By Wayne Blatchley

Remember when Barbie caught all kinds of crap when she said, “math class is tough”? Well, I’m not sure she would have been in as much trouble if she said “design is tough,” but believe me it is. I have been doing it for most of my life (let’s not use real years here, but were talking at least 3 or 4 dogs). Design is tough, and sometimes depending on the client, really, really tough. But to be fair, from the client’s point of view, I’m sure they have found the design process difficult at times as well. What the client envisions and what the designer envisions are usually very different. Designers are improvers, always wanting to make it “better,” cleaner, more concise and this is not always what the client wants. So, it would not be uncommon to hear from a client “why is there so much blank space?” and the ever popular “can you make the logo bigger?”.

Fuzion recently hosted a branding seminar for RI Goldman Sachs 10K Small Businesses and one of the topics we covered was how to work with designers. So Brian Boyle of Cross Trainer and I came up with some helpful hints for when working with designers. To make it a little more fun, we did a scripted role-play (coming soon to a theater near you).

 

1. You hired a designer; let them design.

Designer: These are the designs we came up with for your logo after carefully researching your market and the competitive set in your arena. Please look them over and we can review tomorrow.

(The next day)

 Client: I showed the logos to my wife, the mailman and my 5-year-old son. We kind of like option one, but think it should be green and purple and change the font to something more fun like brush script and add a light bulb for the dot above the “i” to emphasize how smart our product is.

Moral: You hired the designer to design; let them design. Don’t show your milkman; show your audience.

 

2. Know your budget.

Client: I need a complete branding from ground up, research, naming, logo, business card, signage, sales sheet, and trade booth.

Designer: Wow, that is a lot of work and a really great project for us. Do you have a specific budget in mind? It’s really helpful for us to know if you have a budget so we can try and work within it its parameters.

Client: No, I don’t really have a budget for this at all. Have no idea what it should be. Can you just come back with a proposal?

(2 days later)

Designer: We came up with a proposal and it looks like around $20K for everything.

Client: OMG, never thought it would be that much I only budgeted $10K. I was hoping you would come in under that. What can we take out?

Moral: If you have a budget, share it with the designer. It will save time, effort, and frustrations for both parties.

 

3. Be fair.

Client: (on phone) We love your work and really want to work with you, but could you just mock something up quick, so we can see what you are going to do?

Designer: (thinking) That’s basically like asking me to do the work for free. It devalues my work and goes against everything I stand for. Normally I wouldn’t but this is a great potential client and I need this job, so I’ll do it just this one time.

Designer: Okay, I’ll do some mockups if it will help me get your business.

Client: Awesome, thanks, this will definitely pay off for you I promise. *fist pumps in air* knowing that they will never pay this designer for their creative work. 

Moral: There’s a special place in hell for clients that behave this way. Be fair to your designer and they will work hard for you.

 

4. Design is not a commodity.

Designer: I’ve reviewed the RFP, and this project is right up our alley. We’ve helped a lot of businesses just like yours achieve their goals. You’re looking at $25K all in for the design and programming.

Client: What?!? The last website we did cost $2,500! How is this possible?

Designer: Ok, so how did you like that site?

Client: Well… it never really worked the way they said it would, and I practically designed it myself using a template they provided, and the programmer got a new job and changed his number, but besides that it was alright for a while.

Designer: We’re going to approach this site very differently. This site will be built using state-of-the-art tech in combination with professional custom design by award-winning designers. Your website is your most important marketing tool, and we will use this platform to effectively communicate your brand. We understand your needs and have several happy clients that can vouch for our capabilities.

Client: Ok, would you do it for $3,500?

Moral: Design is not a commodity, so make sure you’re comparing apple to apples.

 

Do you need some branding? Would you like to test your newly acquired working-with-a-designer skills? Give us a call! We may just let you make the logo bigger (maybe just a little).