This goes against the ethics of design, and it is your responsibility to guide the confused design customer so that you let them understand what you intend to do and ensure that it is according to their expectations.

Presented here is a simple guide you can use to give effective guidance to a confused design client when they approach you for your services-:

What is the nature of their business?

No matter the kind of graphics design project you have in mind, your work will always be targeted towards a particular audience and this is determined by the nature of goods and services that the client is offering to their customers. The first process towards guiding a confused design client is to ask them about the nature of their business.

Explain to them that this will enable you understand the design approach to take so that you can give relevant designs suited for their kind of business. Besides, it is your duty to customize the design and come up with unique ideas that will let you set apart your confused design client’s business.

Who are the competitors?

However confused a design client might appear, they will always know who they are up against in their respective industry. While guiding them through the design process, ask them who their competitors are and if there are any particular designs the competitors have that they find intriguing.

This is so that as the designer, you will gain deeper insights into what the competitions is doing, learn the deficiencies present among the competitor so that you can exploit them to come up with superior designs that will elevate your client’s brand above the rest.

What is the preferred image of the business?

Certain confused design clients will have no idea whatsoever on the image they want for their business. Though it happens rarely, it is your obligation as the designer to help the client understand the image that their business is likely to project and advise them that you will be using the same image during the design.

You can begin by asking them what they want the customers to think about their business, the kinds of feelings they want evoked when the customers see the designs, the basis upon which they want to grow their brand, how they want the business to look like the future, etc. For such questions, the confused design client will have a mental picture of the kinds of designs that suits the business and you will also find it easy as a designer to bring out the image formed by the confused design client in the final designs.

Who are the customers?

The other important thing when guiding a confused design client is to help them paint a picture of their customers. They need to have a thorough understanding of the specific group of people they will be promoting the business to. Fundamental questions to help the confused design client in knowing their target customers include who the ideal customers are, where they are likely to be found, the demographics with regards to age likes, etc.

These questions will help the confused design client to get into the minds of their customers to know how they perceive the business. For you as a designer, such information will help you a lot when coming up with the right design that will be suitable the target audience of your confused client.

Where does the client intend to use the design?

It is also important to help the client understand the specific places where the design will be applied to. Perhaps the confused design client wants a design for various branding purposes or they want a logo for which will appear in their official communication channels and help in branding the business. You need to explain to the confused design client why this is necessary so that you both be on the same page on what particular design is required. Whether it is a brochure, a business magazine a logo, a letterhead or a poster, it should be clear to both of you.

Symbols and inspirations

Finally, most logos consist of symbols and the business name. When guiding a confused design client, you need to lead them to reveal for you the symbols that they feel are most associated with their kind of business. As a designer, you don’t want to be generic with the symbols since this is not the best way to be creative and provide a killer design for your confused design client. Discuss with them the importance of using various symbols in the design and the potential meanings that the symbols might have on the final graphics.

Use these top tips for dealing with difficult clients!

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A draft presentation is one of the steps that designers have to contend with during the design process. It comes early in the process because it is out of the draft presentation that the final concept of the design will be agreed upon. A draft design is the rough mock up of what the designer intends to come up with in the final design based on the project brief or the requirements of the client. The main objective of presenting a draft to the client is so that you can both agree on your intentions and also get recommendations before you go deep into the actual design. But as much as design drafts are important, how many then should you present to the client?

The number of drafts to present is very subjective and may be dictated by various factors. Before exploring the specific factors that might determine the number of drafts to show a client, it is important to understand that other than confirming to the client that you are both on the same page as far as the project requirements are concerned, you are also trying out variations and giving the client room to make a choice from the drafts you present to them. Since it is subjective, there are some designers who prefer to give one, two, three and some show up to five different drafts to the clients. Other professional designers, on the other hand, insists on showing just a single design draft for reasons which we will discuss later. Here are a few factors that might determine the total number of drafts to show to your clients.

Terms of agreement – depending on the contractual terms you agreed upon concerning the project, a specific number of drafts may be included in the contract. In such a case, the designer has no choice but to show the agreed number of drafts as per the contract.

Your mistakes – As a designer, there are certain occasions when you don’t get it right the first time, and this is a very common with the first drafts. When you meet the client with the first draft and realize that you are completely off of what they wanted, a second and maybe a third draft may be necessary.

However, this will only happen in the early stages of your design profession. As you increase in your experience, you will start to get it the first time and reduce the number of drafts you show to your clients.

Change in customer requirements – though this rarely happens, there are situations when the client might decide to change a few items once the project has commenced. As a good and a professional designer who desires to please their clients, but only to certain extent, revising the work and presenting another draft might be necessary.

What is the acceptable number – In some situations, however, when there was no clear number of drafts agreed upon on the contract, it is upon the designer and the client to agree on what is acceptable as the number of drafts to show the client. There are certain clients who might be demanding and may require several drafts before you come up with the final design. Such clients might be a bother, and they may slow you down as a designer.

The best course of action, therefore, is to remind them politely that the design needs to move on past the draft stage. But again you should not be too stingy to show at least a couple of designs to the client.

Why you should never present more than one draft to clients?

Most of the professional graphic designers hardly present more than one draft to the clients. This is due to the following reasons-:

Degrades your expertise

When you show a client many drafts, it might signify that you are not certain of what you want to do hence you are not competent enough. As the expert, you should be in a position to clearly read and understand the project brief and come up with the right draft the first time. Presenting many drafts to the client is like asking them to help you do your job.

Choice paralysis

When your habit is to present clients with a number of drafts, both you and the client risk suffering what is referred to us choice paralysis. This is when you are unable to make up your minds and pick a draft to continue working with. You might also find that the clients might choose the choices you never wanted them to pick simply because you gave them a lot of room to move around.

A lot of work on your part

Producing many drafts also mean that you will spend your time, energy and resources in working with the extra number of drafts. It, therefore, leads to more work on your part, which will eventually slow you down and affect your productivity.

How many revisions should you offer?

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It is common for design clients to ask their designer for revisions once the assignment is done. Whereas it is within the rights of the client to ask for revised work when they are not satisfied, too many revisions might have far reaching consequences on the designer as well as the final value of the work. As a professional designer, it is expected that you understand your work and in an ideal case, you should never offer any revision. But in case you have to, what would be the ideal number of design revisions to offer to clients.

Truthfully speaking, there is no definite answer to this question. It is a subjective one with a lot of factors involved. Some designers will agree to do one, two, and three or up to even five revisions whereas other will be clear right from the start and tell clients that they don’t offer any design revisions. Also from the client’s perspective, they will expect a certain number of revisions for every design work they give. Some are ridiculous to ask for an unlimited number of revisions, which most designers will never offer.

Revisions mean little confidence in your work

Too many checks will give an impression that the designer did something wrong hence there is a need to correct. Even though you may not feel confident about your experience and your levels of competency as a graphics designer, you must be careful with the kind of message you pass across to your clients when you allow too many revisions. Essentially, you are telling them that you were not confident about your work the first time hence you are willing to work on it until they are satisfied. Have in mind that nobody wants to hire a designer who won’t get it right the first time.

The question that begs, therefore, is how you limit the number of revisions you make or how you avoid them completely. Discussed below are various approaches you can use to navigate through too many design revisions from clients:

Be selective when accepting clients

The internet has made it so easy to access logo design gigs at very cheap rates. However, most of the professional designer will never offer their logo designs services cheaply. Clients who don’t understand the dynamics, as well as the importance of professional logo design, are the ones who will be quick in asking if you offer any revisions even before they order for your services.

If you consider yourself a professional designer, then you can limit the number of design revisions to offer by simply selecting whom to work for and those to turn down. Fortunately, you can gauge your future interactions with the client the very first time you start to discuss the project. If you feel that they are the “unlimited revision” type of client or they, show signs that they don’t trust your skills hence will be asking for many revisions, save yourself the trouble and drop them.

Do your research and discuss your reasoning with your client

Most clients will request for design checks if they don’t understand your reasons and why you did what you did. One subtle way of ensuring that this doesn’t happen and that you are with the client on the same page is to do a thorough research on the project and have a solid reasoning behind the design.

Additionally, before you go deep into the design, have some time with the client and discuss with them your thought process, telling them what you intend to do with elaborate explanations. This is so that the client gets a clear picture of what you are doing and incase they have any reservation or concerns about the design; they will point it early enough so that you factor it in the design to avoid design revisions once the project is over.

Formulate a revision policy

Another smart way to handle revisions before they even occur is to have a revision policy clearly stated in your website or indicated in your early discussions with your clients. As noted earlier, many clients will always expect a certain number of revisions. You can limit the revision to one or two or use the One Concept Approach, where you don’t offer revisions, and you let the clients know this beforehand.

The advantage of taking this design revisions route is that the clients will trust you right from the start because you are confident about your work, and they will be less inclined to ask for revisions once you are done with the project.

Know how to deal with revision conflicts

In instances when you get into design revision conflicts, you need to find away to resolve the situation in the most amicable and professional manner. A good method would be to revisit the project goals as well as your earlier discussion with the clients to diffuse any confusion that might arise. You can also show them the original drafts if you are certain that you have done the right thing. However, if the work parameters changed during the project, then it may no longer be a revision and a complete review of the project may be necessary.

Learn how to create a logo with universal appeal here. 

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As a designer, professionalism should be ensured at all stages of the design process. From the moment you discuss the brief with the client to the moment you make the final delivery, you have to ensure that everything has gone per the book, meeting all the needs of the customer and leaving you a satisfied designer. Remember every design you churn out will play a great role in advertising your services and get you referral business from clients pleased with your work. To increase your chances of ending up with a superb final project, and also enhance your proficiency as a designer, always have the following five questions in mind:

Is my design in tandem with the client’s goals?

Every design project must have a specific set of objectives from the client. As the designer, it is your duty to work diligently on the design such that it will reflect the goals of the client. Many are the times that most designers get engrossed on their designs such that they forget entirely about the specific goals the client had, only to revert when a lot of time and resources have been expended. It is thus advisable that you keep on referring to the client brief at every stage of the design to ensure that you are not deviating from the goals set forth.

Who is the design meant for?

In addition to goals, every graphics design project will always be targeted to a particular group or a specific audience. Being the designer contracted to do the work, it is your responsibility to come up with a design that will fit the target audience.

This is where you use skills, experience, and intuition to choose the various design components relevant to the target audience. For instance, you will have to decide on the appropriate typography, colors, symbols as well as the layout that will make sense to the target audience.

What emotions is the design going to evoke amongst the viewers?

Graphics design is widely used to express the values and principles of various businesses. They are used to show the potential customers what they should expect when dealing with the business or when using the products of the business. It is the sole responsibility of the designer to come up with appropriate designs that will express in a precise manner the real perception that the company desires its customers to have.

Achieving this in design is primarily through the use of colors. Colors can be used to show different emotions or states regarding the products and services of the business. Therefore, it is imperative that as a designer, you have a proper understanding of the graphic design color theory so that you use the appropriate color schemes to evoke the desired emotions from those the audience being targeted with your design.

It is possible to have a beautiful logo with a beautiful design, but if it fails to evoke the right emotions on the potential customers, then it shall have failed miserably in achieving its purpose. You will also have failed as the designer of that work.

Where is the design going to be used?

Graphic designs have broad areas of applications. You need to have in mind the particular application of the design project you are about to embark on. It is important to consider this because the design approach will be different when you are working on products to be used in different places. For example, working on a project meant for the mass media will be completely different from working on a logo to be used on a website.

And suppose you were working on a project to be used on the digital platforms, you also need to consider on how it will render on various digital devices. For instance, a good logo should render well on both desktop and mobile devices without getting distorted or losing any of the design ratios.

Still on the application of the design, you have to ask yourself if you have used the correct layout that will lead to a proper rendition of the design. For instance, working on an airline logo will imply that you will work with narrow vertical layouts because such logos need to fit in the tail fin of the aircraft and these are usually small spaces. The design approach would be different if you were working on a banner for a billboard.

Must the design project adhere to current trends?

As much as it may be appealing to have a design conform to the current trends, it is good to remember that trends come and go, but principles never change. Therefore, ask yourself if the design will stand the test of time or if it will become obsolete the moment the trend passes away. You don’t want the customer coming back to you for a redesign simply because the design is no longer appealing since it was based on some fad that is long gone.

Check out this article on design trends as well!

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