Well I'm no fiddler on the roof, but I can't think of a better way to sum up what it is I do for a living.

I think if I boiled it down to the very root of what I do, it's to find the perfect design "mate" for my clients.  I have to know my clients' likes and dislikes, their love for certain things, and distaste for others.  I have to know what they find attractive and what they think needs a bit of work.. and then, find the best possible design to satisfy those wants.

It's abstract, I know, but bear with me as I meander down this metaphorical path...

Here's a fine example:

I once had a meeting with a very, very successful business man.  This man asked me to meet him, to show him some of my work, as he was considering hiring me to design some personal stationary items for him.  When I got to his overwhelmingly gorgeous condo, dozens of stories above San Francisco, he told me very specifically that he only wanted to see work that I'd designed that was the color green. 

"What?"

[You probably asked that question the same way I did.]

"What do you mean, JUST GREEN?"  I stammered, I didn't know what to do... I had two green-centric projects but how could I explain to this gentleman that just because I didn't have green projects with me that day, that I couldn't design something custom for him, that would be just perfect, exactly what he wanted.

I tried to explain to him that as a graphic designer, my role is to bring together different design elements from far flung corners of the universe, and roll them, meld them, collage them into a final product that is unique to his specific needs.  "You want green, I'll GIVE you green"!!  Just because I didn't have it in my small portfolio at the time, it didn't mean that it wasn't possible.

I tried to make him understand my process... my methods... I tried to get him to see that this wasn't a "template" sort of situation in which he was supposed to pick a font, and a paper stock, and his name would just appear at the top of a sheet of ivory Crane's paper, engraved in Copperplate Gothic.

But he couldn't get there.  He couldn't see where I was going.  He was stuck.  

And so was I!

Feeling super frustrated, I spent days mulling over this horrendous meeting.  I didn't ever want to be in a meeting like that again... I had no game!  I had no way to communicate WHY hiring a designer is so valuable.  This is nothing like an "arranged marriage" with someone you've never met before... this is a specific process of finding just the perfect typefaces, paper stock, ink colors, printers and vendors, to create the ideal match... I'm a matchmaker.  I can find you the find.  And catch you the catch.  Oh, and make you look GOOD in the process!

One of my clients always makes fun of how detail-oriented I am.  If I miss a space, or there is a comma where there should be no comma, or one tiny iota of the design is off center (for example!) I get bent out of shape.  This OCD behavior, this total and complete LOVE for what I do... this is what makes me the best matchmaker in town.  Hands down!

Now, if only I could start aligning myself with my most favorite Fiddler showtune...

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