Brian: I absolutely believe what your mentor said, but you'd better be careful in how you say it.
Clients may be grateful for that philosophy in the long run, but at the beginning of the job, they [or American clients, anyway] would never want to admit they were sacrificing ANY quality because they were trying to keep the costs down.
So you have to get a reputation for doing it without ever pointing it out. If you can get a friend and respected critic to think up a fancy artsy name for it, like minimalism, that may help.
