About Design and Clients

At the time when the blog was created, only designers were supposed to write for Design section. However, since all designers are extremely busy and take breaks only for sleep and food (moreover, one of them is going to be taken to the army), I had nothing but to write an article.

Here, I won't recall my experience as a designer; instead of this, I'll describe my experience in communication with clients in terms of designing.

Generally, in the context of attitude to the design, all clients can be roughly divided into three groups.

The first group is the favored clients. They normally have minimum requirements for the future design and entirely rely on the designers' opinion, treat them as a professional and totally trust them. The group also includes indifferent clients. The main thing for them is to get a working product, and they don't care that much about the way it looks. For designers, such clients are always the best because any work is a masterpiece in the eyes of the latter. The advantages are obvious for the manager, the fewer remarks the client has, the less time is spent on design. However, this group does have remarkable disadvantages. The absence of constructive criticism just 'spoils' the designers. From my own experience, I can say with full confidence that a really quality design necessarily has to evolve. Analyzing the projects of our designer, every time I catch myself thinking that the second version is always better than the first one. That's why if the better part of the clients belong to the 'favored' group, you'll need to create a system of internal evaluation that will make the designers produce the better design even if the client doesn't demand it.

The second group is 'unappreciated artists'. As a rule, they are owners or managers of mid-sized businesses (or sometimes just managers) who have succeeded to some extent in their line of work, and they think their unrecognized talent for design is getting lost. These clients are the most troublesome since they are always trying to get involved in the design process and give some 'valuable' advice. Of course, it's important for us to get the client's opinion and vision, but everything has its limits. Thanks to these clients we have the popular jokes among designers, such as 'You can play with fonts' or 'Your blue is not blue enough'. Unfortunately, it is often impossible to reach a compromise with these clients, and then the manager faces a choice – either to stop cooperation or to come to terms with it and as a result to get a project which won't be included in the portfolio.

The third group... I don't even know what name to give them. The thing that characterizes them is their dependence on the existing example. 'I want an online store like Rozetka...', or 'On Amazon.com there's a different menu structure, why don't we make the same?' All arguments and explanations usually don't make sense. These clients want 'like this' design instead of fresh and unconventional vision.

Speaking frankly, it's all rubbish :) Each job has its specific and challenging moments (let it be website development or metal trading). The main point is not to forget about the respect to each other. We appreciate our clients and try to provide them with the best possible result. So no wonder, that we want the clients to treat our work in a serious and respectful manner.