Catastrophically irritating things clients do according to a designer.
& if you are a client reading this, just avoid the following and your designers will love you unconditionally. I have been a designer for 15 years now and have been through the ringer and I believe I’ve dealt with clients in all shapes and sizes. iiiiii THINKIMENTITLEDTOANOPINIONNNN.
‘Maza nahi Aya’ : This is by far the most aggravating thing you can say to a designer. Yes, I get you’re not thrilled but what is it that you didn’t like? What can I do to fix it? Do you have a reference in mind? To what degree did you not like it? NON OF THESE ARE ANSWERED WITH YOUR FUN LIL ONE LINER! Maza nahi aya it seems, tere manoranjan ke liye nahi banaya hai meine. hutt.
‘Everyone is a designer’ : This is a simple one, if you’re sitting with a doctor, mechanic, HR professional, diver, animal wrangler, pimp etc and they give you their expert opinion on something to do with their field, do you turn back to the doctor and say ‘naaaaa, do this instead, I read it on reels.’? No, you don’t, cause he’s a professional. Similarly, designers do this shit for a living, we know what we’re doing. & and it’s not like you have rogue designers giving marketing advice or throwing up quips about neuro-surgery. We don’t do this shit. We keep to ourselves.
‘This is easy for you! Anyone can do this. You are charging too much’ : This one isn’t that bad but its tad bit ignorant. Its like telling a marketing person ‘you get paid too much, anyone can send emails and do con calls’. Theres a lot more to it. & Yes maybe it is easy for me and i will do it fast, but you are paying for my skill which has taken me years to hone to do said task fast. Itna easy hai toh kar phir.
‘I need a design & the universe’ : Like most fields, you have designers who specialize in different aspects of design. There’s web design, motion graphics, graphic design, brand design, publishing design. But a lot of clients and design jobs ask for a designer who can not only do all of the above but also cure cancer, bring world peace, solve the climate crisis & discover light speed space travel.
‘I need a Ferrari, I have 10 rupees & I need the Ferrari in 3 hrs : If a designer is willing to deliver something thats amazing, fast and cheap… Hes either lying to you or you got lucky. Here’s a quick guide… fast, cheap and terrible = YES. fast, expensive and great = YES. Slow, cheap and great = YES.
‘I can just create this with AI’ : if the requirements of your project are met with AI tools that you know how to use. Then By all means! But if you aren’t sure and can’t use AI for shit, then let’s sit down we’ll walk you through what is and isn’t possible with AI. We’re here to help. Just don’t be an Elon.
‘This is perfect! but can we have some options’ : Why? You said its perfect. So, then why do you need options? Everything else I make from perfection isn’t going to be as good, you know since the definition of perfect is being exactly appropriate. & ok, you give in, you defy physics, you make some options. guess what, they still like the ‘perfect’ one.
‘I need something completely out of the box, BUT…’ : Every once in a while you have a shoot-from-the-hip client who says he wants something out of the box and you have complete freedom with the design! WOO its a celebration! well, not quite. In reality, they come back with ‘arey but can make a square logo & add my fathers nostrils & use my initials & use only blue and silver & can it look like a 1970’s brothels neon sign.’ In their defence, that does sound out of the box… sooooo farrrr out of the box. and it should stay out of the box.
‘Here are the High res files for my logo’ : Sorry man a 72 dpi 480 x 480 jpeg isnt a high res logo. AND I WILL CHARGE YOU MORE TO RECREATE YOUR LOGO.
