Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

This is for any client who ever sought out the help of a web designer or graphic designer. This is for those clients who gave their web designer hell. This is for those who are going to seek out the help of a designer for their online marketing presence or offline marketing collateral. This is for those clients who try to live vicariously through the creative skills of design professional.

Yes folks, this is required reading for you so you know what is going through our minds and why so many of us consider firing our clients.

I hope all designers to make this to be required reading for any and all future clients :-)

It`s from Seth Godin`s latest entry

All I can say is, "Amen, there is a God!"


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Why do some organizations look great... and get great results from their design efforts and ads... while others languish in mediocrity? I think it has little to do with who they hire and a lot to do with how they work with their agencies and designers.
Here are the things your design team wishes you would know:

1.  If you want average (mediocre) work, ask for it. Be really clear up front that you want something beyond reproach, that`s in the middle of the road, that will cause no controversy and will echo your competition. It`ll save everyone a lot of time.
2. On the other hand, if you want great work, you`ll need to embrace some simple facts:
3. It`s going to offend someone. If it doesn`t offend them, then it will make them nervous. The Vietnam Vets memorial offended a lot of people. The design of Google made plenty of people nervous. Great work from a design team means new work, refreshing and remarkable and bit scary.
4. It`s not going to be easy to sell to your boss. That`s your job, by the way, not mine. If you want me to do something great, you`ve got to be prepared to protect it and defend it. Come back too many times for one little compromise, and you`ll make it clear that #1 was what you wanted all along.
5. You can`t tell me you`ll know it when you see it. First, you won`t. Second, it wastes too much time. Instead, you`ll need to have the patience to invest twenty minutes in accurately describing the strategy. That means you need to be abstract (what is this work trying to accomplish) resistant to pleasing everyone (it needs to do this, this and that) and willing, if the work meets your strategic goal, to embrace it even if it`s not to your taste.
6. Help me out by pointing out the work you`d like this to be on a peer with. If you want a website to be like three others (in tone, not in execution) then point it out. In advance.
7.  Be clear about dates and costs. Not what you hope for, but what you can live with!
8. You don`t know a lot about accounting so you don`t backseat drive your accountant. You hired a great designer, please don`t backseat drive here, either.
9. If you want to be part of the process, please go to school. Read design magazines or take a course from Milton Glaser or get a subscription to Before & After. By the way, that one link is the single best part of this post.
10. This one may surprise you: don`t change your existing design so often. Not when your kids or your colleagues tell you it`s time. Do it when your accountant says so.
11. Don`t get stressed about your logo.
12. Get very stressed about user interface and product design. And your packaging.
13.  Say thank you.

Amen…Amen Brother.


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Mary Hutchison Design LLC design + strategy + counsel 206.407.3460 info@maryhutchisondesign.com

Mary- I`m sure you were loving #11.

Excellent!!!

Some additional great advice for clients is available on the AIGA web site:

Ideas for Business

- J.










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Jeff Fisher | Jeff Fisher LogoMotives | Tweet! Tweet!

I worked at an agency for 8 years and everything said in the above is true. I can`t count the number of times I`ve presented to a client and they remark "I love it" then meet with their boss and their tune changes. Why? Not because the design was poor rather it was off strategy.

I would add to the above with a step before you ever see a logo or design. WRITE A BRIEF!

Make sure all you provide the following:
Background
Brand Objectives
Outline the Opportunity
What will your marketing strategies be
Product Size and how it is sold
Any Geographic or Specific Retail considerations
What is the consumer benefit
Target - Who are they demo and psychoghrapics
Additional Considerations - Will you own outright all illustrations and photography?

Be precise. Describe your target as if it was 1 person. If your design appeals to the perfect person then you will avoid the land of mediocrity.

It`s a lot of up front work, but the payoff is huge. Remember your design is the face of your product.


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I would like to add something... It takes a little time, but I will often do this as a designer to further narrow the purpose of the designs I am to create.

Create a “creative brief.” I don’t know if that’s the right title or not, but basically it is like a business plan. It’s a little bit of a pain, but you can save soooo much design time.

The creative brief should hold ideas (brief one’s) about existing styles you enjoy. Provide comments about current designs and list them. Logos, website features you enjoy, color coordination, sketches of ideas you would like to attempt to incorporate are all areas to focus on.

If a client provides examples of what’s in their mind, the designer can better interpret them. Thus creating something different from the examples, but holding many of the features you enjoyed.

A designer can re-design until the end of the world for some clients. In the end, they may realize they have got off track of the true reason for needing a designer. Next thing you know, the client switches to creative mode, forgetting the objectives for needing a designer. A brief description of the goal in a design will allow a properly trained/skilled designer to accomplish you goal in a matter of 2-3 revisions instead of endless revisions which slowly take the design away from the original objective.


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Vincent Wilcox (a.k.a. KRAKR)
Drummer
My band: Letters Make Words

I`ve always been able to get much  more helpful information from a client by asking them for examples of what they don`t like, rather than what they do. (The question has been part of my "Identity Client Survey" for many years now) Most people will have much stronger opinions about their dislikes - and such information always helps steer me in the right direction.

- J.





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Jeff Fisher | Jeff Fisher LogoMotives | Tweet! Tweet!

One of my favorite responses from people when designers ask what they are looking for is, "I`m not sure what I want, but I`ll know it when I see it." Interestingly, Godin had made a post on why you won`t know it when you see it. Very funny post. 

On average, bigger companies usually aren`t as nit picky as the smaller mom and pop businesses are. Based on what I`ve observed, it`s the sole proprietors of the world who spend 30 minutes on the phone with you trying to decide if they want Verdana font or Tahoma for the typography of the site. Heck, you`d be lucky if you get a client who even knows the difference b/w the two.

I can`t say I`ve had any real major problems with anyone but I`ve come to the following conclusion;

Most of us lack any sort of left brained creativity so, as prospective clients, we live vicariously through our designers. So the designer almost acts like a robot and does the bidding of the client until, as Vincent said, they realize they`ve gotten totally off track with the real purpose of the design.

This happens more often than I would want to admit. Clients want this really cool element to the website but they start to sacrifice usability issues for the sake of form as opposed to function.

Excellent point Jeff... and HDean.

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Vincent Wilcox (a.k.a. KRAKR)
Drummer
My band: Letters Make Words

Truly a great post from Seth, I read that earlier, and absolutely loved #1.  It almost begs the argument that if you are in the #1 position, don`t bother hiring a good designer - farm it out to your buddy who does design on the side, let someone in house muck around with photoshop - what`s the point of engaging a creative professional if you aren`t going to let them be creative?

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chuck fuller