Common client misconceptions in graphic design
“It looks different on my screen.”
A client might ask for a specific Pantone colour from their Pantone swatch book. The designer sets the file exactly as is required, yet when the client sees an example on their computer monitor they are disappointed that the colour isn’t the same. Why is that?
Brightness, contrast, colour settings… all monitors have them. Unless two monitors are calibrating to the exact same settings then the colours will always appear different. The best way to colour-match is using printed proofs, and even then, your choice of paper can critically affect the colour of your printed product.
“Can you use the image from the website for our brochure?”
Sourcing images can be very time-consuming. Many clients will believe that an image they find online is perfect for their print job. However, in order to look clear, web images must have a resolution of 72 dots per inch (dpi). Print work, on the other hand, requires images to have a resolution of at least 300 dpi.
Anyone responsible for marketing material / printed promotions should be familiar with a design guide for print.
“Why does it cost that much? My neighbour only charged £200 for a logo.”
The client doesn’t often see the process involved when a graphic designer takes on a logo project. In fact, on most occasions the client will only see a few computer-generated designs.
A designer will only use a computer at the end of the logo design process. Beforehand comes clarifying the design brief, research, brainstorming and logo sketching (yes, lots of sketching).
What issues do you find cropping up again and again when dealing with graphic designers / clients?
Related posts on David Airey dot com
45 appreciated comments to “Common client misconceptions in graphic design”
What are your thoughts?
Simply fill in the form below. All comments are moderated so you may experience a short delay before yours appears. Comments should be respectful of other voices in the discussion, and I reserve the right to edit or delete comments at my discretion.
Please use your real name — keywords not accepted.
Customer: “No, not black. Black always looks sad, like a death notice.”
Designer: “I used black as a contrast to the lively green of your logo. See how much brighter and modern the design looks?”
Customer: “O.k.”
Customer: “What if we use a really dark blue instead of the black?”
Designer (thinking): “It is only self-defense, it is only self-defense, it is only self-defense…”
Make changes to graphic site of the website template. To the client, “Although you can update the content of the site very easily via the backend, you can’t change the colour of the logo or the background colour”, and if you could, I would of disabled it anyway!
Jamie
David do you use one of those monitor sensors, not sure of the name?
Terinea: do you mean the Blue-Eye sensor? Gretag-Macbeth and LaCie make the best colour calibrators; although they’re not cheap they are essential when your work is colour critical
LOL! That’s a familiar topic! ;)
Hahaha, I couldn’t help laughing all the way. I faced all these issues since day 1 of work. 20 years on, I’m still hearing the same laments, complaints and queries from prospects and clients. To a client who once told me, ” It shouldn’t take you more than 20 mins to do this, why are you charging so much for so little work?”. My response was “It only takes 20 mins because I have 20 years of knowledge and experience to back me up.” It might seems arrogant. Yet, it is true that our knowledge, experience, skills and creative flair help us to strategize, execute, and produce our work better and faster.
My resolution is to be patient. I’ll explain the process and the pros and cons, and leave them to make a wise decision to use us or seek another agency. I prefer to have a happy client with us.
I once worked for a company that paid $7,000 for a few different file types of a logo that, to me, looked exactly like the old one (we even gave them the font and the graphic to use). They just spaced things out. I guess if they’d have only bid a couple hundred we’d have been suspicious of them.
minlji – Thats the device.
Like you say Vivienne just explaining the process and showing them the design sketches. Giving them updates as often as possible so they see it’s not an over night process.
Zep,
There’s a lot of micro-managers out there. The plus side of self-employement is choosing your clients, but sometimes it takes experience of them in the first place.
Jamie,
As minxlj suggests, Gretag and LaCie are leaders in the calibration tool market.
I’ve taken a course in colour calibration, and used light boxes for proofs, but I’m never 100% sure of accuracy until I see the actual digital proof from the printers. Even then, it depends on the actual light source you’re viewing the proof under. A light box is recommended.
Paul,
Indeed, your post and a particular forum thread gave the inspiration for today’s write up. Looking forward to your mass traffic article!
Vivienne,
Absolutely – patience is key. You make a good point about being able to carry out tasks faster than others, due to your many years of experience. It’s such experience that prevents delays further down the line.
Funny Guy,
It’d be great if you were to send me the details of the company you worked for, whilst at the same time giving me an excellent recommendation for logo work.
In all serious, people do become wary of quotes when they under-price the value of the project.
Ahh, I’ve seen those so many times! Especially a spin on the second one: ‘I get it from Google Images, that means it’s free to use wherever I want right?’ …people don’t seem to understand that images can be copyrighted just like books or music.
I also get the ‘why does it cost so much?!’ a lot, despite being towards the lower end of the pricing scale in terms of local design businesses.
I’ll add committees of clients to the list, especially a committee that can’t agree on anything and all seem to have different ideas of what their purpose is and what their design should look like.
Great topics. Great designers are often the ones who can overcome things like this without getting too frustrated with clients.
My biggest problem is something Vivienne already mentioned: Time.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been worked over because I took two weeks to get a final draft. Which as you know, is pretty fast anyway.
Vivienne, I don’t think your statement is arrogant at all! I had a prof in college that wouldn’t even give advice to friends about her business because she had spent so much time acquiring her knowledge and honing her skills (that is pushing arrogance I think). People pay us just as much for our knowledge, creative minds and computer skills as they do for the final output (logo, ad, website). Think about all those people who do “Executive Coaching.” There is no tangible final product, but execs pay a LOT of money for the skills they learn from those coaches.
Just to add another reason for your first point:
some LCD monitors only display 16.2 million colors, so some gradients will show color banding.
I have dealt with everyone of this issues too many times to count!
Another classic is that I will get a call from a client telling me that there is a single word on a line and can I break the line somewhere else or force the word back up a line. Uh, no. Not in the web world. Or they will print their web site out and be concerned with line breaks there.
Client education goes a long way to ensuring a smooth design process.
Great post David!
Oh yes! I can relate to these sorts of things popping up.
The two main problems I seem to have, are price and client vagueness. No, I won’t design and code a dynamic modelling profile with integrated forums, blog and CMS for £50, and no, telling me that “it should be green… not bright green… and make the title shiny… and have a cool flash intro!” doesn’t really clue me in about how you really want your website to be.
Clients, eh? :)
Great post! I can second your findings!
I recently tried in vain to advise my client against having a black background and white text. Could I? No!
I’m quite sure the calibration of their monitor must be very poor indeed.
I uploaded some pics for them and they said they looked ok on their new laptop but on their main computer the photographs looked as if they had a disease!
There’s only one thing that had a disease and that was their ancient and defunct computer!
Not only have I found difference in colours and grading but I’ve had one or two problems with the positioning and lining up of items on a page on different monitors / systems. Having Constructed a page on 1024 x 768, Internet Explorer, which looks fine can look out of line, even some items overlapping on other screen resolutions and internet browsers.
How can I guarantee a perfect page on ALL systems?
Best wishes,
@David Beard: Perhaps it might be worth checking into having dual stylesheets – one for IE, and another for more W3C compliant browsers. Doing a search for “css ie hack” or similar should get you going :)
There are a number of practices that irritate me. I’ve been in the design business for 25 years and in that time the one major thing I hate is the practice of presenting 3 logos for a client to choose from. I absolutely refuse. I usually explain that I put all of my efforts and expertise into one direction because I believe that to be the solution I would recommend. I suggest when other companies DO submit 3 designs, the other 2 are actually ugly sisters. But more times than not the customers will treat it like a Chinese menu and take a bit of one, something from the other and combine them to make a horrendous design.
I usually get it on the first hit with a bit of additional tweeking 90% of the time. I also attribute this to my experience, and I don’t view this as arrogant. I don’t apologize for my expertise.
Another thing I don’t understand is: are we the only profession where the client thinks that they are as qualified as we, when it comes to design of logos? I put more into my logos than just creat a “cool” image. I am considering the target market, how it will be used, and several other considerations before I ever put pencil to paper to begin my thumbnails. I don’t appreciate comments like, ” I could have done that” or “I showed my wife and we didn’t like…” I often wonder, do they question the expert opinion of legal counsel? For instance, “My nefew (who loves to watch legal shows) thinks we should handle the suit this way…”
Because so many in business view graphic design as art not a profession, I think we are constantly having to prove our worth. Young designers consistently undervalue their work.
I could go on and on here David. This subject struck a cord with me. Over the years, I have had this discussion with fellow designers and have come to the conclusion that we are our own worst enemies. More times than not I have had discussions on the design process and have noticed a complete lack of appreciation for marketing and reason why we are designing something in the first place – to sell something. Not to hang in a gallery. One favorite line I once read from a top NY art director was-
“It’s not creative unless it sells!”
In graphic design I believe this to be so, because if it fails to sell it’s just art.
Chisa,
Design by committee never works. I totally agree.
Char,
I’m sure if a few of my print clients had websites I dealt with, they’d also be asking me for extra line breaks here and there.
Damien,
I don’t know why people still want flash intros. I really don’t.
Jo,
I can empathise with your client computer settings. It’s all about educating people, so we have to take on the role of teacher quite often too.
David,
For a perfect page on all browsers you have to do a lot of cross-checking. Unfortunately Internet Explorer tends to throw up quite a few variations that other browsers don’t.
Ed,
Thanks very much for the contribution to this article. I know I only touched the surface with my input, but of course you have much more experience in the field than I.
I know exactly what you mean about presenting variations. It’s almost inevitable that the design you think is the weakest will be chosen.
Interesting to get your take on presenting clients with a choice. I wonder how many designers have the same outlook? For me, your rationale is a very sound one.
All that you said and more. What I really don’t like are surprise client objectives. It is a variation of “I will know it when I see it,” but it is done regardless of what the design brief states.
Our business is in helping the client sells his product/services and keep his cash register ringing non-stop. If our creative/copy work fails to drive customers to his shops, we basically fail. A good ad is an ad that sells. So I agreed totally with what Ed said that “It’s not creative unless it sells”. I guess that’s why some clients prefer direct response ads to institutional (aka image) ads.
Kerry,
The line, “I know what I want when I see it” is a classic.
Vivienne,
Most of the clients I’ve dealt with have had a strong idea of what they want from poster designs, and the preference is always for a call to action. I’m in agreement with Ed, too. A response should be invoked by design.
Yeah, so true.
Check this cartoon out. It hits what you are talking about on the head.
That cartoon Kerry linked to above is great…I just recently finished a logo project for a client that was about 6 out of the 8 types! But, I do like the logo after the many revisions!
I’m new to the graphic design profession and am learning very quickly (or at least trying to) from my mistakes in dealing with clients. I’ve found the article and all the comments very helpful, so thank you for that!!
My question to you is how do you feel about final file formats for clients? Should they get source files that they can edit as they see fit and have complete license over? I’m finding that many clients don’t just want the final design, they want the original file so that they can make changes, i.e. business cards, in case their address changes. Any thoughts?
Great cartoon, Kerry.
Brian,
I’m unable to view the images of the logo. Not sure why, which is a shame.
Mari,
I always provide clients with original files, and feel it would be wrong to hold them back. Should the client go against advise and alter the file, well, that’s their prerogative. Glad you found this article and the excellent comments of use.
Brilliant post!
You are a great designer and you help to others to become great!
I’m quite new to the this profession and I’m trying to learn it from my mistakes and from mistakes of others. Your article and all the comments below are always very helpful to me.
Thank you.
Ed,
I totally agree with you. Many people don’t see graphic design as a profession. For example, some people will gladly pay for a lawyer fee even before getting his services, but will fail to understand why a designer needs to secure a deposit before taking on a project, and when they do, they dictate or micromanage every step of a project since they believe that what we do is a hobby and that it can be achieved by anyone who has a computer and design software. I have never seen anyone instructing a lawyer or a doctor on how to go about their work, they present a problem and wait for a solution.
In my career I have worked with all sorts of clients from the good, the bad and the deliberately ignorant. My advice to all designers is to always try to educate clients on what a creative process is, it’s outcome and how it will benefit their business.
Sam,
I’ve worked with some ignorant people, but never deliberately ignorant (at least as far as I know). I feel for you there.
This is real simple!
Any design is a “baby sitting job and a lot of hand holding.”
Most people don’t know what they want.
They want you to start working and then they’ll tell you what they like or dislike.
I just had a lady that makes high-end cupcakes and sells them for a fortune, tell me her web page cost too much money.
BTW, she only paid 225.00 for a 2 page site.
I know 2.25 is nothing for page or two.
However I’ve done the 30,000 dollar sites and its the same thing.
The client alway thinks they can do this themselves cheaper.
I hate web design for all the same reasons.
I didn’t do any for years because of the hand holding you need to do.
Then I tried to do a friend a favor and do 2 pages for 225.00 and they’re bitching all the way.
” I could have cropped the photos for you”
What they don’t get is that cropping photos has nothing to do with getting the photo really ready for the web.
You need to compress, get the size right and much more.
I had to vent!
Thanks, Matt
You’re very welcome, Matt. We all need to vent sometimes.
Hi David,
A few months ago I was given a brief from a client for a logo and stationery package. The brief was relatively straight forward and looked to be an enjoyable job. I proceeded and things went well for the first few drafts.
Then, whilst in a meeting with the client I was in the process of pointing out why a sans serif font would give the modern look she was after far better than the times new roman she was suggesting when, to my amazement, she proceeded to stand up and walk straight out of the meeting without so much as a goodbye!
A few weeks later she made contact with me again and I found out that she thought I was undermining her authority by questioning her choices throughout the design process!
I think some clients want to feel that they have produced things themselves. They get far too personally involved to the point where they do not wish to be educated in the process.
Hi Richard,
Sorry you had to go through that experience. I’m curious, when your client got back in touch, did the project pick up where you both left off? Did she apologise?
Hi David,
The project picked up with no apology but the suggestion from her that we go with a sans serif font which I had to, in a sense, just shrug off with a roll of the eyes. Perhaps she needed to feel she had come to the conclusion without others input, but that’s just a guess.
The job progressed and was completed on time and the client went away happy though I was reluctant to make any suggestions for the remainder of our time working together.
I wonder if maybe there are different ways to communicate with different clients?
I’ll have to look into it.
Absolutely. Some treat their designer as a partner, and hire them to educate on the most effective route, whereas others simply want a ‘pixel pusher’ to turn their own ideas into a vector file. Nowadays, the vast majority of my clients are the former, but I’ve come across more than my fair share of the latter.
The most worst thing happens very often with few clients that they say “Don’t tell me, I know everything!” which always disappoint me. At that time it’s very difficult to convince them on our idea.
I always face problem while dealing with such client. Can anybody help me?
I’m currently putting my portfolio/site together. But I have been asked by clients about my pricing – I just simply tell them that I get paid not for the labor but for my vision.
I guess this would be a client misconception:
One of my first “paid” logo design jobs involved a client who insisted in getting a design that was overly flashy, highly detailed, and full of raster “bling”. I suggested to her repeatedly, that a clean and simple vector logo would be the way to go. There was no winning this one however, so I did what she asked for.
It turned out that she loved the design, but she was un-happy with how it displayed in smaller sizes. The reason being; the logo just had too much gong on.
I’ve found myself in this situation more than once. The client wants what they want, depite your strongest attempt at convincing them otherwise. I’m curious to see what you other designers do in a situation like this. Do you tell the client you just won’t proceed with something you know is not appropriate and will cause problems later on, or do you bite your lip and do what the client asks?
Nice article as always David. Keep it up!
I know the scenario, Derek.
There are some people who go against your advice, no matter how much you protest. It hasn’t happened to me for some time, but I’d go ahead with their wishes. Give them what they want, then show them what you think is better.
Love this article! Makes the journey of freelancing feel a little less frustrating and alone. Sort of like a collective understanding.
I will definitely be checking your blog again in the near future.
I hope the journey’s a good one for you, Jess. Good luck with the September web launch, and if you think I can help out in any way, just let me know.
Thanks for the kind comments and offer. I’ll definitely keep that in mind!
I went through the color issue with a client this week. A nice read. Thanks for the post.
Dan
Loved this post. I’m actually an illustrator but many of these issues have come up for me; I frequently get told,
‘I have an idea but don’t know how to create it on a computer’
one client told me:
‘you’re not the creative one, I’m the creative one, you just operate the machinery for me’,
I drew exactly what they asked for (a book cover illustration & layout) and they now have complained about everything that is ‘wrong’ with the ideas of the piece!!