Design is not random.

It happens”by design” – that is, after all, the very origin of that expression. Which means that design by definition has – or should have – a purpose, and is created for a specific reason, with a targeted outcome in mind.

This outcome depends entirely on how the assignment is framed and articulated.

So, when you tell your designer what you need the design to do, and what you say leads your designer to think that a pair of figurative rollerblades will solve your needs, that decision was made with a specific intent, and a specific use-case in mind.

If you later tell your designer that you intend to go offroading, well, then the design is clearly no longer adequate, and the time spent on it was wasted.

The designer needs to start over.

It is now clear that your wheels need to be larger, configured differently, and probably shouldn’t be strapped to your feet but use a sturdier chassis.

In design terms, this means the layout will need to be reconfigured. The typography may need to change. The colors can’t stay the same, and the imagery may need to be swapped out, requiring another time-consuming image search.

The question is: if you knew in advance that your intent was to figuratively go offroading, should you not have told your designer so?

Because the outcome would have been entirely different.