Let’s just say it out loud. Most clients have the taste of a corporate brochure from 2006. Their fonts are offensive, their colour choices are criminal, and their idea of “creative” is whatever they saw last week on LinkedIn. Yet they will sit across from you and tell you how to do your job, as if Paul Rand’s ghost personally whispers in their ear.

It is not entirely their fault. They have been conditioned by decades of mediocre branding. They think “premium” means serif, “modern” means sans serif, and “bold” means red. They think design is about decoration instead of direction. They walk into the room wanting a look, not a story. They want something that feels “fresh” but performs like a PowerPoint slide template. That is the bar.

Most designers fold. They smile, they nod, they tweak. One little compromise at a time until what was once sharp and visceral becomes safe and dull. A thousand micro-decisions later, the original idea is gone, replaced by a lifeless husk that pleases no one but Brenda in Marketing. And you know what that does? It makes you complicit.

Clients do not actually want to lead. They want to feel safe. Deep down, they know their taste is garbage. That is why they hired you. What they crave is conviction. They want you to take the wheel and drive, even if they scream the whole way there. They want clarity, not consensus. They want you to say, “This is the way forward. Everything else is compromise.”

So stop letting clients drag you into mediocrity. Stop giving them three options to play dress-up with. Bring one. The one that terrifies you just enough to feel alive. Lead, even if they resist. Because if you are not leading, you are following. And if you are following, you are disposable.

The truth is simple. Most clients have shit taste. Your job is not to match it. Your job is to raise it.