Forum Moderators: not2easy
In my experience the creative process of quality design takes several intensive days at least. You have to work on things like:
- Who is their market?
- What appeals to their market?
- What qualities should the design convey?
- Draft all of the above (and more) into a distinctive and appropriate design, that can develop into a strong brand.
This is what it takes to just begin ie to create 'initial design drafts'. There is not much work between rough and finished drafts, its all in the creative process not the quality of the draft. SO:
1.) If we do some quick work (say less than 4 hours work) all you can do in a few hours is 'churn out' a variation on a copied design template.
- If they turn us down because our design is weak, well it only took a few hours! What should they expect?
- If they accept our proposal, they have told us they like the design draft. That means we are just going to smarten it up and be done. ie it will not be properly designed for their company and their market and for future strength. So they would not be getting a quality design for their company and market.
2.) If we do 4 days work it would be without pay! We don't do that much free work, when it is perfectly likely one of the other tenders will get the job. However, there are companies that will either:
- Do 4 days work for the hope of being accepted. A design agency that will provide this much work free must be desparate for work, which is not a good sign e.g. they might not be in business in a few months, and they can't be very popular.
- Do a few hours work and say it is a 4 days. This again is not a sign of a quality design company.
3.) If we provide a draft and the company then choose another agency, the company can use our work i.e. we would have helped our competitor and not been paid for it. I know they are not allowed to but no one really wants to bother with a legal case.
The above points are a matter of understanding how to ask for a website proposal. We always direct people to our large portfolio of quality designs. I try to educate the prospective client about the major problem of asking for 'initial design drafts' ie such drafts are not a real foundation, or they are from a desperate agency; but they think I am just being difficult.
Put your self in the clients position. Do you think my point of view is correct, or do you think something else?
If they want to move on, offer them the option of either having a basic consultation (in which you would do the 4, 6, 8 hours work) for free, or a more developed image for an upfront fee (offset against any final payment), which they can then keep and develop upon.
At the end of the day, the client can't expect 6 or 7 agencies to do the vast majority of the work, and then select just one which they like. Think about how much work your competitor is going to do, and then do the same, but better ;)
Now that I'm on this side of the desk, I wouldn't dream of doing such work for a potential client.
It's crazy to do such work for free. And as you so astutely pointed out, to put the kind of time into it that would be needed to make the design effective and targeted to their needs would require an unreasonable amount of time.
Not only would I not do this for free, but I wouldn't want to have as a client someone who thinks this is acceptable. They clearly don't value your time and have no intention of treating you as a skilled, experienced professional.
INDIVIDUALIZED FOR THE BRAND
OPTIMIZED FOR THE BRAND'S MARKETING DEMOGRAPHICS
OPTIMIZED FOR THE SITE'S USER TRAFFIC
MINDFUL OF FUTURE BRAND ENDEAVORS, MARKETS, INDUSTRIES
However, what is not so preposterous to me, having dealt with many a moron client, is the idea of bringing a design to the table that embodies these qualities:
KICK-ASS DO-NOTHING WIDGETS WITH MISSILES AND EPILEPTIC TEXT
My point is that there are a ton of clients out there who have no idea whatsoever that the least important thing about a design is how good it looks to THEM. In my book, it's worth having a few cool, do-nothing site templates sitting around to be able to lure such clients in, with the hopes of converting them to web design-ism once you've got the contract. Many clients will indeed let you do what needs to be done to create a good website, often forsaking the original "design" altogether. Of course, many other clients will expect that you "finish" the preliminary design you showed them by next week. And what'll this cost... like, 50 bucks, right? Cause I mean, my nephew knows HTML. It ain't rocket science.
If you bend to the pressure to submit the requested work, then build the costs into your bid. If you receive multiple requests such as this then that is doable. If you figure on winning 1 out of every 8 projects (just for example), then build 8 projects worth of prep into the hidden costs of your bid.
I would guess that this type of request is common where you are dealing with people coming from traditional marketing arenas.
How about producing a design document in which you explain the procedures you use to develop their brand, together with past examples.Thats the kind of thing I am happy to do, however these kind of prospective clients 'think' they want to compare the design abilities for THEIR website of the agents.
...a more developed image for an upfront fee (offset against any final payment), which they can then keep and develop upon.I agree this is a reasonable approach.
Think about how much work your competitor is going to do, and then do the same, but betterThe problem is desperate (unreliable) agencies will do a weeks work. We are never going to do that. AND angencies pretending to be helpful that provide a quick (useless) draft can get the clients confidence (and deliver a bad job), but the client doesn't necessarily understand this. We are never going to do that either.
I wouldn't want to have as a client someone who thinks this is acceptable. They clearly don't value your time and have no intention of treating you as a skilled, experienced professional.If they don't value the work then yes I don't what them as a client. However they can innocently have no idea about the design process. This type of customer thinks their request is very clever because they will get proposals with free 'early versions' of their design in order to select the agency. I am happy to educate them but they sometimes just think you are being unhelpful and point out your competitors have sent design drafts with their proposals.
I would create a nice looking document that embodies the spirit of what you put into your opening post on this thread. Give them that document along with printouts or links to four or five portfolio websites.My feeling entirely. It is just frustrating to back out of a business opportunity because they are not aware of the scale of a quality design process.
So it seems the best answer (for honest quality designers) is: Try to educate them, require payment for upfront design work, and back out if that doesn't work.
Especially not if your in a pool of candidates. Without proper consultation, youre designer will be flying blind. These drafts will figure into the decision process, and youre chances of being on target are pure luck. In a nutshell, it is alot easier to disqualify youre self.
Tell them youre process and briefly explain why drafts at this stage arent in your process. Instead include samples of previous work and describe why it was effective. Youll come off looking like the expert, rather than looking desperate. The two worst things you can do are ignore the request or follow it.
hey if it is a zillion euro account then they hav ethe right to be asking for free work. In fact it is normal, thats the world of the big ad agencies ..
but ask yourself
do you wont to start a professional relationship based on you doing stuff for free?
Or are you in real need of this client?
