In our weekly installment of Clients from Hell, a hilarious collection of anonymously contributed client horror stories from designers, we present “Microsoft Word can do anything” For previous posts, click here .
After 10 years of working for myself as a graphic designer and marketing consultant, I’d become disenchanted with having to chase after clients to collect my paycheck and sought a typical 9-5 job. I interviewed for a position as a marketing manager with a company that seemed like a great fit. During my interview, the CEO asked me what programs I use to “draw.”
Me: Uh, I usually work in Illustrator, because vector graphics are scalable.
Client: Oh, that’s good, not many people would understand that or know that.
He offered me the position and I accepted. A few weeks into the job, when discussing a project with the same CEO, he asked how I was going to prepare a specific piece of marketing collateral (that included the creation of new logos and would need to be sent to a printer in .eps format). I replied “Illustrator”. He replied in a tone that was a unique cross of amused, sneering condemnation and anger.
Client: No. People don’t know how to use Illustrator, and there isn’t anything you can do in Illustrator that you can’t do in Microsoft Word. Use that.
