Most people would describe me as nice. I like to think I’m a kind person. But don’t mistake ‘nice’ as ‘pushover’ because I am not.
So I won’t take orders from you. In fact, I’d be doing you a disservice if I did.
Yes, I will listen to your concerns and steer towards your desires. But to be clear, I’m not designing for you. I’m designing for your audience. Your customers. Your users. I’m concerned about meeting their needs and desires, not yours.
I understand you have good taste (otherwise you wouldn’t be looking to hire me, right?) but good taste isn’t enough. There are dozens, sometimes even hundreds of considerations and constraints that go into every single element in a design. When you say something like “make this section bigger” you’re unaware of the considerations and constraints that went into the decision to make it that size in the first place, and you’re unaware of both the UX and technical ramifications of doing so.
A lesser designer would say “okay, I’ll make it bigger” but I will tell you why it’s that size, and if I think it should stay that size, I’ll say so.
You are hiring me to deliver good design, and I’d be failing at my job if I allowed you to make ill-informed design decisions.