I'm glad to see we are all agree on this topic.
I agree up to a point.
After I find out what a client is looking for, I like being left alone to come up with a layout. I will often do an A and B version, especially if I can give them something better than what they had in mind. Depending on the budget, I will sometimes do a good, better, best set of drawings.
The problems always occur after the initial concepts are presented. Revisions and tweaks can eat up lots of time and long strings of emails, especially if your shop does not have a stated policy charging for revisions, or at least limiting them. I have found that by having a client come in and sit down with me to implement their changes, I can often quickly conclude the sale. In fact, sometimes it's fun.
When I work on a drawing in front of someone, I use it as an opportunity to teach, which I enjoy. I always explain what I'm doing as I do it—and I explain why I'm doing it. I explain why margins are important, why negative space is not wasted space, why all caps are harder to read. I explain that when you squish a letter to try to make a three-inch letter out of a two-inch letter, it becomes harder to read, not easier. I often explain what a design hierarchy is or why I always try to create groupings of design elements. I can show them in person why red touching blue is usually a mistake, and how outlines usually do not improve legibility but rather compromise it. I can say, "Well, this may look good on screen, but from across the street?" and I can zoom out to show them how it doesn't work well from a distance.
Often when a client requests something in particular that I know will be weak, I ask "Why do you want to do that?" They usually don't have a reason. Then I explain why it might not be a good idea. I use kindness and tact always. I praise their ideas when possible but I can often win them over quickly by simply showing them how a weak look compares when it's viewed side by side with an improvement.
I view every encounter with a client as an opportunity to give them (and the salesmen who are listening) at least a small amount of enlightenment. The sign buying public is woefully ignorant of principles of good design. And not a small segment of the sign industry shares this ignorance. If we have studied and learned good practices in design, then explaining design principles to others, both clients and fellow workers in the industry, is of great benefit.
Because—the single greatest problem in the sign industry today, with the exception of depressed pricing, is the overwhelming amount of poor design work being produced by shops of all sizes.
There is almost an obsession with "fonts." Yet the letter styles we use do not have as much impact as how we put the letters together in a layout.
"Kerning" is important, but line spacing is just as important as letter spacing. Crowded layouts with distorted letters seem to be the norm these days rather than the exception, resulting in amateurish-looking and ineffective sign work. And some people see such sign work and think, "Heck, I can do that!" And so our role as professionals is trivialized, and we have thus contributed to our own problem.
Mike Stevens once said:
All sign makers fall into one of two categories.
There are those who depend on the ignorance of their market for their success.
Then there are those who are trying to inspire and educate the market. Because they know that their long-term success depends on educated and discriminating buyers.
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Obviously, we can't teach a course in design to every Joe that walks in off the street. But we can, when appropriate, educate our clients little by little. This is easiest to do in person. Of course, it means we have to be quick on our feet, sometimes. We need to know design principles, and our design software, thoroughly. It requires good selling ability in addition to design competence. And we will not reach everyone. Our clients, many of them, are like little children, bless their hearts. They just don't know. And often they don't know they don't know.
We must educate them. Our long-term success depends on it.
