Most people (or end users, as theyre called in the trade) dont think twice about how much time and effort goes into making a design both aesthetically pleasing and enticing enough to get them in the door. For that matter, neither do the clients. What the graphic designer creates; what the web designer codes; the thousands of hours spent to get everything just right; all of it is designed to get the customer to do more than spend ten seconds looking at it before he or she moves on to the next thing. Its no longer enough to specialise in just print, video or web; a design shop has to embrace all three and more. You not only have to create products smart enough to get peoples attention, but also dumb it down enough so that people dont turn away. You have to deal with clients who think they have what the world wants and that you can pave the path to their door, but they balk at paying you until that goal is achieved and they have their gold-plated keys to Porsches, personal Lear Jets and a suite at the Ritz-Carlton. So, for the creative advertising people and the techno-geeks that support them, heres an account of the banes of their existence. Perhaps the end users will understand you better now... but it's highly doubtful.
