Clients with bad taste
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- Glitterati_Duane
There is only so much your design education can do for you when your clients have bad taste... Frustrating day. Anyone else feeling me on this?
- jimbojones0
hell yes
- CALLES0
just make that turd look pretty!
- this typeface is boring. I like handwriting! And colours! Blue is my favourite. And an actual photo would be nice toojimbojones
- Mother fucker. Are you my client?Glitterati_Duane
- I also want the entire site in Flash, Flash was my favourite superhero.jimbojones
- Flash, but we need SEO and make damn sure it works on an iPhone too!vaxorcist
- Jnr_Madison0
- sweet sweet inspirationzarkonite
- my mouth just went numb looking at thatrayborn3000
- monospaced0
Absolutely. Makes me cherish the ones with good taste.
- grunttt0
should I ever win the lottery I will stay at my job until I'm finally fired for saying things like "Yes, I know what you're saying but what you don't realize is that it would look fucking stupid."
- BuddhaHat0
He's not a client, but my boss just picked the logo for our latest Point of Sale software release, and it's shocking. The designer has given us 6 different concepts, all of which are rubbish. My boss can't wait any longer and has picked one of the worst ones out of the lot... it makes baby Jesus sad.... if I get something better than a printout given to me, I'll definitely post it for feedback...
- don't, huge backfire even if it's good for the egojimbojones
- jamble0
should I ever win the lottery, I'd quit on the grounds of massive wealth.
- PonyBoy0
fire them!
It's been done... I've done it... BUT... make sure you're in a position to do so...
... unfortunately the economy is so arsed right now that I'm sucking it up and doing some horrid work at the moment... stuff I'll never put in the folio - but I am eating. :)
- It's been a few years of the same crap. I'm seriously considering itGlitterati_Duane
- Scotch_Roman0
The art is in learning how to ignore the silly requests without letting the client know they're being ignored.
I listen, nod, take notes, say things like "I'll definitely take a look at that" or "that's a possibility"... then design something the way it needs to be designed, and back it up with sound logic when I present to the client.
- very true.grunttt
- my hero!jimbojones
- Yeah that works some of the time. In this case I did that and got sternly told I didn't follow the briefGlitterati_Duane
- grunttt0
I'd like to say something like, "I knew the moment that you walked in here with that haircut and wearing that shirt that this project was going to go to shit."
- Scotch_Roman0
One thing that helps is to use your website as a filtering process. If some seems like a walking pair of pleated khakis, then I direct them to my site to "see if they think I would be a good fit with their needs." This isn't foolproof mind you, but it has certainly helped me thus far.
- twokids0
I always say this:
"We can do it the way you want, but I do not recommend it."You can say that they hired you for a reason, but that is really self - evident. I just think you need to CYA when clients start making bad choices so that later you can say 'I told you so' but also get paid if they don't care that you made something for them that suited their taste and wound up getting bad responses. The bottom line is, they are paying you, so they really should be able to get it how they want...as long as you make it clear what you think.
- Glitterati_Duane0
Here's the problem. They've been getting hack work done for them for years. So long that they don't recognize good work when it's in front of them. Then the people that like them compliment the work regardless of how it looks while the people who don't like them just don't say anything. So all along I'm sure they've been thinking that their stuff has been great.
- section_0140
Every fucking day of my life. Once in a blue moon someone will have some taste and understand why their logo doesn't need to take up the entire page, but that's rare.
- uberdesigner0
~90% of clients have poor taste. that's why they need to be educated.
- Rand0
my grandfather's revolver is in the lower left hand drawer or my desk, hidden under some of my daughter's old schoolpapers and artwork. The bullets are in a cigar box under the bed. Is there a "use-by" date on bullets? I have no idea. These must be at least 50 years old. A few times a month, just for the hell of it, I take the empty gun from the drawer, go in the bathroom, stand in front of the mirror, hold the gun to my temple and pull the trigger. Last week when I did this I also brought a bullet from the cigar box, loaded it into the chamber and gave it a spin before holding it to my temple. I can't describe the surge of adrenaline as I debated whether to pull the trigger.
- don't do it Rand!!! We love you!!! http://suicidepreven…BuddhaHat
- hey, thanks, but this isn't about suicide, it's about clients with bad taste!Rand
- yeah, don't do it, it won't kill clients with bad taste for the rest of us anywayjimbojones
- point the gun AT THE CLIENT.grunttt
- BaskerviIle0
90% of being a designer is not the design but using your excellent communication skills to effectively help your client understand why their logo doesn't need to take up the whole page and why white space is useful not 'a waste'.
That's the real reason we learn graphic communicate, not to speak to the general population but to get through the thick skull of our client. The key is to make the client think it was their idea, then they'll never say no