How do you deal with clients with bad taste?

to elaborate on my point above: the key to being a good designer is being able to disconnect yourself from the project. by that i mean, put your personality aside, and begin thinking like the brand you're working with.

example: at work we were building a blackberry event microsite. i was working on some initial concepts for interior pages, and the "design lead" caught a glimpse and decided to tell me how to design it. i was working with a photo from the same series to make it look similar to this treatment: http://ca.blackberry.com/business/in...ca:bb:Business

now, she personally doesn't like "gradients" and "fading" as she called it. she's got a boring personality, so she likes boring, stale design and insisted we simply crop the picture and give it no treatment whatsoever. we ended up with http://www.blackberryinnovation.com/ca/details.php, which just looks and feels lazy.

personally, i don't really like the colourized/realistic combo happening on rim's page - not when it's that obvious - but that's what the master brand has established as it's look, so i was attempting to follow it. because our lead creative couldn't separate her own personal preferences from the brand, we ended up with a shotty product.

so if you have to compromise, do it to get the job done, but put up a fight and at least explain your reasons for doing what you did - and also, do your best to separate your own preferences from the job. most times that will eliminate a sense of "bad taste".