Design Dilemma

[Chief.]

I recently received my first paying website design opportunity from a furniture store here in western Kansas, Sticks and Stones. They craft furniture (bed frames, tables, etc.) and stone signs. I received this opportunity through the advertising manager of the local newspaper (the furniture store is a sponsor). The advertising manager is, well, not experienced in design. She first told me the furniture place did not have a logo, so I put one together myself along with an index page:

Now, the problem: I was contacted by the advertising manager who told me he DOES have a logo. I was a bit angry because I needed to know this earlier BEFORE I started putting designs together.

The current logo the furniture store is using can be seen here:

I do not want to use it because it has nothing to do with the color scheme or tribal/western theme I'm going for. I emailed the guy at Stick and Stones and showed him my logo and the screenshot above. This is the email I got back:

--Hello,

Thank you for getting in touch with me on this. I could have saved you abit

of layout time and design time as this is the second time I am posting the

site. On the site before we had a background that looked like burlap. This

had a soft edged fade into the pictures. Very western. My Main Screen

should be 2 or 3 large pictures with the listing of sub menus to the side as

you have done. Please place the typed info below the pictures on screen.

As for the logo, I appreciate your work but my logo is a known part of my

business. Please feel free to call my cell # anytime to talk the site over.--

Has anyone been in a situation like this before? Do I need to redo the site to fit that, not trying to sound mean, ugly logo? I know, it's about what the customer wants, but I was under the impression I was REDESIGNING his site. It sounds like he wants it to look like his old site. Any advice from the veterans of this business?

[fiasco!]

if he's paying you, you do what he asks you to do.

on occasion, i will do what the client requests, as requested, and offer up an additional "cleaner" design to show them what their site, logo, business cards, brochures, etc. can potentially look like.

[Patsfan99]

unfortunately, the customer is always right. if you want to get paid, you do as they ask... some people just want someone to operate a mouse, not necessarily to do any actual design... however, if you want to get paid at the end of the day, you do as they ask, chalk it up to experience/practice and paying the bills, and move on...

everyone thinks they're a designer... you'll run into there wherever you go...

however, I've found that if you establish a relationship with that customer and work with them on more than one project, you can buy yourself some credibility by doing what they ask and making it look good, then down the road, do a design that you think they'll expect, and do one the way you think it should be... if presented the right way, they may be open to options once they trust you... I've had it work for me...

or you can stand on principle... and not make any $$...

[andrewharrington]

There are two sides:

A. The customer is always right (rare). This will get you paid and will force you to create something out of your comfort zone. You will have to work with some awful limitations to create an acceptable graphic solution.

B. The customer is not correct (common). If you have the balls, you tell the customer that their idea is amateur and offers no room for a functional graphic solution. This may lose you a client and/or some money, but if you're that good, you're that good, and you shouldn't be bothered. You have to be prepared to back it up with top quality work if you choose this option.

Both sides are good. At least you gain something from each.

[LogoHound]

LOL, man that brings on some bad flashbacks. Like everybody said, you are getting paid to do what the customer wants. Like they also said, If you feel that you can do something better then do that too. Although chances are that they are going to do one of two things. 1. completely shut your idea down, just for the simple fact that it wasn't their idea. or 2. Say they "I like your idea but........I don't like this or that and, it would look better if it were...." Again like Pats said, every body thinks they're a designer and they just want some body else to transfer their idea to something they can use. I'm not trying to scare you out of the business though. Eventually you'll find a few people that are a complete pleasure to work with. Which, for me at least, makes up for all the other jack-offs. Plus when you find those type of people your are completely loaded down with ideas from the other projects. One more thing, this is were my portfolio has helped out a lot. If people see samples of your previous work it seems to help persuade them away from their own stale ideas.

Welcome to the design business!!

[Davidson]

hahahahaha!

every day my boy, every day!

case in point:

doing a commercial for a national tourist board (did type the name but chickened out just in case). they gave us a tape of clips, told us to use whatever we want. sat down with the client. went over the tape, chose clips. everyone agreed. spent two days animating beautiful wipes betrween scenes with composited horses running on the beach wiping from screen to screen etc etc.

5.54pm last night: "oh yeah, can we use all these clips instead please" work ruined, time wasted on us chosing clips, time wasted on a day spent with them and horrible clips to work with now.

the skinny of it is, people get excited and want input. they dont realise that by making the changes they (or even worse marketing) think look good, they are destroying the creative process and decreasing the ammount of time you can spend on things because you are constantly revising work you have already done, becoming more and more disinterested in the process.

my boss once told me "clients are all c**ts". hes right, thats all there is to it.

and that my friend is why they call it work and not art.

[Chief.]

Hey, thanks guys. I guess I have to redo it because his "logo" really doesn't fit in with the overall design of the site. Then again, I don't know how to incorporate a rainbow color scheme into ANYTHING. Unless I can persuade him without pissing him off, I'll have to redo the design.

[Davidson]

Hey, thanks guys. I guess I have to redo it because his "logo" really doesn't fit in with the overall design of the site. Then again, I don't know how to incorporate a rainbow color scheme into ANYTHING. Unless I can persuade him without pissing him off, I'll have to redo the design.

you dont have to make it look terrible just because the logo is awefull.

the fact that he didnt seem to realise he had a logo should tell you hes not to fussed about it.

maybe design him an 'adaptation' to fit with your sceme'.

just because clients can be breathtakingly irritating doesnt mean they wont neccessarily shoot

a nice piece of design down. if you take what hes given you and update it, then he feels hes had

some input and you might end up with something that looks half decent.

[meetthemets]

Sometimes you have to let a customer know (in the nicest possible way) that his logo blows. If he is paying you then essentially he is paying you to be an expert in this area. If your expert opinion is that his logo sucks then you need to let him know that. Sometimes it's tough but often it is necessary.

[logo-maker]

Personally I would keep your intial design in a portfolio, so that later a client of a different opinion may see your work in a different light. Don't give up on a design that may work with another customer.