Been There and Done That Again? One graphic designer relates an experience dealing with a difficult (cheap) client.
“A client gave us assurances that when his business increased he would definitely compensate us properly for services rendered. We made a decision to do some work for him on spec and crossed our fingers that his word was good.
“We provided crucial content for his website and his business did increase, just as he predicted.
“We approached him for payment for our design work and he said he would devise a pay schedule for us in a week.”
What happened? See the conclusion of this story at the end of this article. (Names and certain circumstances have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty.)
The Price Is Right/Wrong? If you’ve been in the design industry for any length of time you’ve probably heard many of the reasons why a client only has “a limited budget” for the project. But let’s turn this around a bit.
What if someone needed surgery and told the surgeon that he would pay the operation out of pocket but had only set aside a certain amount for the operation? Would the surgeon take the job?
View this video and see if anything sounds familiar to you: . ………………. . Be Prepared When you enter negotiations with a perspective client it takes a firm hand and some good insight regarding the character of the customer you are dealing with.
Ken Eikenberry, an organization/business consultant, gives some advice on client-vendor relationships.
“When we ask questions we understand situations better. Take the time, make the time to ask your client how she feels, what she thinks, and try to understand her observations regarding the progress of the project and your performance.”
If a client demands the moon but only wants to pay dirt cheap prices you may have to think twice about taking him on as a customer. Ask yourself this question “Is it worth the time, effort, and expense to keep this client happy?”
If the initial meetings are filled with talk of budget constraints on the client’s part rather than the creative aspect of the project, this may be a red flag indicating that there may be trouble ahead.
Graphic Design Schools and Client Relationships The task of meeting deadlines and presenting professional quality work is a must for successful designers.
Graphic design schools help to simulate these conditions through the projects you are assigned, how you relate with your teachers (clients), and the grading of your work.
Graphic design colleges not only provide the needed education to become a graphic designer, they help you to cope with the pressures of design deadlines and project expectations.
In God We Trust; All Others Pay Cash In the beginning of this article a graphic designer described a “cheap” client promising to pay for design services once his business was more successful. Here’s what happened.
“After several months of spec work and his business starting to take off we approached him to fulfill his promise to pay us. Since there was no written contract (our big mistake) he decided he didn’t want to pay us after all.
“We were devastated. It wasn’t the money owed as much as how we were so naïve in believing this customer. We should have followed our initial instincts to be more careful.
“Of course not all clients are crooks, but the event has made us more aware about getting everything in writing and being more careful when customers want things done for free or at cut-rate prices.”
Next Time… Rodney Dangerfield, an old school comedian, made the catch phrase “I don’t get no respect” a popular introduction line to his club routine.
Graphic designers sometimes feel like Rodney when dealing with clients. Next time we meet we’ll see what sorts of steps designers can take to boost morale. Here’s a hint: Use the word “no” more often.
Make a Brit Grin Or to be more specific, make a Londoner smile. The Meme Partnership, a company which is a “socially focused creative enterprise merging public art with contemporary design,” is sponsoring the Smile for London contest.
The Contest Many people commute daily by using the London Underground rail system.
The trains provide an important transportation service, while the various stops provide numerous digital display screens to inform the passengers.
The Smile for London contest is seeking entertaining 20 second video clips to display on the digital display screens located throughout the London Underground. The sponsors state:
“Create a twenty second piece of animation, moving image or film for the digital screens with the ultimate aim of inspiring, exciting or amusing Londoners as they make their way into work.
“We want you to really push the boundaries of this exciting and underexploited medium. Keep the message positive, inoffensive and remember commuters are looking for an escape from their Tube journey.”
Submission Guidelines Please note that there is no sound needed for submissions as the video clips will be run without audio on the display screens. The rules state that all videos entered in this contest must follow these criteria:
* Resolution of 1280 x 720 * 16:9 aspect ratio * QuickTime file format * Video codecs allowed: Animation, Uncompressed 8-bit 4:2:2 * File size no larger than 2GB * Containing a silent digital audio stream at 48KHz (2 Channel) * Should be 20 seconds long.
Video titles and text should follow standard action and title safe parameters: Action safe - 10%; Title safe - 20%.
Judging and Awards Submitted videos will be eligible for online voting by the general public. The top 50 entries with the most votes will be deemed winners of the contest.
Winners of the contest will have their videos displayed on the London Underground monitors for two weeks in January 2011 and will be invited to the launch event at the Museum of London where the winning videos will be showcased.
Contest Links and Related Contest Information Because the London Underground stations are brightly lit, videos that are dark or dim will look washed out or be very difficult to view.
Take this into consideration when producing your videos and make adjustments to color and contrast to compensate for these viewing areas.
The contest deadline is December 10, 2010. There is no entry fee for this contest and no limit to the number of entries you wish to submit.
Been There, Done That? A client hires a graphic designer to assemble specific images for a presentation at a large meeting. The contract states that designer will do up to 50 images. The deadline for the job is the following week. The contract is signed and sealed.
The client drops off all the materials the next day. To the graphic designer’s disbelief (and horror) there are over 200 images instead of the 50 that was agreed upon.
The graphic designer calls the customer up and says only 50 are allowed. The client says, “But I really need all of them. You’ve got to do this for me!”
What did the graphic designer do? The answer will be revealed at the end of this article. (Certain details have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty.)
Contracts and Real Life If you are a graphic designer, web designer, illustrator, photographer or anyone who works and deals with customers, this video may bring a bit of déjà vu to you.
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Contracts are inevitably written and signed in order to specify what services are to be rendered by the vendor, what the price for the services will amount to, what the customer’s rights are, and a host of other details to protect both parties.
Theclient-vendor relationship is usually a give and take proposition. For cynics this means the vendor gives and the client takes and takes and takes and takes…
But an adversarial relationship doesn’t have to be the way you relate with your customers if you are willing to arrive at an amicable compromise during the initial process of hammering out the contract details.
Try to be a Diplomat Graphic design is really the “easy” part of the business. The hard part comes when some clients drive you crazy, are over demanding or try to low-ball your rates without understanding that you or your firm have to make a living, (remember the video?).
But these little bumps in the road are only reminders that you need to be as professional as you can in order to exercise your people skills. Or to put it another way, when lemons come along, squeeze some juice out of them.
Sometimes you’ll be successful, sometimes not, but it’s a given that good people skills can definitely help your business.
Graphic Design School and the Art of Customer Relations Graphic design colleges are essential for your career training, understanding design techniques, and improving your skill sets regarding the use of computers and graphics software.
But graphic design schools also get you ready for the real world by simulating project pressures and deadlines. The teachers may even play the role of difficult clients. You may grumble but you’ll be thankful for the experiences later.
So What Happened? In our story about the “surprise,” which the client gave the graphic designer…
“I was caught between the proverbial rock and hard place. I felt sucker punched by the sudden addition of the extra 150 images! But this was a new client, and although I knew the request was unreasonable, I decided to do the extra work and chalk it up to experience.
“I did the overtime but didn’t charge a dime extra to the client because I assumed that she would probably balk at the additional costs.
“Her presentation went smoothly and was a hit at her meeting. She showed up a week later at the office and gave me a big “thanks” of appreciation for the extra work I did. She also gave me an extra check to compensate me! I was surprised, to say the least.
“She shook my hand and left the office. She also referred me to other clients because of the ‘excellent service’ I provided.
“The client didn’t know how close I was to not doing the job for her. But in the end, it was a valuable lesson for me about ‘going the extra mile’.”
Next Time… In this article we’ve learned that doing things that are beyond what is expected of you can have a happy ending when dealing with clients.
But what other things can you do to maintain order when the “customer from hell” arrives through your office doors? We’ll hear some sound advice from those who have been there and done that in our next article.
The Weird Ones In the final installment of Web Design: The Hits, the Misses, and the Weird — Part III we’ll show some of the strange ones in web design. Some are ugly, some are funny, and some are confusing but they all catch your attention.
Click on each image to see a larger screen shot of the webpage. .
One Trick Pony . Zombo.com does only one thing but does it extremely well; it offers you everything. It has too much negative space but it doesn’t really matter because “You can do anything at Zombo.com.” Don’t forget to have your audio up when visiting this site. .
Everything Plus the Kitchen Sink
TeacherXpress has taken the exact opposite approach from the zombo.com and has too much content crammed onto the webpage. The links to other areas are better but the main page may be TMI (too much information) for some teachers looking for educational resources. .
Buttons Gone Wild Almost all webpages use buttons to link to other areas. But in the case of Haiti News Network the web designer has turned the website into a buttonfest. While the design is loud and cluttered, it certainly is colorful. .
Longest Website? Havenworks.com provides content related to politics, social issues, and commentary. Its claim to fame is that it has appeared on several lists for “Worst Websites.” This website is long—literally. You’ll find an almost bottomless pit of content as you scroll down.
Graphic Design Schools and Web Creativity As you have seen, anyone can create a website but not everyone can design a website properly. In order to do that you’ll need inherent aesthetic talent and the proper education regarding website design principles.
Graphic design colleges offer a wealth of career training and can help you understand the basics of what you need to know about web design. Check with your local graphic design schools to see what courses are available.
Water is Life Are you a student currently studying the fine arts, design, communication design or architecture? If you have already graduated, has it been less than a year since you received your degree? If you can answer ‘yes’ to either question you are eligible for this contest.
The International Student Poster Competition’s theme is “Water Is Life.” ZVSHK (German Sanitation, Heating and Air Conditioning Association), the sponsor of this contest states:
“In the year 2000, the United Nations set itself the goal of halving the number of people without access to clean drinking water by 2015.”
“It is recommended that you conduct thorough research as the topic [Water is Life] is wide-ranging in scope, touching not just on biological aspects of life but also on political and economic issues.
Contest Guidelines All posters must be submitted digitally. The rules state that entries must follow these parameters:
Format: DIN A4 (21.0 cm x 29.7 cm, portrait or landscape format) Resolution: 400 - 600 dpi Color mode: RGB File format: JPEG (Quality factor: 10 - 12) Maximum file size: 15 MB File name: Example: ‘Doe_John_USA_2010-11-08_No.01′ Poster Info: Brief description of the poster concept Mandatory Text: All submissions must include the phrase: ‘Wasser ist Leben’ (German) or “Water is Life” (English)
Prizes The judging panel will select the best 100 poster designs. These entries will be published in a catalog in addition to being displayed in a traveling exhibition. All winners will receive a free copy of the display edition.
There will be three prize winners selected from the top 100.
First Place: 5000 Euros (7,018 USD) Second Place: 3000 Euros (4,211 USD) Third Place: 2000 Euros (2,807 USD)
The prize winners may be offered the opportunity to sell their posters to the event organizers.
Contest Links and Other Details This contest is free to enter. The deadline for submissions is February 11, 2011. Follow these links for more contest information:
A “Fontastic” Website Contest You can add animations, audio, movies or any other graphic enhancements to a website but one thing that is common to all is the use of fonts.
The website may have your standard plain Jane Helvetica or the more exotic Algerian but it can’t be argued that the role of well selected font types can enhance the overall experience for web surfers.
To celebrate the use of web fonts the Web Font Awards will be announced at the Future of Web Design conference in New York City from November 15-17, 2010.
What This Contest Is About Fonts are usually taken for granted by surfers of the Internet but they are an integral element in successful website design. According to the sponsors:
“The Web Font Awards is the first ceremony to celebrate the new-found typographic freedom that Web designers are experiencing across the globe. The competition will recognize the designers and websites that are putting this emerging technology to greatest use.
“Aimed at promoting Web font awareness and adoption, the Web Font Awards is open to eligible users of any Web font service or technology that uses an @font-face declaration.”
Ultimately this contest is about the creative and effective use of fonts in website design.
Judging and Prize Awards Entries will be judged upon three criteria:
* Typography * Usability * Creativity
Each category will carry equal weight for judging. According to the sponsors the following awards will be presented to winners:
Community Choice
* $3,000 (U.S.) * Twenty user license for the Monotype® Library, Linotype® Originals and ITC® Library font collections * One year Professional subscription to the Fonts.com Web Fonts service. * One 32GB Apple® iPad® mobile digital device with Wi-Fi
Judges’ Choice - 1st place * $3,000 (U.S.) * Twenty user license for the Monotype Library, Linotype Originals and ITC Library font collections * One year Professional subscription to the Fonts.com Web Fonts service. * One 32GB Apple iPad mobile digital device with Wi-Fi
Judges’Choice - 2nd place * Twenty user license for the Monotype Library, Linotype Originals and ITC Library font collections * One year Professional subscription to the Fonts.com Web Fonts service. * One 32GB Apple iPad mobile digital device with Wi-Fi
Judges’Choice - 3rd place * One year Professional subscription to the Fonts.com Web Fonts service. * One 32GB Apple iPad mobile digital device with Wi-Fi
There is no entry fee for this contest. There are specific exceptions to who may enter this contest. Be sure to read the contest guidelines for further information on this. The deadline for entries is November 7, 2010.
Been There and Done That Again?
Graphic Design Schools and Client Relationships
In God We Trust; All Others Pay Cash
Water is Life
Contest Guidelines
Contest Links and Other Details
A “Fontastic” Website Contest
Judging and Prize Awards
