A personal blog of advice to clients:

OK, so a budding young web designer and I have been swapping advice recently, and once again the good old phrase popped up “It is what they wanted”.

This is so infuriating for a designer, we cannot do our job to the correct level when a client who works in Scaffolding, Finance or Teddy Bear Repair (Insert job of your choice), know more than we do, there are rules to web design and graphic design, when a client want’s something that does not make sense (Flash for example, terrible for SEO) and a designer tries to tell them (sometimes politely, sometimes abruptly) that it will not work, some clients get upset. Why?

If you were in Singapore and waltzed into Raffles, would you tell the head chef to make you a Salad Cream and Marmite toastie, as you do not like whats on the menu?

If you were in Harrods, would you tell the £48k a year window dresser how to do her job?

If you told a builder whilst building your house that you do not want air vents, windows or doors, do you think he would build it?

The list could go on.

Leave design to your designer, I appreciate some people have an eye for design, people in industries such as interior design, painting, architecture etc, and ironically these are the clients that will take your advice and feedback, those with no design or creativity will want a word document their 8 year old nephew designed!

Two pieces of advice

Clients like this: STOP! You will end up with a pile of pants, that does not work, and then you will wonder why you have no orders, or new clients.

Designers: If you have a client like this, advise first, then if no joy, run! Put it in your terms and conditions somehow. But remember, sometimes a client will give you an idea or advice that will change your world!

Never ignore the client or the designer, become a team, and take on board each others skill sets and talents, but do not let a Plumber in Kent tell you how to design his advert!

Now, you can have the soap box back. My rant is over!