The best and worst of clients
Posted January 3rd, 2010.
Like any business, graphic design has its share of good and bad clients. I’m currently discussing a project with a potential client, nothing is set in stone yet so lets call him “Bob”. To sum up a longer conversation with Bob, it went like this;
Q: Typically, what styles or logos do you prefer?
A: Stylish and simple, easy to remember.
Q: Logo concepts would you like?
A: One.
Q: Did you have a budget set for the project at all?
A: Andrew, to tell you the truth I don’t even know how much a project like that should cost. Maybe you can provide me with some levels of pricing and the differences between a $500 or $2000 project. Thank you.
Good design expectations, straight to the point, straightforward and honest with the sometimes awkward subject of money. So far it’s been a pleasure dealing with Bob.
On the flip side of that coin, it was surprising to read a discussion fellow designer Mark Biegel had with a potential client. After missing a call while driving, Mark quickly called back to say “Sorry I missed your call, I was driving”.
Only to have said client say “Don’t ever ring me and say sorry, when I call you I expect you to answer! I have 2 other developers who could work for me so your lucky to get my business.”
Not surprisingly Mark declined the project and 3 months later the clients website is apparently still not started, guess that attitude isn’t working for him.
How about you?
Any stories for better or worse?
Great article Andrew—and thanks for the link too.
It’s great to see that your blog is gaining momentum. If you’re anything like me, I bet you’ll be tweaking your template design every few months, hehe! Hope 2010 goes well for you :)
Andrew,
Tweaking it every month without fail so far, ha. Just replaced my feedburner / twitter counter icons with some custom ones yesterday.
That will hold off the cravings for another month or two.
Best thing to do is just to stop looking at the design so you won’t get bored, although I haven’t been able to even follow my own advice, hehe!
I can honestly say It’s finished now. Previously I was just using the feedburner style counters for both my RSS and twitter icons but wasn’t happy with them.
I’d been looking for something a lot more prominent without being overwhelming for while now just hadn’t really had the time to spend on it. Ended up making my own as you can see ( top right icons ) so now I’m happy.
No more tweaking, I promise :P
update Ok I lied… but I made it 10 whole days before I changed my subscriber/follower counter ;)
update #2 Ok I lied again… I lasted another month before I dropped my body copy size by a pixel :P