You pointed out lots of good stuff , yeah the client is very traditional with their idea of gender norms, but they’re still the one paying and clearly have their own vision. Part of the job is putting your own belief aside and just interpreting the vision into designs that the client wants (if you want to get paid especially since this is her first lead gig). I feel bad for Kasane but she can also take in what she got as feedback in this chapter, then mix her own experiences as a ‘boyish’ girl, friends advice about tons of drafts, and sell her revised concept in the next review. Even the boss is on her side, he said girls come from all walks of life, they just need to convince the client.
Since this manga is crossdressing and subverting gender expectations, next few chapters would be interesting in how she approaches the project. Thanks for sharing your perspective too, you got me thinking.
Just my thought: The difference may also lie in two different perspectives, one based on what humans are really like and one based on what we think they should be like.
Humans (not just customers) are dumb in lots of ways. One of those is "wanting to follow someone else's lead", and another is "being unable to understand one's subconscious desires except by contrast to reality". Which is why designers who can propose ideas while understanding these things, and not take it personally when they manifest, are invaluable.
When the customer says "I don't know, why don't you propose something?" (manifesting wanting to follow someone else's lead), they don't actually mean "Put forth a good idea, and I'll follow it". They mean "Propose something so that I can tell myself I'm following your lead, because my ego is too fragile to say what I really want and possibly have someone make fun of it".
When the customer says "Oh, that's not what I wanted - I wanted this" they don't mean "You're stupid and that's a bad idea and you got it wrong" (although the jerkholes may say it that way, to stroke their own ego for "getting it right"). They mean "Oh! Now that I see something in reality, I can actually contrast that against my gut feelings and understand what I really want."
To illustrate both of these, here's an idea people can try that I've found works for me: If I'm tied up in knots over whether to do A or B, I flip a coin and tell myself that it will make the decision. If it's heads I'll do A and if it's tails I'll do B. If it lands heads and I breathe a sigh of relief + feel confident in doing A, A was what I really wanted to do. If it lands tails and I start thinking of reasons that B probably isn't a good idea and maybe I should flip again, B wasn't what I wanted to do.
