Parlez-Vous Designer?
RGB. CMYK. Pixels. Serifs. Running heads. Resolution. Wrap-around. Sometimes designers speak a language for insiders only. This is fine when we’re talking to each other, but what about when we’re talking to our clients? Are we expecting them to break the code?
When presenting to a new client, I try to look at the work I’m showing them with a non-designer’s eye. Designers are communicators by profession, but all too often we forget the basics that need to be communicated to our clients so that we’re all speaking the same language.
Color Shift
As all designers know, the color you see on your screen isn’t necessarily the color you’d see on someone else’s screen and only very rarely is it the color it will be when printed. RGB≠CMYK. This is such a truism in my professional life that I have forgotten to spell this out to my clients.
Every design now comes with this disclaimer: “Colors will look different on different computers and the color you see on your computer or on your printout is an approximation (and of what your design will look like when professionally printed).” I will also bring my Pantone books with me to a client meeting to clarify what color they will actually see in the final printed piece.
Image Quality
We’ve all been faced with the client who wants you to use the logo on his Web site for the billboard design or who sends you a 100x200 pixel photo from her camera to use as her headshot. Of course this won’t work. Now, I preemptively explain: “I will need print-ready images. If the images that you have do not have high enough resolution, they will appear fuzzy, jagged, or blurry. A good rule of thumb is that a JPG picture that you want to print at 4x6”, should have a file size no less than 150KB.”
Lorem Ipsum
“We want this to be in English. I can’t read this.”
These days, I specify that all type is to indicate placement and type size and style “to show you what the text will look like.” I also steer clear of “FPO—For Placement Only” and “dummy text.” I once had a client get offended, thinking I was saying the text was for “dummies”—meaning him. Awkward.
Design in Context
When I submit a design to a client, it’s usually on a larger sheet of white paper or trimmed to size. This is okay for something like a business card or brochure, when the design is seen independently. When designing something like a newspaper or magazine ad, though, it’s important for to me to have the client view the piece in context. What looks good (or bad) on an 8 1/2 x 11”, otherwise blank sheet of paper, can look far different when printed with other ads or across from an article. I ask my clients to hold the designed ad against a page in the publication it’s to appear in and look at it that way.
As professionals, we tend to get smug when we’re speaking about things in our design comfort area, but it’s our obligation to our clients to speak to them as the non-designers they are. If we’re not making it clear to them, we’re not doing our jobs.