So I was gona do some pictures for my client for his slider on his website.
I get money/picture.
I got the material from him - 7 different lawn mowers (pictures) with specification text for each mower and was gona do a advertising banners for these lawn mowers.
I told him in the beginning that it was impossible to have more than two lawn mowers in one picture, and if I used two on the same there would be one model alone left in one picture.
Here’s our conversation.
Me: Try to calculate it yourself and tell me how you want it. (This question is basically asking how many pictures I should do and wich mowers should be placed together)
Him: You may make as many images that are required for it to be good.
I made seven pictures with a mower on each picture and sent him on example how one of them looks.
Him: Looks good, but had hoped to get more mowers in of the same image.
He said to me do as many as it takes for it to become good.
What is a good reply to his last answer.
I mean… he said to me do as many as it takes for it to look good and I did.
Take everything clients say with a grain of salt. The proof will be in the eating. As I said in the other thread, you have to do a lot of talking and experimenting with clients. Most of them are hopeless at articulating what they want … or they don’t know until you do something that they don’t like. You have to factor this likely scenario into every project, and be very flexible and expect to have to change things a lot.
In this example, I would have made one image, with one mower, and sent it to him, saying that this is the kind of thing you had in mind. At that point, he may have set you on another path, saving you wasting time on all seven images.
You are right. I actually gave him like 15% discount and asked if he wanted all those seven images, or If i should make new images with 2 on each picture. And he chose those 7 images, so that was pretty good anyways.
When submitting work to a client, I always explain the process and train of thought in great detail, so that the client knows why, like in your example, I’ve chosen two pictures instead of, say, three. When you give clients a thorough and logical explanation on why you created something in a particular way, you allow the client to shift his focus from the result he expects to the solution you’ve delivered based on what he has suggested.
By letting your client in on your thought process and design decisions, you’re making him take part and get actively involved, and that almost always leads to a more satisfactory response.
I can come at this from the perspective of a client. There’s a little gem of a quote from @kohoutek.
letting your client in on your thought process and design decisions
To me that’s quite important. I’m hiring you because I don’t have the skills or time to do it myself or I don’t know what I’m doing thus using your experience. If you can let me into your thought process, it’s much easier for me to make sure we’re in the same place with what we’re attempting to achieve. “I thought we’d do it this way because I feel that if we put in multiple mowers we might both crowd the design and give our visitors too much choice, which on the web can be a bad thing …” If you’re giving me that sort of substance, I’m going to immediately increase my levels of trust, and probably empowerment / freedom with the design.
If I feel it’s “just because that’s your style” – I’ll fight every step.
At the end of the day I need to know you’re working for me, not for you.
