I should be on the roof but....

They will tell me the purpose of the piece. They will hand me the components or tell me of the components that are coming and then leave me along. They trust my design skills. I get free range to edit.

He was holding two versions; one, I think expressed more of his vision and one was more of what I thought looked good and still got the message across; the tie breaking voice sided with mine but he still wasn't convinced.

I did two designs because, even after a few questions, I still was uncertain of what was precisely wanted and either I wasn't getting what was being said or they were having difficulty explaining the vision; and I've found out that instead of searching for the right questions, it's better to give people choices and then go from there.

It's like going to the Optometrist: "Is this one better, or this one? One or two?"

I've known Charlie for years. I met him during a mayoral campaign. A friend volunteered to be Campaign Treasurer, so I got access to the inner workings. Charlie was a senior adviser or maybe even campaign manager.

Charlie's son and I have the same name.

He was still staring at the two versions when the third opinion walked away.

"Why?"

"What?" I asked because my mind was elsewhere.

"Why do you like this one?" he said as he waved my version only I couldn't see it was my version because I could only see the back and the backs were the same.

I think I smiled. I appreciated the question. I know sometimes it's hard to articulate but I think you should be able to explain how you feel about something when you have just expressed an opinion on it. I don't think, 'I don't know. I just do' cuts it. He was putting me to task but it was just so he just could know. He was hoping that my reason for liking it would convince him to like it too. I like the opportunity for discussion.

Charlie's visions are a bit hokie-er than my own person design choices but I can see how his style works in certain areas. Sometimes, hokie sells. I had already relented to his hard edged hokie vision for getting his message across. We were now working on getting something that had the most visual appeal.

"I think, it's a cleaner design," was my simple answer.

"Okay, we'll go with it."