Can you pay us upfront?"
  • 2
    Definitely 9 logos, 9 is best. Later I am gonna watch Waupner.
  • 1
    Client will decide that nein-ther of the logos will make it.
  • 3
    The Fellowship of the Logos - nine companions!
  • 2
    @molaram I also am expected to answer the phone to technical questions from the client such as "why is my first logo falling off the page".

    That means this guy will get the short end of the stick because I'm hired to please the client, not some clown that was cheapest to hire :D
  • 0
    @M1sf3t Because 9 is a square number so that you can have 3x3 logos. 2x2 would be too little, and 4x4 too overwhelming.
  • 3
    @molaram I should send him exactly nine.
  • 1
    @M1sf3t Designers can be as specific as they want with me, I'll slap it together in a compliant fashion. I just wish they would understand what they are designing. They are supposed to be the creatives, yet a solution such as pagination or randomization is not even part of their vocabulary :/
  • 2
    @Fast-Nop @Inxentas
    1: large icon, company name below
    2-4: line (vertical, logo left, company name to the right)
    5: horiz line of 2 logos with horiz line of 3 logos below
    6: 1-2-3 Pyramid
    7-8: circle
    8-9: 3x3 square
    10+: 3x3 square that samples logos, or: multi-column table listing logo and names
  • 1
    @M1sf3t I agree. In my experience a big cause of confusion is that 2/3 of our design team doesn't design with the requested functionality in mind at all.

    When a customer updates a page and uses a long word, they might bitch about how the lines break off for 60 minutes. Yet when I ask for how an element should work with dynamic content IATA.... :/
  • 1
    @Fast-Nop I don't disagree with the visual aspect, a 3x3 grid never hurt anybody, right? Limiting content for the sake of not having to design navigation is what rubs me the wrong way here.
  • 1
    @molaram I'm guessing we'll go for 9 random ones per page load, so we don't have any bias due to ordering. Your idea would look the same if we'd randomize the order instead.
  • 0
    @molaram Lucky for me our CMS has an excellent API. Changing the order of items displayed is super easy compared to dealing with people that have no clue they are designing for a CMS :D
  • 0
    Client: I added one logo but it appeared 9 times.
    Me: I have someone who can explain better. *Gives him designer's phone number*
  • 0
    @molaram Oh yeah, story of my life. Or the one guy that requests a limited "cheap" feature, so you implement the quickest solution.

    From there it cascades into implementing incrementally more complex versions of the same thing, making it twice as expensive as when he had requested the "complete" feature from the get go.

    Glad I get paid by the hour.
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