Comments on: 7 Things Web Designers Hate Hearing from Clients

By: Shany

Shany — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 17:15:53 +0000

Below are exact quotes I took from my clients:

“My budget is $10 for the logo”
“I need you to make me a 15″x25″ poster using 2 of my pictures I took with my webcam”
“I want my logo to look exactly like the famous ABC logo cuz I love that logo so much, only make it pink!”
“Can you design the website in Microsoft Words so I could edit and update it myself when I want to?”
“I have already given you the detailed description and now I have to repeat myself again: I want the logo to look professional and cool, it has to be cool, that’s the key. How can I describe anything more detailed?”
“Can you mix red and white together and not have pink?”
“It’s too bright! I told you I want it to be lime green! Don’t you know what lime green is? Lime green is the army color, the same color you saw in soldiers’ uniforms.”
“My 2 year-old son would do it better! I won’t pay for this sh*t”

By: Lisa

Lisa — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 20:56:10 +0000

Great article! I’ve been in the business for over 12 years and I must say you are right on the money. Yes, we are taught the client is king, but you have to draw the line somewhere or else they will take complete advantage of you. By golly its a business not charity! Had it recently happen to me. But how about this fav tune…”If you give me a discount, I have so many connections I’ll get you more business.” or “I’m just starting out I can’t really afford it but I WANT it.”

By: web design

web design — Mon, 24 May 2010 16:54:14 +0000

Haha for me, I really hate to hear this from client: (We are looking for long term relationship) thus they are expecting something to be done really cheap. In fact, just because of we are also looking for long term relationship, that’s why we can’t always give super low cost charging otherwise we can’t survive! :D

By: WSz

WSz — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 18:22:52 +0000

Sooo many grammatical mistakes… ugh. Tough read.

When you move up to real people, real businesses, all these points become moot. People know what they want and price is negotiated based on industry standards, etc. So if you are a college kid struggling in your basement, sure, be wary of your uncle’s drinkin’ buddy wanting a website, but when you start building a base and moving up in the world of design, none of these issues will be of the slightest concern.

And Kayla, get on proof reading. Seriously. A cursory scan would have caught at least half of those. For those saying “great article,” you guys have a low, low bar.

By: Geoff

Geoff — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:18:42 +0000

Great article! I think we can all relate to at least one of those scenarios – the joys of being Web Designers hey! :)

By: Jermaine Young

Jermaine Young — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:18:55 +0000

Thank you very much for this article. Problem clients and unreasonable client demands made me certainly question my talent and ability as a designer. I almost reached a point where I decided that it just wasn’t for me. Worst of all, the biggest issues came from family and friends. These are great tips and I wish to frame them and hang them on my wall for clients to see as well. Thank you.

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:36:33 +0000

“Oh, and by the way, I’ll need this coded into a blog.”

For that reason, I recommend to all my clients that they host their site on Wordpress or something similar. Wordpress (my personal fave) is a full-featured CMS even if you decide not to use the blog features. Then if they come to you later with the blog request, you just tell them that it’s been available to them from the beginning and would they like training on how to add their first post.

The challenging part then is answering the question, “Well, I don’t have time to blog. Would you write my posts for me?” I then just steer them to my post on the subject at http://webidextrous.com/2009/12/05/why-social-media-ghost-writing-is-a-bad-idea/

By: Lala McLala

Lala McLala — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 07:15:21 +0000

“it needs to pop more” …”my coworker’s kid makes web pages he said he’ll make me one for 40 bucks”… all classics.

Anyone who liked this article would probably also like -
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell

By: Jazzikins

Jazzikins — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:09:25 +0000

My first client was one of those, “I could do this myself” types. Unfortunately I was very naive back then and let them do their thing. They wanted to update the site themselves, which is fine. They knew a little bit about how to use Dreamweaver, not enough to build the site, but enough to edit and add content once I was finished. I never thought it would turn out bad, until they started changing colors and fonts and things like that. I learned that one the hard way.

By: Karo

Karo — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 04:34:32 +0000

Hi! This was a great post!

I’m not a webdesigner -I’m one of those “self-learned” ones that u seem to dislike… ;)

For me this article was more of a “how to treat those professionals that I talk to to get help/pointers”. I have never been a client as in paying someone to do my work, but I do ask a lot of questions around the web trying to get a hang of it myself. (Made posters for a while and got hooked on grapihc design and web..)

But one thing though -when someone like me give “pointers” it’s not always ment as “you have to do that” it’s more like “I do now something about this and I would like to learn more -this is what I know, do you perhaps have another suggestion? And could you teach me?”

I know that this probably not what you guys are referring to, but still -there are some of us (also clients I guess) that actually want to learn from the whole experience when dealing with a professional -not just being handed finshed work all wrapped up. ;)

I do agree with the article though -keep up the good work, and stick to your guns -freelance or not! There are a lot of people out there who would be demanding and nasty just for *fun*.