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.
Art and Your SketchBook Any student of the illustrative arts, graphic design or drawing has used a sketch book at one time or another to doodle or chisel out ideas.
In the case of the Autodesk SketchBook your canvas becomes your computer or one of the iApple devices for drawing and painting digital images.
Autodesk is announcing its SketchBook Hero Image Contest and is seeking entries created on any Autodesk SketchBook software application programs. The idea is simple; create a knockout image.
The Contest Rules In order to qualify for this competition you must be 18 years or older and make your primary residence in one of the eligible countries as stated in the official contest rules.
Submissions must be created by using one of Autodesk’s following products:
* SketchBook Pro * SketchBook Pro for the iPad * Sketchbook Mobile for iPhone and iTouch * SketchBook Express
Each contestant may only submit one entry to this competition. All submissions are to be uploaded to the official Autodesk contest site.
Judging and Prizes A judging panel will select the best candidates for the final voting stage. The winner will be determined by the general public; the entry with the most votes wins.
The criteria and total possible points for scoring for entries that move on to the final round are as follows:
30 points - Creativity and Originality 30 points - Technical Expertise 20 points - Composition and Design 20 points - Reflection of the Autodesk Brand ————— 100 points - Total
The winning entry will be used as the “splash screen” for the Autodesk SketchBook Mobile application used by all iTouch devices. This app is one of the most popular ones on the iTunes store. The winner’s art may be seen by millions of users of this program.
Contest Links and Additional Information Follow these important links for contest information:
There are no entry fees for this contest. The deadline for submissions is November 14, 2010. Voting by the public will be from November 30 to December 14, 2010. The winners will be announced on December 15, 2010 via email.
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.
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.
Big Profits for Little Games It is estimated that mobile game sales will reach over $21 billion by the year 2013.
This figure is staggering when you consider the amount of available market share that is still yet to be tapped by mobile game companies.
Good mobile games are highly sought after. If you think you have the next “Angry Birds” killer app, the 7th Annual Mobile Gaming Awards may give you the opportunity for fame and prizes.
The Contest Details You can enter your games in any of the following categories. (For specific details on each category see the links at the end of this article.)
* Excellence in Design * Excellence in Game Play * Best Casual Game * Best Real World Game * Most Innovative Game * Best Sports Game
(For specific details on each category see the links at the end of this article.)
According to the sponsors:
“The objective of the IMGA is to create an exciting set of awards to recognize the world’s most talented mobile game developers, whether they are from professional studios, universities or even back bedrooms!”
Judging and Prizes All entries will be judged by an international panel of experts in the industries of entertainment, mobile phones, telecommunications, games, and software development.
Each winner in each category will receive the IMGA Award. There will also be three additional overall winning categories: The People’s Choice Award, The Operator’s Award, and the best game of the year award; The Grand Prix.
The Deadline for entries is January 10, 2011. No entry fee is required to participate in this contest. See contest guidelines for contestant restrictions.
Been There and Done That Again?
Graphic Design Schools and Client Relationships
In God We Trust; All Others Pay Cash
A “Fontastic” Website Contest
Judging and Prize Awards
Big Profits for Little Games
You can enter your games in any of the following categories. (For specific details on each category see the links at the end of this article.)