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Graphic Design and Illustration Learning – 6 Things You Should Never ask a Graphic Designer
From product marketing and advertising to online blogs and product packaging, graphic design plays an essential role in many marketing and advertising strategies. Because the demand for skilled graphic designers is increasing, so too is the demand for graphic design and illustration learning courses.
Here in the UK, there are more online graphic design courses opening up every single week, and every single week they’re selling out like you wouldn’t believe. Graphic design is officially one of the hottest career paths to venture down, so it’s little wonder why graphic design and illustration learning online courses are considered so prestigious.
Now, it doesn’t matter whether you’re thinking of becoming a graphic designer yourself, or if you’re thinking of hiring one, the more time in the industry you spend, the more you’ll learn about the etiquette behind graphic design.
On the subject of graphic design etiquette, if you’re ever thinking of hiring one, here’s a look at 6 things you should never ask a graphic designer.
Can I have the files so far? I want to tweak the design slightly
You wouldn’t walk into a restaurant and ask to go into the kitchen to start tweaking the chef’s soup of the day recipe, so why would you ask a professional graphic designer if you can change the design they worked so hard to create?
It’s infuriating for graphic designers to be asked this, as not only does it discredit their work and create the impression that you, the client, think you can do somebody’s job better than them, despite them training and learning for years, but it can also mess up the design.
As a graphic designer, if your client asks you this, you’ll likely respond by telling them that the file is too large, or that you can discuss tweaking the finished design when you have, you know, actually finished the final design.
I only use Word, can you send it me in Word format please?
Not everybody is tech-savvy, we absolutely get that, but as a graphic designer, one of the most frustrating questions you will likely be asked, is for you to send the design in Word format.
Word is a very useful software/application, don’t get us wrong, but in terms of graphic design, it’s about as useful as a chocolate fireguard.
Again, as a graphic designer, your response will likely be something along the lines of ‘sorry, but I’m unable to send you the file in Word format as the design was created in Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator/Lightroom’ etc.
If the client still seems unhappy with this, you can always offer to send it in PDF as they can open it in Adobe Reader to review.
Can you send me this early please?
Once you’ve mastered your graphic design and illustration learning course online and are a qualified graphic designer, the more experienced you become the more clients you will gain, and the busier you will be.
As a graphic designer, being busy is of course great, but it does bring with it its own set of challenges, namely in the form of impatient clients.
If you’re ever thinking of hiring a graphic designer, once they give you an estimate for delivery, please do not tell them that it’s too long and ask them if they can deliver your design early please, because it won’t happen. Good graphic designers will have plenty of clients and plenty of designs in the pipeline, this means you need to get in the queue and wait in line. Expecting them to prioritize your design over another client’s is just not fair, so don’t do it.
By all means ask how long the design will take to complete, but please don’t get an attitude if you feel the waiting time is too long, as there is nothing the designer can do about it.
Can you make me a mock-up so I can assess your skills please?
Again, you wouldn’t walk into a restaurant and ask for a free meal so you can decide whether or not the food is nice enough for you to come back and pay for a meal at a later date, so why would it be acceptable to ask this of a graphic designer.
Graphic designers, and creatives in general, are often asked to send “free samples” or create “trial designs” before they’re blessed with that particular client’s custom, and it isn’t right. Sometimes this is a case of people trying to get a free design, whereas others it’s simply a case of clients trying to get designers to jump through hoops before they give them their custom.
If a potential client asks you, the graphic designer, to create a mock-up design for them, respectfully decline and link them to your online portfolio and explain that they’re free to browse your portfolio to see samples and examples of your work.
Can you do it for cheaper please? If this works out, I’ll have plenty of work for you in the future
It’s acceptable to ask a creative for a discount, because after all, if you don’t ask you don’t get. What really ticks off graphic designers and creatives, however, is when potential clients ask for a ridiculously high discount with the “promise” of more work “if this works out”.
First off, designers set the prices they set because they feel it is worthy of their skills and the amount of time it takes, so asking for a 50% discount is a bit insulting. Not only that, but designers and creatives in general are always promised “more work in the future, if this works out”. Nearly always, this is just a lie to try to get the creative to drop their price, and even if it is the truth, the designer sets the prices that they set for a reason.
Can you make a few versions so I can decide which is best please?
If you’re hiring a graphic designer, unless you’re willing to pay them to make several individual designs, don’t ask them to make several so you can pick which one you like best.
If you were paying for a meal, you wouldn’t ask the chef to make you several dishes for you to sample so you could pick which one you liked best, so don’t ask a graphic designer to make you several designs for free because they won’t.
