Just today, after doing a very basic poster as a favor for a cause to which I'm sympathetic:
C: I like it, but can you make that more horizontally centered {pointing to a horizontal rule which runs full bleed}
M: No.
C: Why?
Some days I wonder if my life would be easier if I weren't a pacifist...
::
One more because I'm stressed and need to vent. Client is a local outfitter and I was doing a 11x17 ad flyer that was to be inserted in an advertising circular. The client wanted to have a picture of a certain hat on the front of the brochure---a fur hat made from a real fox, with the head preserved and staring at you with its beady little glass eyes. It's fucking creepy, even if you think wearing real fur is okay---Steven King's "Pet Cemetary" meets Mountain Man meets bomber-hat, in a sense. The cursed thing looks like its waiting to pounce on something. Anyway---
M: Well I reeeeeeeally don't think that most people will respond well to having a hat that stares at people on the cover...
C: I don't care! I know my market and they'll like it!
M: But you also have to realize that this flyer is being distributed to the entire region, not just your market. You WILL offend many potential customers---
C: Do it or else I'm, etc.,etc.,etc. {this is the point where to me C: begins to sound like the teacher from Peanuts cartoons}
M: Fine, fine.... {thinking, give them enough rope and they'll hang themselves}
So I do it. Goes to press. And they day after it starts showing up in mailboxes across the region, the client is innundated with calls to their 1-800 number, ranting and raving about how cruel it is to kill a fox just to have a fur hat, not to mention a fur hat which stares at people. Ah revenge...