Every freelance designer sometimes comes across strange or illogical requests from their customers. It’s not always easy to explain them you can’t fulfill all of their wishes in a way they want and in a very short term. Let’s see the weirdest requests of customers and let’s discuss how to cope with them.
1. Roboto is the only font I want you to use!
Well, a customer may name any other font instead, and this can be either Comic Sans, Times New Roman, Helvetica, or more. The fact is that they want you to use the single font they like, and they give you no choice even if their selected font doesn’t match the overall design at all.
The only solution in this situation is to show a customer your ready design samples with the font they’ve selected themselves, and then compare it with the design you made with the fonts you consider to be more suitable.
If that doesn’t work, it’s up to you whether to fulfill the request of a customer or not, and then think about whether to include that work in your portfolio or never show it to anyone.
2. I’d like to use blue, red and green together!
Modern trends allow lots of prompt actions when it comes to design, but a good taste is a primary thing anyway. Perfect combination of colors, shapes, typefaces and other design elements is not cancelled by any trends.
When a non-designer has their own imagination of want they want to have as a result, they need a qualified and detailed advice on what is better and what is worse in this case. Sometimes it really works.
3. I can’t pay you but I can promote your works on my website!
Sometimes it’s a good offer when you are a beginner. But if you’re about to work on a project for a month or more, it’s impossible to wait for the results of future promotion. And it’s not that effective to take a few projects from different customers together and hope that although one of them will pay.
It’s again up to you whether you want to earn or just to be promoted. If you just wish to get a strong reputation in your community and make more works for your future portfolio, then an exposure on trusted resources and social media is a good chance for you. If you just want to earn money and you don’t need any additional exposure, then you can bravely decline this offer.
4. I need three websites by tomorrow!
Is quality is over quantity for your customer? Or is it vise versa? Just ask them! It goes without saying that it’s impossible to create a design of three full-fledged websites during a day. Even if you don’t make your design from scratch and you use some readymade themes and PSD mockups, you can’t create absolutely unique and exclusive design in such a short term.
It’s up to you whether to explain all of this to your customer or just go further and work with other customers’ projects.
5. After 10 revisions your customer says: “Let’s proceed with the first variant.”
This situation almost needs no comments. This is a kind of a double-minded customer and if you’ve been working with them for such a long period, there is no need to stop before the “final stage”. It’s not always easy to work with people but this time it’s a great experience and of course some earnings.
6. Just make your design the same as our previous designer’s one!
Sometimes this suggestion can sound like “Just copy this particular design of our main competitor”. In this case the customers don’t state they copy their rival’s website but they provide a link and some specifications and ask to follow their templates and even copy every element and color scheme.
No plagiarism ever brought success to its author. If you copy someone’s work, you break your reputation very easily, so everything is obvious here. Just be as unique as possible when it comes to making a great creative job.
Conclusion:
Every designer has their own code of honor and they set and change their principles depending on their aims. You’re sure to know what is good for your reputation and what is not, so just make your own decisions and build your successful creative career with ease. Good luck!
