Perhaps one of the most surefire ways to simultaneously elicit emotions of rage and despair in your designer is to remark “I’ll know it when I see it.” To a designer, that roughly translates into, “I have no idea what I want, but I’ll expect you to produce revision after revision until we run out of time and money settling on something neither of us are that happy with.” Simply put, “I’ll know it when I see it” kills dialogue and puts the designer / client relationship on a fast track to Revision Hell, complete with micro-management and an endless sea of comps.

Truth is, knowing it when you see it is a very rare occurrence. Think about it. Did you know that Google would soon be one of the fastest growing, most innovative companies to exist the very first time you Google’d something? Chances are probably not. And if you did, than you probably invested some cash and are now off sailing somewhere in the South Pacific, certainly not piddling your time away reading this blog.

While it may sound like we’re being a little hard on clients, ultimately it is our responsibility to prevent these 7 deadly words. In reality, most clients don’t know what they are looking for, nor do they possess the creative vocabulary to tell us. Which is why they are coming to us in the first place. After all, the ability to interpret a client’s somewhat clumsy analysis of what they need into a concise visual masterpiece is what separates “real” designers from those $99 online Design-R-Us guys.

Asking the right questions, listening to our clients, and setting boundaries are all necessary ingredients for a successful relationship, be it business or personal. We must be able to create an active dialogue among clients by asking appropriate, thought provoking questions. Furthermore, once a dialogue has been initiated listening to both what the client is and is not saying is critical to ensuring that pertinent info isn’t falling through the cracks. And finally, we must set clear boundaries for clients to give ourselves the necessary freedoms to do what we do best.

So the next time a client responds with “I’ll know it when I see it,” slowly put down your exacto knife, take a deep breath, and run for the hills.