How To Fix Common Graphic Design Mistakes?
Given the ever increasing competition in the field of Graphic Designing, it can be quite a challenge to get ahead of others. Often, graphic designers in an attempt to offer clients with quick and quality work, end up committing amateur mistakes.
Most graphic designing mistakes occur in client relations when the understanding between the two is either low or simply missing. Just as it is important for a graphic designer to best reproduce the vision of client and their company into recognizable identity; it is equally important for the clients to understand the kind of work & efforts that go behind graphic designing.
Here are three common mistakes that graphic designers tend to commit in client relation and that can easily be avoided with some efforts:
#1 Closed Communication
This is one of the most common mistakes that a graphic designer makes especially someone new to the field. Often designers try to avoid clients who wish to be walked through each and every phase of designing. This kind of closed communication can be a major issue in client relations.
Solution: Ensuring transparent communication with your clients is the best solution to this. Set reasonable expectations for your work and make it easy for your clients to reach you at any time. In the absence of communication from client’s end, it is also a good idea to yourself communicate the progress of work to the client at every step. Such open communication can save you from the issues and delays that may otherwise result from miscommunication.
#2 Missing Designing Briefs
Every client when approaching a graphic designer for work is enthusiastic and excited to see their brand or product materializing over the net. The client at such times is full of ideas and expectations and without precise design briefs, the designer may often end up grasping only half of the ideas and expectations. The result is that, you end up wasting your precious time on a design that no one appreciates.
Solution: The best way to ensure that you do not waste your time or your efforts is to begin your work only when you have a design brief to start with. Remember that it’s not just the array of ideas that the client comes up with that you need to incorporate in your design, but it’s also the client guidelines that you need to take into account while designing a product or brand. This will also give you a chance to approach clients with loopholes in design briefs for additional briefs that will help you meet client’s designing needs.
#3 Reasonable Expectations
Deadlines are an important factor for most clients and not being able to meet them can be frustrating for the client. A graphic designer in an attempt to meet the deadline at such times often ends up committing easily avoidable mistakes. This can not only be embarrassing for the designer but can also hamper client relation permanently.
Solution: It is extremely important that you never overestimate your abilities and set only attainable deadlines. This is especially a must for those without an experience of working under stringent deadlines. Try to agree on an emergency margin to have a buffer time just in case you need to adjust some other unforeseen event.
Thus, regardless of whether you are a newbie or a seasoned graphic designer, professionalism calls for client’s respect. Do not downplay your doubts regarding the project and keep the lines of communication open at all times. Remember that it’s always better to humbly turn down a client than end up delivering the wrong design!!