January 24, 2024
Kris: Hey everyone, welcome to another Ask Kris and Don episode where we answer the question, what do you do when a client asks to create a design and they give you something their nephew, cousin or neighbor made? You’re listening to Design and Prosper episode 118.
[Intro Music]
Don: Hello there. This is a doozy.
Kris: I think we’ve all faced this one.
Don: We’ve all been there.
Kris: Yeah, yeah. So this question came from Stacey. Thank you, Stacey, for your question. So the question is, What do you do when a client asks to create a design and they give you something their nephew, or their cousin, or their neighbor made, and they want you to copy it exactly, and it’s horrible?
Don: Hmm…
Kris: Do you convince them why it’s horrible? Do you do it their way anyway, or do you politely refuse the job? In this specific case, I already created two beautiful banners, but the third one, they want me to copy something that is just beyond my skillset to create because it’s so ugly and unprofessional. They are requesting specific colors and fonts. I already told them why the colors didn’t work together, but they are insisting trying to figure out how to respond.
Don: Oh my.
Kris: That’s awful when this happens.
Don: It’s awful. And the interesting thing is, The whole reason Kris and I are in business is to fast track you, right? Our hindsight is your foresight, right?
So, me in my early career would have probably bent myself into a pretzel to try and help these people and, and help them out and do what they needed to do. But again, Hindsight is your foresight. Fast track to today, my response would be very, very different. It would simply be to politely refuse the job based on the fact that it is out of your process and the type of work that you do and that. If they are wanting you to do the work, they need to trust you and allow you to complete the project based on the other two banners. It’s not in alignment.
It’s not a match. And if they would like their cousin, brother, father, nephew, neighbor to do it, then perhaps they should. Pass the job over to them.
Kris: Yeah. but why haven’t they finished it?
Don: Yes!
Kris: There must be a reason, right? And so this is complex because it might be that they don’t wanna offend their cousins slash nephew slash whoever it is that they, that has done this original design.
So you could flat out refuse to do the job, but. If the job actually has potential and so there’s lots of nuances with different projects and sometimes we’re like, gee, I really would like to do that job, but I do not want to use that as a basis for the design.
Don: Yeah.
Kris: So that’s another thing that you can be brave about. And that’s something that I’ve stepped into as I’ve grown older is like, yeah, I would have bet myself into a pretzel, but now I’d probably say, no, no, no,
Don: No, no, We cannot design. I love it when Kris says, no, no, no.
Kris: Hah. No! But there’s kind ways you can do it. There’s empathetic ways that you can do it. And yeah, with kindness and respect.
And it’s like, you can even like, you know, kind of like the compliment sandwich, I guess, where it’s like, you say something good, then you say something bad, then you say something good and like, what a cool project. That’s a good bit. And then you say you need to speak to the bad part of it.
It’s like, okay. So I understand you want to have this really energetic, exciting kind of solution, which is what this person has done maybe, and it’s like a big mess, a big hot mess, looks like a pizza or whatever. It’s just like so bad. But you try and pull something out, like what they were trying to achieve.
They haven’t achieved it, but it’s like, I can understand you want something energetic and you know, it’s something that really catches the eye but you cannot in good conscience use this design, because in your professional opinion, the solution they have presented to you will unfortunately not achieve their goals.
Yeah. It’s as simple as that. And you in good conscience cannot create something that’s not going to help them achieve their goals and get a good result.
Don: Yeah. absolutely. The other thing you could do is ask them instead of saying, Oh, I can see that blah, blah, blah, and trying to pull something out. Ask them to tell you about it. Ask them to explain. So tell me, what is it about this that you’re really attracted to? what is it about this that is meeting your objective.
Tell me about this. What’s happening in this for you that you’re excited about? Ask them to explain to you what, what it is. And it might be, I feel an obligation to the neighbour. And then the truth will come to the surface. But it might be that it is the playfulness or, you know, whatever it is. Let’s just get some intel on it first and foremost, and then move through from there.
Kris: You need a little bit more intel and, this is just a really quick question and we don’t have all the intel and all the layers because it might be that they love it.
I love it. It’s so fun. It’s so cool. You know, I love, they did a great job, didn’t they? And you’re like, Oh my goodness. Well, not in my professional opinion, they didn’t, but if you don’t want to go there and it’s just like, Oh goodness, they’re, they’re really happy with the design. Maybe they just need somebody to get it to finished art.
You know, like get it to the printers, or maybe they just need to get it in a format that can be shared online or whatever. Or maybe it just wasn’t at that stage. So it might mean that you could put your hand up and say, yeah, okay, I’ll do that for you for this fee. Or you could say, look, you really should just take this to this local printer.
Don: Yeah, absolutely.
Kris: It may not be something that you need to touch unless it’s a potential amazing client or it’s a potential like great connection that you want to have, you know, there’s lots of nuance to this question because we need to understand all the different aspects of it and depending on whether you would like to move forward with this client or not… well that would depend on what your answer is, because you might not want to say a flat out, No, go away.
Don: yeah, that’s it, that’s right.
And also Stacey, when reading your question, you have said that you had already created two beautiful banners, but the third one, they want you to copy something that is, you know, I think, I’m sure it’s not beyond your skill set, I’m sure it’s actually well within your skill set, but you just don’t want to go there because it’s so ugly and unprofessional.
One strategy that I would use there, is I would just let them know that they are deviating away from the first two banners, and they are then potentially diluting that whole approach. They are creating confusion, and a confused mind never bides. So if you’ve got two beautiful banners that are perfectly in sync, perfectly on brand, and working the way that they should be, and then this third one is thrown in there.
And it’s throwing everything off. That’s a really important conversation to have with them about how it’s confusing. It’s really confusing their audience.
Kris: Inconsistency with branding.
Don: Absolutely. It’s inconsistent. You could ask them, is that your intention? Is it your intention to stray away from the first two banners?
Because if that’s the case, perhaps we need to readdress the whole thing. And it’ll give you an opportunity to work out what it is about this third banner that they like, or love, or whatever. And if it really does require a re brief. Like Kris has just said, there are so many nuances in this and there’s probably, you know, if we were having a one to one coaching session, Stacey would be like going, and what about this?
And we’d be smashing you with questions and this and this and this to get to the bottom of what’s really going on here. But we hope we’ve given you a couple of strategies there. This is just a quick and we can’t cover off everything, but the first thing that I would say is follow your gut. Don’t be doing work that you don’t want to be There’s strategies there of, of moving it on to someone else, handing it over to a printer asking them why, asking, all of those things that we’ve discussed and yeah, and just Allowing yourself to walk away from a project when it’s not a right fit for you. That’s actually okay. Or, embracing it in a less capacity.
So saying, okay, you just need a finished artist, is that what you need? And then say, that’s not my job, that’s not my role. And then, however, if you want the money, if you want the relationship, you could say, I’ll do it this time. But, you know, whatever, whatever, whatever. But again, my mind keeps going back to the fact that you’ve already created two beautiful banners. Why are they wanting to mess with that?
Kris: Yeah I’d be really asking that question.
Don: They’re going to confuse things. Inconsistency is just like the big no no, it’s the big red flag.
Kris: The death of their brand.
Don: That’s it, that’s it.
Kris: If you decide you want to work with these people and you like them. You can really just let them know how passionate you are about their brand.
Like you’re a fierce protector of their brand. like, I really want to protect it. I really want to look after you. And that energy will come through and it’s okay for you to have a professional opinion. People are paying you for your professional opinion. I know that we’ve talked about this in previous episodes where a lot of us need to learn how to step into that advisory role as a graphic designer. So your professional opinion. Your advice is to not use that horrible work.
Don: You should see Kris….Kris is like patting the air going, no, no, no, no! Hahaha. That’s a big no to that. but what Kris was saying, it’s your professional opinion, so own it. Own that professional opinion. There’s a reason that they’re paying for you to do this.
And when you use language like, Is it your intention to stray away from the consistency of the first two banners? What’s your objective? Can you tell me why? Can you tell me about this, what, what it is about this that’s so exciting you so much, all of those questions will put you in the position of an authority and as an advisor, and you’ll be really surprised at how many times they go, Oh, no, I didn’t realize that.
Oh no, we won’t worry about it. Then we won’t worry about that, but we still need a third banner. Could you do that for us? Often it’s just having the courage to have that conversation, be brave.
Kris: There we go again. All right, everybody. We’ll leave it there. But once again, be brave.
Don: Be brave.
Kris: That’s how we’re signing off now. We’ll chat soon. Bye!
Don: Bye!
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