We have all heard of the website Clients from Hell so we know it’s all too easy to whine about bad clients. I thought I would cut it out, and instead outline how to avoid ending up on that website, someone’s twitter stream – or someone’s bad books – and instead identify what makes a good client?
I’ve encountered my fair share of beastly clients while freelancing as a graphic designer and before landing the dreamy jobs and magical contracts everyone is bound to get atleast one! So I thought I would compile a post identifying how to be a good client… maybe even a great client! While there are many ways you can become the apple of your designer’s eye, I have tried to keep it fairly straight forward.
1. Know what you want first – including budget!
you might know that you want a website, brochure, spread, packaging… but what do you want it to include?
If it’s a website you want, then what do you want on the pages? Designers can’t get a design finalised unless we have all the info about what content we have to allow for. The more specific you are the more accurate the outcome will be be. Have any inspiration or ideas in existing material? Let us know. Be organised, be ready to go the moment the job is agreed.
2. Time is money friend
The “easier” you make it for us, the less time it takes and the less money you pay! That said, make sure you agree a budget before work starts. If the budget is unrealistic for the amount of work required then the designer can let you know what is achievable. Nobody wants to get half way through a project only to run out of money.
3. Good design takes time
I cannot stress this enough. If you rush a designer, then it will show in the end product. This involves saying stupid things like ‘this should be fairly straight forward’ or ‘I have some quick amends for you’, because there is nothing more infuriating than someone telling you how long they think something should take, when actually, they have no idea.
Observe the quote “You can have the project done on time, done on budget, done properly. You can only have two.”
I could have made this blog post a hell of a lot shorter by JUST writing that quote alone, because if there were ever a rule to observe then this one is the holy grail.
4. A camel is a horse designed by committee
When you get a draft of the work, at any stage, PLEASE try to remember that you hired us for a reason. “My secretary thinks we should make the text red it’s not bold enough so give it a bigger drop shadow”… “My colleagues son didn’t understand it” and “it needs to appeal to Joe Average” Trust us. Start asking ten or so different people for their advice and you will end up with a Frankenstein of a design.
5. Pay invoices on time
Luckily for me I’ve only ever had one consistently later payer (and they don’t read this blog) but thankfully as I have multiple freelance clients who are absolute angels and pay me on time, month-in month-out, it’s never been a problem, but that doesn’t mean it’s right.
If we as designers work on a brilliant design as efficiently as we can so we can meet your deadline then why shouldn’t you make the effort to pay us on time? Fair is fair.
Standard payment deadlines are 30 days from date of invoice, but if you pay consistently late then designers are perfectly entitled to add late payment charges (with prior notice of course) As clients, you have to remember this is our income and everyone has bills to pay. If you know you are going to pay someone late give them a warning in advance, it’s just polite.
I read this article a while ago on why “there’s no such thing as a bad client“… it is partly rubbish. There are millions of bad clients out there and just because you learn a lesson from dealing with them doesn’t mean they’re not a bad client.
However, I do agree that you learn some lessons by dealing with bad clients that then, in turn, help you decide who to take on as a client in the future. I mean, why do you think I’m writing this post in the first place?
Designers can excercise some common sense to avoid getting stuck with bad clients, but hopefully any prospective clients out there will be able to enlighten themselves on the do’s and don’ts, learn how to be better, even if they just change one thing, before they end up on Clients from Hell
So just last week I was featured in Notes on Design‘s graduate season. It was a privilege to be asked to contribute by the lovely and talented Dave Cuvelot.
It was a bit surreal actually! Mainly because the questions that I was asked… I had never really even thought about how to answer them before. I hadn’t ever stopped to think about what my design inspirations really were, or how to explain them to people.
In my head I know what I like, but its difficult to put into words. It’s like if someone asked you to describe what makes you happy, or how you feel when you are most relaxed?
Also it was a strange feeling to be asked “what’s next?”, as I guess everyone has an end goal but I’ve never been asked to address it before, to sit down and think about it seriously is another thing entirely. Next?? What do you mean next!? I only ever just have my head around what’s going on now!
I’ve included the questions I was asked, and I encourage you to attempt to and answer them, whatever stage in your (design) career you are at. I know most of them are focussed around my MA, but instead, swap it out for your current job position/university/college course whatever. You might learn something about yourself, I know I did!
1. Who are you and what do you do? (university name and course, education history, current profession, current situation)
2. What is it about design that gets you excited?
3. Why did you decided to do an MA? Is it something you would recommend?
4. How does it differ to an undergraduate degree?
5. If you can remember, what was the hardest thing you had to overcome as a graduate?
6. What has been your key to success?
7. What’s next for you?
8. Based on your experiences do you have any advice for this years graduates & those considering taking an MA?
Once I’d finished, I did feel a bit like perhaps I might get in trouble for that interview… and every draft I did I thought that perhaps I should make it a little less “honest”. Perhaps the World of Warcraft insight was a bit too much information, but it might be of use to know everyone fucks up. Not everyone glides perfectly into the job of their dreams, there are struggles, and mishaps, if WoW counts as that? And actually I think its the difficulties that craft us into better designers, harder workers and better people.
The other way of looking at it is, who wants to read an interview where everyone says the same old thing?? ^_-
…except they’re not mine! ^_- been checking out the iPad and iPhone 4 courtesy of George [moneybags] Wiscombe.
For reference, the iPad is absolutely amazing. SO intuitive! I want one, I just have absolutely no use for it as I own a laptop. Also, don’t bother getting an iPad until Apple upgrade the graphics capabilities, as the iPhone 4 has muuuch better resolution. If you were teetering on the edge trying to decide if you should get an iPhone 4… let me decide for you: GET ONE!
The camera is so much better, HD video, is completely worth it aaand if yous till have your odl handset and box then (like my Mr) you can get money off the new handset. For example, George got £205 off! Doesn’t really need explaining does it?
So those of you who follow my twitter/facebook will know it has been a mayhem month. There was no surprise that I had a mountain of uni work due – first the electives and then the final project proposal yesterday – no tutorials now until September, even though we have to keep working through the Summer… no breaks for us MA students!! Then last weekend a sub generator in the basement of our flat exploded and then caught fire. (See my pics and more) and then this weekend my Grandmother passed away.
Heading back to my hometown this Tuesday (for the first time since Christmas) in time for the funeral. It’s a shame it couldn’t have been a happier occasion, but looking forward to seeing everyone.
So yes, ups and downs. I’ve been absolutely swamped with freelance but have some awesome new clients recently, Liberty, Cath Kidson and renegotiated Wallace & Gromit *and* Shaun the Sheep for another 3 years.
There’s some exciting stuff in the pipeline, now the uni deadlines have nearly entirely vanished I’m incredibly excited about the final major project and getting stuck in. The tutors told us that for every credit a project is worth we need to spend 10 hours working on it. This one is worth 60 credits. Watch this space!
YAY! Unit 2 is due in on Monday and my books arrived back from Ripe Digital first thing this morning! Because of how quickly they were posted I now have loooads of spare time. Such a relief!
This project is my proposal for Unit 3, the final project for my MA. It’s full steam ahead with the brief from now until November 12th when I finish. No pressure, but it’s going to be epic… and expensive! >_<
So relieved that this is nearly over, I work alot faster than I’m “allowed to” at uni. There are tutorials to work around and they only want to see some things by certain dates, when I have usually figured out my final outcome a couple of months before I’m supposed to. Which is usually fine if I can keep my mouth shut. *If* being the integral word in that sentence ^_-
You can see my final outcome for this brief at the bottom of the post. Roll on November!
The whole “live to work vs work to live” mentality is essentially only comparative to how much you like your job. Mediocre to poor job = work to live… however, dream job = live to work.
This seems an appropriate post when on this sunny day I’ve seen lots of people in my Twitter stream are stuck inside working and not out, kicking back, enjoying the fruits of your labour.
Stop reading this post and get outside, catch some beams and get some flame grilled meats on the go… quick before it rains! <3
Unit 2 is fully underway. I’m not panicking. Who am I kidding, I’m always panicking about something… but this atleast feels like it’s all under control.
I have 2 electives to complete and also my major project proposal, in which I have to define what I will be doing in Unit 3. I have already chosen to *investigate interaction in a 2d and 3d space* my tutor was enthusiastic about it and described it as “a strong idea”, so I am calm and collected and just intend to plough on with the work. As usual, I already know what I am going to make for my outcome, but I’m keeping it hush-hush for now. (Mainly because I am a creature of mystery, but also because if I change my mind I will look stupid!)
Yes, it’s all coming together… but I have so much stuff on at the moment that I find myself constantly under the risk of overdoing it. I honestly think if I wasn’t so organised I would have flunked the last unit. ‘Swamped’ is the word. I have to much *work* work to do and it is taking a whole lot of concentration getting some kind of structure developed so that I am not constantly working on that and forgetting how much I have left to do for uni projects.
If any of you were ever considering doing an MA and have to make the decision between full and part time, I would strongly suggest part time. Not only will your uni projects be alot more thorough and you will not feel like tearing your hair out, but you will have enough time to make some real money in the mean time.
Where as I have either had to squash the work in around my timetable or cut back on work (and therefore also my income!) It’s not easy being a full timer.
Due to high demand following my Unit 1 Square project, I am posting photos of my final outcome here for all to see.
Thank you everyone for such awesome feedback. I have had loads of messages comments/twitter/facebook/email and texts about it, and whilst the project was great fun to do, the fact that it is totally focussed around user interaction means it’s nothing without you guys <3 I never knew you cared!
It's always nice to get feedback on work you spend alot of time on. Once I have taken some proper photographs I will upload some previews of the artwork.
So I handed all my work in for unit 1, aka the square project, on Monday and the next morning at 10.30 I was given the briefing for unit 2. Such is life. Not even 24 hours later and I am rammed with work again.
In short, this 2nd unit is all about planning for the 3rd unit. The 3rd unit being my final major project.
The two projects on the, go as of yesterday, are my final major project proposal (a 2k essay describing the work I plan to do in the 3rd unit) and a project called Design Rhetoric, which involves compiling all the work I will be undertaking in order to decide on my major project.
Essentially it requires that my final major project be epic, and that I spend the next 3 months working on ensuring this!
I’m not panicked, I think that I already have an idea of what I am going to do, it will involve creating an extension of the main things I looked at in my first unit… which I will explain fully when I have figured it out.
At the moment, I am still working on Elective A (that’s silk screenprinting to you) and Elective B – “Branding and Identity” starts in a week. When I have wrapped those up I will let you get a peek ^_-
Watch this space! I will update this post with the new briefs once I have scanned them in.
Winner! V4 of the site is now up and running smoothly, all the links now point to the old posts… like they were originally supposed to!! I haven’t updated some of the attachment pages of the blog but to be honest with all the work I have on at the moment it is a surprise I even found time to do this.
There are some rather lovely samples on their way to me from a couple of different clients, so hopefully will have some portfolio updates again soon, now that normal service has been resumed.
So yes, I haven’t posted in a while, but unit one or “Square Project” as it has become known is due in next Monday (19th). I will have it completely finished in loads of time to take lots of lovely pictures to update you with, which will hopefully give you a good idea as to why I have been AWOL for the last… [checks previous post date]… woah, month! >_<
Let me just say, I am so so SO excited about what I have planned for my body of work. It’s going to look brilliant… with any luck.
I would like to say a special thank you to Ripe, who printed all of my books, they have been brilliant putting up with me. I promise not to bother you again now for another 4 months?
We have all heard of the website Clients from Hell so we know it’s all too easy to whine about bad clients. I thought I would cut it out, and instead outline how to avoid ending up on that website, someone’s twitter stream – or someone’s bad books – and instead identify what makes a good client?
