"Make it pop" is a symptom report, not an instruction. The client is telling you that their eye did not land anywhere, and reaching for the word "pop" because there is no everyday vocabulary for visual hierarchy. That is useful information once you stop reading it as a request for brighter colors. The fix is a diagnosis order: check hierarchy first, then contrast, then scale, then space, and only then color. Most designers reach for saturation first, which is the change least likely to solve the actual complaint.
What the Client Is Actually Reporting
When a design works, a viewer's eye lands somewhere first, then somewhere second, and the order feels effortless. When it does not work, the eye arrives and finds nothing to hold. There is no common word for that experience. "Pop" is what people say instead.
Read literally, the note sounds like a request for volume. Read as a report, it says something more specific and more useful: nothing here is winning. That is a hierarchy observation, and hierarchy is a structural property, not a color property. Which is why the most common response to the note tends to make things worse.
It is worth noticing what the phrase almost never means. It rarely means the client dislikes the concept. A client who has rejected the direction says something closer to "this isn't it." "Make it pop" is generally the note of someone who accepts the direction and finds the execution inert, which is a much easier problem than it feels like in the moment.
Why Saturation Is the Wrong First Move
Turning the colors up is the fastest available change and it usually fails, for a reason that is easy to state.
Emphasis is relative. If every element gets louder, nothing gains emphasis, because emphasis exists only in the difference between elements. A design where the headline, the subhead, the button, and the background have all been intensified is a design where the eye still has nowhere to land, now with a headache attached. The client looks at it and says it still does not pop, and often cannot explain why the change did not help.
Saturation does have a place in the list, and it is genuinely the right answer sometimes, particularly when a palette was chosen for a different medium or a brand's colors are being used at half strength out of caution. It is just last, and it is a small lever compared to the structural ones above it.
The Diagnosis Order
Work down this list against the actual file. Stop at the first thing that is genuinely wrong, because it is usually the whole answer.
| Order | Check | The question to ask the file |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hierarchy | Is there a clear first, second, and third thing? Or are two elements competing for first? |
| 2 | Contrast | Does the most important element differ enough from its surroundings in tone, not just in hue? |
| 3 | Scale | Is the primary element actually bigger than the secondary one, by enough to read as intentional? |
| 4 | Space | Is the important thing given room, or is it crowded by neighbors of similar weight? |
| 5 | Color | Is the palette doing any emphasis work at all, or is everything at similar intensity? |
Hierarchy is first because it is the most common cause and the cheapest to test. Squint at the design or view it at thumbnail size. If two things survive equally, the eye has been given two firsts and will choose neither.
Contrast is second, and the distinction that matters is tonal rather than chromatic. Two colors can be very different in hue and nearly identical in lightness, which reads as flat when converted to grayscale and reads as flat to the eye too. Checking the design in grayscale is a fast, unglamorous test that catches this immediately.
Scale is third because near-misses are common. An element ten percent larger than its neighbor does not read as more important, it reads as an inconsistency. Differences in scale have to be decisive to register as decisions.
Space is fourth and it is the one clients almost never name. An important element does not become important by growing. It becomes important by being the only thing in its area. Adding space around it is often the single change that produces the reaction the client was asking for, and it involves no new ink at all.
Color is fifth, and by the time you arrive here the earlier four have usually already fixed it.
The One Clarifying Question
Every reasonable source on this subject says to ask the client what they mean, and that is correct. It is also worth asking well, because "what do you mean by pop" puts the client on the spot to produce vocabulary they do not have.
The better question is about attention rather than aesthetics: "When you look at this, what do you see first? And what would you want somebody to see first?"
That question is answerable by anyone. It does not require design language. And the gap between the two answers is the diagnosis, handed to you by the client, usually in one sentence.
When they cannot answer even that, ask for a reference: something they think does the job well. Then look at the reference structurally rather than stylistically. What is winning in it, and how is it winning? Frequently the reference is not brighter than your work at all. It has more space, or a bigger difference between its first and second elements, and the client has read that clarity as energy.
This is really an instance of a broader habit, which is that the way you ask determines what you get back. The mechanics of that are in how to ask clients for design feedback, and asking well up front reduces how often notes like this arrive at all.
Other Vague Phrases and What They Usually Report
Same principle, different symptom. None of these translations is universal, and each is a hypothesis to test against the file rather than a rule.
- "It feels cheap." Often a spacing and alignment observation, sometimes typographic. Inconsistent margins and default type read as cheap more reliably than any color choice.
- "It's too busy." Usually too many elements at similar weight rather than too many elements. Reducing the number of competing emphases often solves it without removing anything.
- "It doesn't feel premium." Frequently a request for more restraint, not more decoration. Less color, more space, fewer effects.
- "Something's off." Alignment, optical spacing, or an inconsistency in a repeated element. Worth checking mechanically before treating it as a taste note.
- "Can we try something bolder?" Sometimes a real request for a more confident direction, and sometimes a sign that the client has not been given a reason to believe in the current one, which is a presentation problem.
That last case is worth taking seriously. A concept presented without the reasoning behind it invites the client to fill the gap with suggestions, which is exactly the dynamic described in how to present design work without losing the room.
When It Is Really the Brief
Occasionally the note is not about the design at all.
If a client asks for more energy on a piece whose stated goal was to read calm and established, one of two things is happening. Either the work has overshot into inert rather than calm, which is a real defect worth fixing. Or the client has changed their mind about the goal and has not said so, possibly has not noticed.
That second case is not a revision. It is a brief change, and it should be named as one before any work is done, kindly and without accusation: "Happy to push the energy up. Just checking, because we set out to read established rather than attention-grabbing, and this would move us toward the second. Is that the direction you want now?"
Most clients answer that question honestly and the whole round gets easier. If the answer is yes, the goal has moved and everything downstream moves with it, which is why it belongs in a conversation about the design brief rather than in a quiet unilateral adjustment to the file.
What to Say Back So the Next Round Is Specific
Close the loop in writing, in three parts: what you understood the note to mean, what you changed, and what you deliberately did not change and why.
"You mentioned it needed to pop more. Reading that as the eye not landing anywhere, I have increased the size difference between the headline and the supporting text and given the headline more room, rather than raising the color intensity, which would have lifted everything equally. The palette is unchanged because of the contrast requirement we agreed for the packaging."
That paragraph does three jobs. It shows the client they were understood, which is most of what they wanted. It teaches them, gently, that specific observations get specific results. And it records a decision, which means the same note is less likely to come back in round three. The same discipline of writing down what was decided runs through the whole solo design project process.
FAQ
What does "make it pop" mean in design?
It usually means the viewer's eye did not land anywhere, and the client lacks a word for visual hierarchy. It is a symptom report rather than a request for brighter colors, and it rarely means the client dislikes the concept itself.
What should you change when a client says make it pop?
Work in order: hierarchy, contrast, scale, space, then color. Check whether two elements are competing to be seen first, whether the main element differs enough in tone rather than just hue, and whether it has room around it. Saturation is last.
Why does turning up the colors not fix it?
Because emphasis is relative. If every element gets more intense, nothing gains emphasis and the eye still has nowhere to land. The design reads louder without reading clearer.
How do you ask a client what they mean by pop?
Ask what they see first and what they would want a viewer to see first. Both questions are answerable without design vocabulary, and the gap between the two answers is the diagnosis.
What if the client wants energy but the brief said calm?
Name it before changing anything. Either the work has overshot into inert, which is a genuine fix, or the goal has changed and that is a brief conversation rather than a revision round.