3 ms·

NPR had a story about this in graphic design where it has the term "Hairy Arms": http://www.npr.org/2014/11/17/364760847/whats-with-all-of-the-hairy-arms-in-gra

• hoopism 12y ago
  I've heard about this before. The person who was telling me about it said that in almost all cases the C-level person they were dealing with would choose the "hairy arm". Had an unintended way of backfiring frequently.
  • wlesieutre 12y ago
    The "hairy arm" in this case isn't an alternate version, it's an obvious error added to the design so that the manager can tell you to remove it. Though I've definitely also heard of people making a deliberately terrible alternate design and having a client pick it.
    • hoopism 12y ago
      Yes. That is where the term comes from... but it encompasses the practice of using an intentionally "wrong" option. From the linked article: "FREASE: Exactly. And it's funny I'm saying this but yeah. You know, it happens. Everybody does it. Like, for example, I worked with - 10 years ago - I worked - we did these logos for a famous musician. And they had a lot of people working for them and a lot of voices. And after working with them for a couple weeks, we realized that they hated the color blue. So if we showed them three logos, we would show the ones we loved. And then, we'd do one that they wanted, but we'd put it in the color blue."
  • serve_yay 12y ago
    In this scenario, the "hairy arm" could also be considered a way of "thinking out of the box", of trying something that's totally outside how you normally create. Maybe the novelty inherent in that was attractive to the clients, if the work really was considered "bad" and not just different.