In order to get along, it’s my belief and experience that:

Designers (in this type of situation) need to learn how to pre-qualify their clients better, install policies for those things that constantly go wrong, and move on to blaming their process rather than blaming the client. (remember.. You’re the one that said ’sure’ to the project.)

Clients (branded as ‘bad clients’) need to lose the control issues and trust in the designer to do their job the same way they trust their accountant to do theirs. (go ahead.. try telling the veteran window washer he missed a spot 4 stories up in an unused wing of the building.)

Emotion and Passion are two different things.
- Emotion has no place in business.
- Passion is what drives business.

:-(

I agree completely with what you have just said. I think we’re on the same page. I think that when the article referred to designers as “Prima Donas” almost everyone derived a defensive stance. Although I understand the feeling I don’t quite believe that was the authors intent. What he describes is really something I see all the time. I give requirements to a designer such as “light pastel colors, fixed 960px with a 18 column grid, 2 and 3 column layouts, client doesn’t want the expanding header and footer web2.0ish look”, A few days later he send over a mockup with vivid colors, LOTS of contrast, no grid at all, a somewhat experimental layout and grunge page dividers… that extend to the sides. I then ask what happened with the requirements, and I get answers such as “It looks better this way.” The problem is not that designers are misunderstood. The problem is that when you’re working for someone else, you give them what they want. You might offer your experience on any topic relating to your work, or even other people’s if your work overlaps with someone else, but at the end of the day a designer is getting paid to get the best visual representation of the customers needs and wants. Many don’t get this and totally want to redefine everything, and then complain they’re called prima donas! If I did that as a developers equivalent, I’d probably get reprimanded and end up losing money by having to do things again.

I think you missed my argument, and maybe I wasn’t all that eloquent trying to get my point across. That being said, I did start college studies on graphic design, though I didn’t finish. I generally hire graphic designers ONLY for work like branding, print work or if I have no time to do the design part. That being said I generally do all my graphics work myself. What I mean to say from that is that I’m not speaking from a non designer point of view, as in a way I am a graphic designer. Now the problem with graphic designers, and I think a lot of people are mistaking the original post (and maybe my comment), is not the quality of their work (you get what you pay), nor the quality of the clients. It’s the fact that business types, programmers, writers, all are required to be in constant communication, be it through email, jira, 37signals suite of apps, etc. And a lot of designers, decide that since they believe that their job is the only creative one, they have a license to not communicate, and to complain at every single step of the way. I hate it when a customer comes all of a sudden saying, I want to put AJAX here and there and there and there. And it always ends up in discussions regarding time frames and cash, and we always get to an agreement and I do what I have to do (I also offer my expertise by recommending them solutions or not to implement features that are ill concieved off course).

My point? 1) As a developer I am an artist also. And as a manager, a business type is also an artist. Drawing complex database schematics and work flow diagrams, coding the applications, writing complex but understandable feature and scope documents, etc, are all works of art, albeit some are more recognized than others. 2) This is the worst problem with designers. Explain this to me, how come a work from home designer I used to work with in a big tech company ALWAYS was on top of checklists and reported his status, while most designers I’ve worked with (and I’ve worked with LOTS) try to avoid that part? 3) Recurring themes are bad for webdesign, but in all honestly if your websites or applications are all coming out looking like the same thing over and over again, its time to hire a webdesigner that’s more dynamic. 4) I agree that work schedules for designers, programmers etc are all crap and we should focus on the work delivered. 5) I prefer a designer that tells me “I have a problem designing this and this, so I can try to work around it. But most just avoid calls until they’re done. It’s annoying and unprofessional

With all do respect, I could not begin to tell you how to do you’re job. What I think is being expressed here is that you hired a graphic designer because you are not a graphic designer. You were hired as a developer because the person that hired you is not a developer. It is one thing to be open to criticism. It is a whole other thing to to a bad job because the client is making poor choices. I said in a post here (that seems to have been deleted) it is any professionals job to make sure that the client understands that they are making poor choices & why you think that is the case. That is part of what you were hired for.
Sometimes clients thoughts are excellent & as you well know sometimes they are just plain wrong. They’re are good & bad in any profession. All the parts of a project work as a whole. They are all important in their own way. You should be hiring a designer for their expertise in that field & if that is what you hired them for then you should also take the time to listen to what they have to say. Of course being a designer is a profession, but some people seem to think anyone can do it. There are different degrees of talent & expertise in any field & sometimes you get what you pay for.