Agreed. I always find it very difficult to get to a satisfactory point with in-house designs. I feel like you need a person within the organization to be designated as the internal "client." That person will then have no creative input until reviews to keep the ideas focused and on-target.
Posted by: John Rizzo 30 September 2008 at 8:16pm

I think part of what makes it difficult is that so many of us are (rightly) never satisfied and always want to keep making our designs better. So how can we settle on a design that will represent us for months or years to come?
Posted by: John Hawbaker 1 October 2008 at 2:56pm

Very true. I am yet to re-design my brand identity. First of all, stormed over by myriad possibilities, my mind finds it pretty hard channelling all of that into a feasible image and thus, it fizzles out, resulting into a creative block. Also, due to our perfectionistic tendecies, our artistic OCD, we'll just never be satisfied with whatever look we create, we'll just keep tuning and poking. I had ultimate freedom with a clients Identity and ended up creating a new look for free just because I didnt like the first look I made anymore although they loved it, but the second look was just incomparable. It was perfect. And they love it too. But I know in some months time I'll want to tweak it again and squeeze out a new golden egg. Thus with the creative freedom we have with ourselves, no clients telling us when to stop, and not driven by a paycheck (which mysteriously puts mileage on our creative juice) we should perhaps learn to delegate by hiring another designer or design agency to do our branding for us. But seriously, are we gonna pay another designer a couple of a hundred bucks for what we can do ourselves if not better?
Posted by: Tele Ogundeko 9 October 2008 at 2:17pm

I agree with all of you and would like to put my two cents in the pot. Basically, designing your own website is like someone asking you, what are you like? that is relative, and what we perceive of ourselves is never the same as those outside, we have fears and doubts and confidence and a lot of emotion put into it, it's personal, not business, and that just messes everything up; in some cases, the studios personality does not fit with the mainstream and needs adjusted, but... what to adjust? I am in the process of designing a couple of websites for small design firms in my area, they were hesitant at first, but once we got talking and they saw my vision of their studio, smiles started creeping up on everybody. Sometimes it's better to have someone else, from the outside show you how you are perceived and capture and print the best of it with a unique vision.
Posted by: Roc 24 October 2008 at 8:28pm