Designer Cake

From my hazy cold-infected head, this morning I spurted out what (seems) a rather clever analogy for a common design dilemma. I'm calling it the "go ahead and bake the cake" problem.

A designer is given copy and elements for a project. They work up the project and then suddenly drastic changes occur to the copy or concept.

The metaphorical cake has been baked. The only way to change the batter is to start over.

Sometimes you can't avoid it. Things come to light at the last minute. But sometimes it's just too easily assumed that one thing can be swapped out with another. If it's scraping off the vanilla icing and putting on strawberry, sure. But if it's replacing the eggs with a vegan substitute, that's different.

Stating my opinion

If you're going to use a state outline in your logo... This is something I don't recommend, by the way. And I hope that you are a state or local government agency. But regardless, if you are going to use a state outline in your logo, and you're not stylizing it, at least make sure it is geographically accurate.

I know I spend day in and day out obsessing over little details that 99% of the population doesn't "care" about, but it kills me to see anything stretched or squished. If you are using a geographical element, there are rules that dictate what is correct. Stylizing it is different. But if you are using all the craggy coastlines and inlets of a coastal state without simplifying anything, then please don't use squishing or stretching as your one excuse for creativity.