How to be a good client

A step by step by step guide

by Keaton Henson

1. clear your mind of any image you have built up. A designer cannot read your mind so the finished product will never ever look exactly how you see it. And they will not spend the next year revising the design over and over in the hope that it might. Put your ideas in the designers hands, and be excited to see something completely unique by a creative professional.

2. look carefully at your chosen designers work, develop their brief in accordance with their personal style. stop asking me to draw sexy chicks.

3. Remember that a professional designer is not a way for you to exercise your artistic frustrations, They are not just a pair of hands for you to feel creative with. A professional designer does so because of an ability to come up with ideas not just realize them, and their ideas may well be better than yours.

4. If you are wanting a specific idea try to keep the brief as simple as possible. an example of a bad brief would be:

“like a giant spider but with like a skull face and hes on top of a mountain made up of jam, but not really jam. and then in the sky there’s clouds that kind of look like Mel Gibson. and then written out in loads of dolls arms is my company name… but i trust you so its up to you.”

But equally, do not be obscenely vague
another example of a bad brief would be:

“something really rad, with like slime and stuff or blood or vomit or bison urine. i like the idea of robots, or ballet dancers, or maybe cowboys. im also into ninjas and japanese artwork, and early 18th century french poetry… etc etc”

I find the best way to show the kind of style your after, is to show the artist a selection of images you like, and tell them some (related) themes and images your into.

5. Once the designer has sent you the artwork take a while and keep coming back to it. Remember step one and remember that its always going to be that artists version of your idea, and not your idea made exactly as you see it, and that this is a good thing.
When requesting amendments be aware of the issues your addressing, try to think about whether they would actually affect sales, of if your just trying to get involved in the creative process some more. Some changes can seem small but take up a huge amount of the designers time.

6. Be careful with what colours you put designs on, and don’t be afraid to ask your designers advice when it comes to printing.

7. Dont wait 5 months to pay the man. and make sure you do. or he will take you to court.