The perils of letting clients go behind the curtain

The work that goes into any design project is yours and yours alone. Unless, of course, your client asks to have a quick peek at it. Well, they were warned…

Jamie Jones. whoisjamiejones.com
Jamie Jones. whoisjamiejones.com

“Hi Daniel! Could you send the artwork files over please? We’ll make any last minute amends at our end. Thank you!”

My heart sinks at this perfectly reasonable, chirpy request. I hate this bit. It’s not that I’m overly precious or that I’m unhappy with the design. No, it’s that by sending them the raw, un-PDF’d artwork, I’m letting them get a peek behind the curtain. All of the underlying gubbins will be exposed: grids and guides all over the place; bizarre and inconsistent tags; unconventional processes and unexplainable logic that will make no sense to anyone but me. It all looks wrong.