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Topic: What if your client has no taste?
| Author | Message |
| eerietz | Posted – 6/18/2009 1:02:51 PM | show profile | email poster | flag this post Hello All, I do freelance design work in addition to my full-time job, hoping to eventually transition into full-time freelance. I am just starting out and got my first real (read: non-family/friend) client a few months back. Seemed like a cut-and-dry project, thought it would be done in a few weeks. 4 months later, this woman is driving me nuts. She doesn't trust my design expertise at all, and even when I explain to her why I have made design decisions and advise her as to her marketing materials with professional experience to back it up, she completely disregards it and demands that I do what she asks. The web site I am working on for her has gone through over 10 major revisions -- just for the home page -- and she is still asking for more. It has already turned into something that I would never, ever, use as a portfolio piece, and is getting worse. She is asking for multiple "flashy" animations to fill up the page, and it is going to look absolutely awful. It feels like she is just going to keep adding things to draw it out forever. I am charging her by the hour, but she is always late on paying invoices and even then, my fee is relatively low (I offered a low price since I am trying to build my client base). Has anyone else been in a similar situation? I am ready to put my foot down and say "no" to another tacky revision, but is the customer always right in this case? Is there a way to gently walk away from the project, without completely tarnishing my reputation as a freelancer? I have already completed a good portion of the project (branding, business cards, brochures...), but this web site seems like it is never going to be completed. Definitely not in any form that I'd be proud of. Thanks so much in advance for your advice! |
| designerlady | Posted – 6/18/2009 2:36:01 PM | show profile | flag this post welcome to the club! Unfortunately, work is work. You need to get paid, right? When clients are involved, you are essentially being paid to design what they want. It sucks that most clients/corporate have (what most designers would call) BAD TASTE. The thing is that you have to do it. That is the double-edged sword as a graphic designer, artist, art director. Because art is subjective, people feel that they can have their opinion about it and mess it up. Most of my corporate work is stuff that I would not put in my portfolio too. SO I put in the versions that I DO like, or I show both "This is what the client wanted, however I had a slightly different approach to solving the problem..." It is so difficult being someone else's wrist...designing shit that sucks. My VENT: It is painful to design stuff that you do not believe in. It's like trying to tell someone else how to do their job. Why do designers get this short end of the stick? I don't go around telling editors how to do their job... Of course there are clients out there that are unfavorable to work with. I've had my fair share!!! You really have to evaluate how realistically bad this situation truly is. You may have "expertise," but if this is your first client, you have a lot to learn... Since you're just starting out, I would lay the ground rules up front. If your client is still paying you, why not just soak it up, finish this project and call it a day? It's business. I have other outlets to do the type of design work that I yearn to do. I recommend doing design that you are passionate about on the side. Put that obscure stuff in your portfolio. It is very hard to be satisfied creatively with the jobs that pay the bills unfortunately. It takes a lot of time, work, and effort to build a reputation as a freelancer who can design anything they want with clients that come to them specifically to commission custom work. I could go on. I hope this helps? |
| creatrix | Posted – 6/19/2009 1:42:03 PM | show profile | flag this post Do your best to logically explain your design choices -- give them concrete reasons why it should be one way or another. [Check out John McWade's musings at Before&After magazine as a starting point.] If that does not work, give the client what they want. They are paying you for your services. You have the option of refusing to not work with them in the future if it is totally unrewarding and frustrating for you. |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 6/19/2009 5:39:43 PM | show profile | flag this post That's the nature of the freelance business. You can offer guidance and strongly suggest better ways of doing it, providing cogent reasoning. Ultimately, though it's the client's website, and the client is paying you to provide what he wants, not to fulfill your artistic ambitions. At the same time, you are not a slave. You can certainly tell the client that you are going to need to finish up work on the project, providing a specific deadline and then come up with a plan for what needs to be accomplished in that time. You are not obligated to keep doing revisions and additions until the end of your days. |
| eerietz | Posted – 6/20/2009 1:33:52 PM | show profile | flag this post thanks Thank you all for your sound advice. I guess I am just going to have to suck it up and do her revisions. I do want to mention that, although this is my first real freelance client, I do have professional experience with full-time jobs. I am not trying to create a web site for this woman just as a portfolio piece or to fulfill my own artistic vision (Lord knows, at this point it is far from it), but I can easily see the finished site showing up on a "what not to do" page, and hate that I'm enabling it... (To give you an idea -- she has requested white text on a yellow background among other crazy notions. When I gave her the schpeal about readability and screen appearance, she said she wanted to do it anyway.) In any case, I am speaking with her today, and hopefully using your advice I can talk her into something a little less... flashy. If not, I'll just try to get through it and finish it! Thanks again! |
| jmbk | Posted – 6/20/2009 3:55:27 PM | show profile | flag this post "She is asking for multiple "flashy" animations to fill up the page, and it is going to look absolutely awful." I'm sorry, this made me laugh and laugh. If I had a nickel... I wonder if you guys need to begin including a "judicious use of animation" clause in your contracts (especially if your client represents a luxury condo). |
| creatrix | Posted – 6/20/2009 5:50:49 PM | show profile | flag this post Yikes! Maybe you can insist that she never, ever let anyone know you had anything to do with the finished product, eh? :) |
| Santa and his merry band | Posted – 6/21/2009 2:14:02 AM | show profile | flag this post @ OP: Someone is paying you for a service, correct? I am going to say, probably yes. Was the customer aware that you were giving them a "deal" because you wanted a real job for your portfolio? Probably not. Business is not Joya's Fun School where anybody cares about your portfolio needs, etc. The customer pays you for services rendered in executing a vision, their vision of their needs. If the customer wants to still go off the proverbial cliff despite you persuading them about best practices, either do the job or fire the customer. The dollars will look better in your bank account, however small they may be. If the customer is not responding to your expert advice, you may want to consider & reflect how you could influence a difficult customer differently in the future. |
| marianna | Posted – 6/21/2009 9:07:55 PM | show profile | flag this post Hi Eerietz, I'm not a designer but I've been the middleman for PR clients and their web designers and have found myself in a similar situations. Just grit your teeth and get this project over with AND THEN go dig up your blank contract and add a clause about how many "edits" the client gets without incurring further charges. In my expereince, its the only way to stop the endless tinkering. Good luck M |
| anonymousdesigner | Posted – 6/22/2009 6:47:41 PM | show profile | email poster | flag this post This is an issue I dealt with on a daily basis when I was employed by someone with no taste. After trying unsuccessfully to educate said employer about basic design principles and seeing every design project shown to everyone in the company from the receptionist to the accounting department to the shipping clerk for their opinion, I gave up and did what I was told (in the interest of remaining employed) and kept a copy of my version for my portfolio. As they say, money buys many things but good taste aint one of them! If you are interested in building your portfolio and client base, I suggest you volunteer your services on a limited basis to a couple of non-profits whose cause you believe in. You get portfolio pieces, experience, contacts and the satisfaction of giving back to the community. They get work done for free which helps further their cause and will usually be more than happy to provide you with a good reference at the very least. It's a win-win arrangement! I hope this helped. Good luck! |
| Chitownwritergal | Posted – 6/23/2009 8:12:08 PM | show profile | flag this post This doesn't just happen to designers. It happens to copyeditors, too, especially in business environments where the client's/business partner's say trumps all. I think Santa gave good advice. |
| Millions | Posted – 7/27/2009 6:32:17 PM | show profile | flag this post I feel your pain my friend. Be prepared, however, because this IS the freelancing business and I'm still learning how to cope with it. The problem is everyone thinks they're an artist and will fool with things to no end until it's a true representation of themselves...and a lot of times that representation can be pretty ugly. Over time, however, you'll learn how to spot these clients and avoid them. Always make sure you have a firm contract written that specifies the number of changes you'll make and jack up the price drastically if they continue to make revisions. In regards to your particular dilemma, one way you can discourage the home page animation is to say something like "Flash animations are good, but they're not very SEO friendly, it would be harder to find your site in google" ...these days clients are nuts about SEO...it might keep her from going overboard with the animations. |
