Why? Because I said so!
You can either love them or hate them, but you have to agree that without them you’d have no business and no money to purchase all those sparkly and wondrous things us designers like to purchase. Personally I love them I find juggling their juxtaposed objectives and messages intriguing yet challenging, and it makes my job all the more interesting, if not a little stressful at times.
Who am I talking about? well that’s our beloved clients. Unlike us they are new to the design world and can need reigning in or enlightening. Either way they can be known to request some things that drive us designers crazy. Here’s a couple of our favourites:
Client: Can my logo be a photograph?
Designer: Sure… but do you know how that photo will look when it’s been faxed and reduced to the size of a stamp?
Client: OK, we’ll just use some clip art instead then?
Designer: Err…no?
Client: No, I don’t need to write you a brief I just require a logo.
Designer: Of course, I didn’t realise you said logo.
Client: I want the body font on my website written in a scrawly elegant font.
Designer: Lovely, that’ll be easy to read!?
Client: I’ve taken this image from a website, can I have it on my brochure?
Designer: For many, many reasons, no.
Client: OK, we will just get some images from Google then?
Designer: You weren’t listening were you?
Client: I need to see examples in a couple of days time.
Designer: No problem, just let me get into my time machine…
Client: I’m typing my company name in Google and my site isn’t coming up?
Designer: That’ll be because I just uploaded it about a second ago.
Client: The colour looks different on my screen compared to the pantone swatch you gave me.
Designer: Yep that’ll happen, remember what i said about pantones… and monitors… No? I will explain it again then.
Overall, I think we, as designers, have an obligation to educate our clients so they understand the reasons we can and can not do certain things. That way it will build for a easier future relationship.
Have you got any comments that make you tilt you head and say “Arrrhhh bless them.”? It would be great to compile a list!
Posted by lu
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Posted
on Monday, June 9th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Posted In Freelancing, Graphic Design | Tags: Freelancing, Graphic Design
Like anything, everyone’s got their strengths and skills and we certainly should educate our clients. I’ve found that they educate me also I’ve found out about aspects of certain business’s that I knew nothing before.
But if I had to add to your list I’d add the problem of trying to explain the difference between vector based image and pixel, this gets very tricky! In fact I might have to do a post on this subject myself!
Hi Gareth,
I agree through our clients we find out a lot about other industries which usually we wouldn’t know a great deal about.
Explaining to clients the difference between pixel based and vector images can be very frustrating! I look forward to reading your post on this subject!
Lu
When a client supplies an image / copy of their logo in JPG format and it’s the size of a postage stamp, and 72dpi, when you had originally asked for 300dpi and as large an image size as possible. This happens frequently, because it’s just not something that most clients have ever had to understand about, until now. The tricky part is trying to explain to them that you can make an image smaller but not bigger, without their eyes glazing over!
Hi Tracey,
I definitely agree with clients supplying artwork at ridiculously low resolution! We see it all the time.
As you say, educating the client is the hardest part as they sometimes do not understand the reasons why you can and can not do certain things. Although I do think that if you make the effort to explain things to them, it will build for a much longer relationship.
Lu
Designer: No problem, just let me get into my time machine…
Ha ha ha!! That made me laugh right out.
Glad we made you laugh out loud! Thanks for admitting it!
This gave me quite a giggle. Thanks.
Good to know we made you smile! Had a wonder around your blog - it’s very nice indeed!
Thanks very much!