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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