Clients from Not-quite Hell

[jackshoegazer]

I'm working on a large flyer for a rave.  There are two promoters working together on it and they are on completely different pages.  I keep getting conflicting information from them.  Actually, from one of them.  "I don't want palm trees in it."  Ok.  Here's a design.  "Oh this is good, but it needs palm trees."  "We absolutely have to have a big map with the location of the venue."  Ok, do you want a big map of where the venue is in the state, or a bigger regional map of the midwest?  "Maps are a waste of space.  We don't need a map."  One of the promoters wants a simple and clean festival-style design and the other wants some loud, clashing, obnoxious thing.  "Oh this is great, but it needs blue.  Just throw some blue in there."  I want to punch myself in the eye.  Sometimes.  What they don't seem to understand is that it's a process.  It takes time, that I'm not psychic, so when they say, "We want a summer-y festival poster that's unique and has a sort of hand-drawn feel to it." that I don't get a magical image in my head of what they mean.  Especially when they send me images of festival posters that they like and none of them fall into the description that they gave.