This isn’t the first time this has happened to me during the revision process. I deliver what I think is a pretty nice site, then I start receiving mockups from the client that would wreck the design. I never ask for or want mockups from a client.
Say I’m sorry, I’m the designer, I don’t take designs from clients. If you want to design the site, please go ahead, see you later. This would no doubt cause friction.
Do the revisions, lose another small piece of my soul, make sure they never mention I had anything to do with the site.
Anyone have experience with this type of scenario and have any suggestions?
I had it happen a few times over the last 15 years or so.
Sometimes clients submit rubbish but other times it can reveal some clues as to what they’re thinking but not able to tell you.
Take your example, from what I see they want more green visible (to reinforce their ‘green’ cred perhaps?), hence the stronger green header. The general style of both is good of course and they both work. Perhaps it’s a hint not to be too rigid with your mockup, the client has come up with an idea so test it out - give both versions to the client and let them decide?
Of course sometimes clients will offer something that’s totally not practical to do, say for usability, responsiveness, or accessibility purposes. That’s when you can explain why their idea won’t work and see if you can make a tweak to your design to accommodate some of their ideas.
Good points. Maybe I’ll take what they’ve done and refine it, then present that to them. There’s several design issues (IMO) like the giant logo, little to no padding on the header, the weird black line through the three circle pictures and the contact info in a strange place (also not great in terms of usability).
They did say initially that they didn’t want as much green as they had on their old site, so I toned it down as well. Maybe they changed their minds.
