Make it pop!—Ink and photoshop

It’s probably one of the most ubiquitous requests I get. No matter what the project is, clients are constantly asking to “make it pop” and I just think it’s ridiculous. I mean, what are they even asking for? Louder colors? Contrasting visuals? They aren’t sure. They’ve heard someone describe something, at some point as “really popping” and ever since then it’s been their ‘catch all’ phrase when giving feed back. It’s probably one of the least constructive points of feedback you can receive because not only is it very vague, it’s drastic–they aren’t sure what they want, but they’re obviously looking for big changes.

“I really like it, but can you make this section pop a little more?”
—Ok, so…bold then? You want more emphasis on this section? You want this to look different from the surrounding sections?
“It just needs to pop more, do whatever you think will help it pop.”

‘Pop’ isn’t a visually descriptive phrase. It’s too subjective, it has too many meanings. Designs don’t pop, corn does.