87 BRALEY DESIGN
Michael Braley lectures frequently on his concept of “Good Client/Bad Client,” which traces the behind-the-scenes process of several real projects to show how great design can even come from working for so-called “boring” clients.

Although the lecture topic was the same in two different AIGA locations, Braley came up with a different poster for each talk. “It happens a lot working with clients that you’re [designing] a brochure for a company that does the same thing as some other company, so you have to come up with the same brochure in a new way. I decided to give myself the same challenge.” The images, developed by thinking of phrases that were suggested by the title of his talk, are “a study in how much you can reduce something before it becomes illegible. If I’d put the nose and eyes in addition to the smiling/frowning mouth, it would have been too obvious,” Braley says. Besides, he adds with a laugh, “they’re so simple because I actually can’t draw very well.” by Laurel Saville