Pt5 Handling Client Revisions

For the Designer Musings

Plan Ahead

Revisions are not always bad. Your goal should always be to deliver your best on the first try, but learn to handle revisions properly and they can work for you instead of against you.

Define Acceptable Revisions Up Front

In your original agreement, you should establish what an acceptable revision looks like and define when revision requests are allowed.

Your proposal should cover everything that will be provided (this includes revisions). By anticipating revisions in your agreement, you are able to allow for an exact number of revisions and the criteria by which they are deemed acceptable.

Sample:

LOGO DESIGN:

Industry, company, and competition research

Optimized to be versatile for use on desired mediums

1 initial concept will be presented. Up to 3 revisions will be provided (revisions are optional).

If a second concept is requested in lieu of the initial concept, the first revision can be replaced with a second concept. The final 2 revisions can then be applied toward the second concept.

Revisions may alter the Project Time Frame

The above Logo Design sample clearly outlines the number of concepts and revisions that are provided and under what circumstances they are allowable. Beyond these details in your proposal, you should also explain the difference between a “revision” and an “addition” or “change” in your terms. Here is how Bold Perspective defines Changes:

[Keep in mind, I am not a lawyer so you should not consider this legal advice but just a sample of our terms]

Sample:

CHANGES:

The Client must assume that all additions, alterations, changes in content, layout, concepts or process changes beyond the proposal requested by the customer, will alter the time and cost. The Client shall offer The Designer the first opportunity to make any changes. Any change requests may alter the completion date and/or Time Frame.

Prevent Unreasonable Revisions

Revisions are always optional. It should be made clear in your preliminary discussions with prospective clients that using up all allowable revisions does not automatically result in a better final product (in fact, the reverse more often holds true).

Explain that no decisions you make are based merely on personal preference but rather a series of calculated choices that were determined by the goals they they provided in order to accomplish them most effectively.

To reinforce that the design is not a result of personal preference, you must always be ready to back up every one of your design decisions. When you present your first concept or draft, thoroughly explain the process or steps that produced the result. If a client does not like the outcome, they must then address the calculated decisions that resulted in the outcome and logically counter them. Otherwise, the client will be irrationally dismissing your calculated decisions and insisting on a less effective revision.

Conclusion

If necessary, have a discussion with your client about the goals they came to you with. Simply convey that it is your understanding that they initially approached you with the intention of hiring you to design a final product that accomplished these goals. Explain that a design catered towards your client rather than towards their users will be counterproductive in accomplishing the goals they originally provided.

Finally, clarify that the emphasis should be on designing for the user rather than for the client themselves or even you as a designer for that matter.