Client refuses to let graphic designer use any color other than blue for their ad, leading designer to print a giant blue square, client learns their lesson: ‘I didn’t get in any trouble’

Author image for Bar Mor Hazut
Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Feb 1, 2026 7:00 AM EST

Graphic design can be really challenging, or extremely easy, and apparently, that can depend on the client.

There are so many details a graphic designer needs to pay attention to when designing something like an ad for a business client. The font, the spacing, the images, and of course, the colors are just a handful of details that a designer meticulously chooses to match the energy the client wishes to see on their ad. That being said, at the end of the day, what the client wants is what the client is going to get, no matter what. This also means that a graphic designer can design the most beautiful or eye-catching ad in the world, but if it doesn't match the client's vision, it can never count as a job well done.

Anyone who has worked with a client in that way knows how annoying it can be to have to deal with someone who refuses to listen to the professional. Why listen to the experienced graphic designer when you can call the shots and demand certain colors or fonts, even when they make absolutely no sense?

That was basically what the graphic designer in the story below dealt with while working with one client. He was the client of the company, bringing in the most money, so he had no problem making demands. Demands like ensuring all his ads look… how do we say it nicely… really bad.

Over the years, the client's demands became more and more unreasonable, especially when it came to the colors. One by one, the client told the designer what colors they could not use, until the only color that was permitted was blue. This led the designer to do the only thing they could–design a whole ad only with the color blue. 

They spend hours using all the elements they were supposed to, but only using one shade of blue. The resulting ad? "One giant flat blue square," which the designer happily sent to the client. Unsurprisingly, the client was not happy with the result, but he couldn't really complain when it was proven that this was exactly what he asked for. 

Keep scrolling to read how the story ended!

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  • Woman Designer Thinking Graphic Design
    via PR Image Factory

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • You said you wanted an ad with only one color. You got it buddy!

    This happened years ago in my past life as a graphic designer. But I still think about it to this day.
    via Financial_Vehicle134
  • I was 22 and fresh out of college with my graphic design degree. My first gig was at an advertising company.
    via Financial_Vehicle134
  • We mainly did those really horrible print car ads that you got in your mailbox and immediately threw in the trash.
    via Financial_Vehicle134
  • You know the ones: only one font and it's huge and screaming at you. Every inch of space has a picture of car, cramming 50 cars into a 7x5 inch area.
    via Financial_Vehicle134
  • You know... trash! Fresh out of school, I foolishly made suggestions on how to make actual ads and not hot garbage.
    via Financial_Vehicle134
  • But it was made clear to me very quickly and very aggressively that they wanted trash.
    via Financial_Vehicle134
  • So I compiled. Now, we had one client who was THE client. He brought in the most money and bought the most trash ads from us.
    via Financial_Vehicle134
  • And he also was very specific on just how bad his ads should look. Font was Impact on all ads and it filled every corner of the paper.
    via Financial_Vehicle134
  • On one ad I remember him demanding I squeeze over 100 cars into a single space.
    via Financial_Vehicle134
  • It legit looked like a magic eye poster by the time it went to print. I dealt with that guy and his unreasonable requests for over a year.
    via Financial_Vehicle134
  • Well the guy amazingly got worse. Started telling me which colors I could or couldn't use.
    via Financial_Vehicle134
  • And one by one, the colors dropped out. And eventually I had enough. After he said I could no longer use orange I said "just to confirm, you do not like and do not want me to use red, orange, yellow, green, purple, pink, brown, white, or black?" He confirmed.
    via Financial_Vehicle134
  • I said okay. The only color left was blue. So I spent hours taking all the cars, all the fonts, all the text and all design elements and making them all the same exact blue.
    via Financial_Vehicle134
  • No shading. No highlights. Just a flat blue. The end result was one giant flat blue square.
    via Financial_Vehicle134
  • Like someone took a paint roller over it. Now I could have made a blue square in two seconds.
    via Financial_Vehicle134
  • But I spent hours using all the elements he told me to use to cover my ass.
    via Financial_Vehicle134
  • Because when we sent that blue square to proof, the client of course blew up. Called me screaming
    via Financial_Vehicle134
  • Color swatches on a graphic designer desk
    via Phoenixns

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • I replied calmly that he told me the only color I could use was blue. I used all the pictures and elements he asked for and did exactly what he wanted and made them blue.
    via Financial_Vehicle134
  • Our calls were recorded so I didn't get in any trouble with my boss. And I got to waste several more hours remaking the same ad but with the original car pictures and elements.
    via Financial_Vehicle134
  • It was a really fun day.
    via Financial_Vehicle134
  • No-Crow-775 I was chief editor for a magazine publisher for decades. We hired this talented young dude straight out of graphic design class. Bro put starbursts and sunbursts and flames on every initial layout. Wut. My brother, no.
    via No-Crow-775
  • Financial Vehicle134 Original Poster's Reply Don't get me started on the papyrus font!
    via Financial_Vehicle134
  • intobinto That guy really blue himself.
    via intobinto
  • Financial Vehicle134 Original Poster's Reply
    via Financial_Vehicle134
  • Coder Joe1 I tried my hand as a web designer in the 90's. Had one customer that loved everything until the website went live. They complained about the colors. Nothing I did appeased them so I eventually journeyed to their offices to see what they were seeing. The CEO's admin showed how terrible it looked on her monitor, even though it looked great on all other computers. It only took me a few clicks to discover she had set her Windows to be limited to 16 colors. They were an IT company.
    via CoderJoe1
  • it_rubs_the_lotion I worked in graphic design at a couple of places after graduating college and realized everyone thinks they are a graphic artist. This was when companies used Macromedia Freehand and Quark for pretty much everything and it was too expensive to have it on their home computer. So many notes about changes that visually looked awful and confusing like wanting clashing colors, ugly fonts, or to eliminate white space entirely. I've seen your wardrobe Barbara I know what you think lo
    via it_rubs_the_lotion
  • oldmomlady3 This reminds me of my boss at my last job. She didn't like any shape with rounded edges - no circles, no ovals, nothing. Everything had to be angles. It was insane. I couldn't even use rectangles with rounded edges. Just the most micromanaging bull. I eventually gave up trying to pitch anything fresh and just did what she asked as it slowly sued the life from me.
    via oldmomlady3
  • Bedovian_25 I didn't go this far but when I was in high school I took graphic design and a few adults I knew would commission me for stuff for a decent amount of change for a sixteen year old. One friend of my mom's asked me to make a beveled rectangle to frame a photo he wanted to use as the logo for something. So I made it and he looked at it and asked if I could make all the sides the same shade. So I had to tell a grown ass man that since we were working with 2D graphics, the only way to pro
    via Bedovian_25
  • Clean-Leather932 That reminds me of my time in a graphics dept when a customer demanded that we center the text better on their label. It was centered. I cannot center it any further. After some back & forth emails with screenshots showing a ruler, I nudged the text a pinch to one side based on my best guess for visual weight on a mostly symmetrical design & they loved it. SIGH We joked for years, "CENTER IT BETTER!" The worst part of graphics work is the customers, but the laughs are top notch.
    via Clean-Leather932

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