From the category archives:

client relations

When It’s Time To Let Go

Read the full article

Being effective involves doing the right thing at the right time in the right place.

The Need For Selflessness

Read the full article

If we approach a design solution as an opportunity for self-expression, we’ll miss the point and risk not solving the problem.

One Dozen Rules For Your Freelance Design Practice

Read the full article

Setting and maintaining boundaries will help you avoid relationships and circumstances that are potentially harmful.

Don’t Design For The Client

Read the full article

Design for the audience and not the client.

From the Client’s Point of View

Read the full article

From the client’s point of view, there are two crucial criteria in deciding what designer is awarded the project: 1. Does the creative understand what’s needed? 2. Is the creative capable of delivering? Understanding What’s Needed Defining the problem accurately is necessary to solving it. If a designer can do that, he in essence has [...]

Freelancing: In Getting New Work, Relationship Counts More Than Ever

Read the full article

Businesses have a choice when seeking creative services: They can go the cheap route and buy a logo through a crowdsource/contest site where they’ll select the lowest bidder, or they can commission a designer for a custom, targeted design. This creates a dilemma for legitimate freelancers. Competition for freelance design work is not only increasing, [...]

Process and Outcome

Read the full article

The strength of a designer lies as much in his process as in the outcome. The process – the totality of time, effort and attempt at solving the given design problem – demonstrates the care he is willing to take and the depth he is willing to go on behalf of the client. Behind the [...]

Unpaid Internships Are A Form of Spec Work

Read the full article

Why is spec work so prevalent in the design profession when it’s not in other professions? Increasingly companies – “creative” businesses included – are offering “unpaid internships” instead of hiring designers outright. In trying to reduce costs, they will offer an “internship” and even go through a selection process similar to that involved in standard [...]

Creative Services Are Worth Paying Full Price

Read the full article

For almost every other professional service, from auto maintenance to medical care, a buyer will pay the full fees asked for when services are rendered, without dickering, discounting, arguing or otherwise undervaluing the work. But more than a few of us designers and illustrators will often find ourselves asked to discount our creative rates, as [...]

I Didn’t Get The Job

Read the full article

Not every prospect will make a good client and not every project is worth the effort. How a client presents himself or herself in the initial meeting is usually a good indication of how the working relationship will go. It is wise to think twice before pursuing or accepting a client when red flags appear [...]

← Previous Entries