Is This a Normal Client?

[Alucardx03]

This is fairly typical. Though I'm in marketing and advertising, I subcontract the design work and act as a liaison between the two. Even with a clear discussion upfront (goals, action steps, rough schedule, etc.) this situation is impossible to avoid. Many companies do their marketing/advertising/branding by committee, which is a huge mistake. Typically when I'm going through fifteen or more revisions, that's the cause.

When that happens, I try to have a frank conversation with them about the costs they're racking up and the time they're losing by trying to please everyone on the committee.

 

[12dylan34]

You need to take a step back. Length of use with software mean absolutely nothing. I've been using Illustrator, Photoshop, etc for 15 years. I wouldn't class myself as a designer.

Thinking you are above any job will get you no where. As a cartographer I can design some stunning maps but I would never turn down freelance work when it comes along. When you've graduated and made a few million, then you can decline work.

If the client hasn't hired you for advice, don't give it. Just do as they say. They aren't paying you for advice they are paying you to implement their design. It will be damn hard to keep quiet, but you must.

You should have had a written contract at the start stating exactly what the client wants from you.

Thanks, good advice. I do realize that I don't even close to rank with people who have been doing this professionally their whole lives, and that I have a lot to learn about the design process. I may or may not ever master logo design, since I'm going into motion graphic design, which doesn't involve creating a ton of logos, but nevertheless, being able to create something that makes the client happy is universally important.

For this logo, we did end up coming up with something that was pretty simple and looked good after taking a break from it for a while. He admitted that he wasn't entirely sure what he wanted the logo to get across in the beginning, but we're good now. He also hired me to do a good amount of other work for him and said that I should be charging people in the future double what I'm charging him (which wasn't much), which made me quite happy. All of the other projects that he's had me do have been finished with quite a bit fewer revisions.

In light of my situation previously, I made up a contract based on some stuff that I found online that I'll be giving to all of my people in the future.

 

[G4DP]

Getting something in writing is the best thing you can ever do.

 

[12dylan34]

I had someone tell me in a prospective meeting today that she could do in 10 minutes herself what I quoted would take half an hour...she just didn't want to buy Photoshop, so she was hiring me to do it (and this is something that should have been done in Illustrator), so she couldn't. It was a semi-complex illustration with humans. Also, judging by how her website looks, I kind of doubt that.

Clearly one of the people who sees the designer as a monkey who knows what buttons to push in "Photoshop" (obviously the program used for every kind of graphic ever) that I hear people talking about.