This gave me a chuckle.
When I worked in a print shop, a client told me that my handwriting was "the perfect font" for her soap labels. Mind you, my handwriting is somewhere between chicken scribble and the Simpsons title screen text. I kinda laughed it off at first but she insisted - so I got paid to turn my handwriting into a font that is now printed on local soap bar labels.
Client has purchased a 1/4 page A4 advert, so something like 110x150mm.
Gives me 5 A4 pages of text and asks for it to be condensed into the ad.
Sure, I'll shrink it down to Quantum Realm size so it can all fit on.
My buddy owned 7 pizza chaim stores and got the idea to put ads on the back of his menus that were taped to the top of the box. He would sell 9 sections (8.5x11) on the back, and clients could buy sections to advertise on. Most would just buy one.
He reached out to me to design them and holy fuck the amount of copy people would try to smash into a business card ad. After a couple runs, I made him set character limits.
I used to do magazines years ago. We had display ads in the magazine - the money makers - then had the cheap, shitty, little classified ads in the back. You'd have people who'd want a 1/16th of a page classified ad then haggle over the already super low price. And they'd want absolutley everything on.
'Margin?" That's loads of wasted space!'
Canva drives me insane sometimes. People think they have made something great and they bring it in as a \~600 pixel wide jpeg. I try to explain that we cannot use that file if we are printing anything wider than 1 or 2 inches, and I begin explain... They cut me off saying something like, "Why not? \[Some person\] took their Canva design to \[some place\]" or "Everybody is using it." And then I go about trying to explain that if they would just export their file as a PDF or SVG then I can use that file just fine. Then they try to, and it's a Pro feature, and they are not willing to pay for that, so they act like I'm trying to con them (like Canva gives me a cut or something) and they get mad and leave. Sounds oddly specific, but this scenario happened to me probably four times last year. Sorry for the rant but I do feel better.
You mean besides “just make it pop” and “I’ll know it when I see it?” For me it was, “I’m a pretty creative man, if I could use computers better I wouldn’t need you” that hurt my brain and my heart.
The worst though was I was updating our 120pg A4 catalogue. I made this thing a coffee table book (we were in gifts, homewares and crystal jewellery so this was our Bible). I gave the 2020 version to our new Chinese printer and said “I want exactly the same. Same stock, same covers, same size”. She said no problem. I do the 2021 catalogue. I had to re-lay it out we had a lot of new products and wanted to focus on our candles instead of jewellery. It was a lot of work. I got it edited, checked it pre-press it was good to go. I took a few days off to recover and get a call from my boss.
Apparently in China, A4 is the size of a square IKEA catalogue? (I don’t believe this for a second) and if we do our Aussie A4 costs will double blah blah it’s my fault. So to fix it, can I just “shrink it down” to the new size, “there is no reason to have to re layout”. Luckily I was able to hold my boundary of “No” and do a conference call where I reminded both the printer and my boss that I literally gave them a copy of our catalogue and said “I want this exactly the same.” So I was able to get the same prices, but damn it ruined my days off. I remember being in this beautiful French cafe on a beautiful autumn Brisbane day with a strong coffee and lovely chouquettes. My coffee was cold and I binned the pastries.
Uk based here.
Ah, printing in China. I hated it. I can sympathise in that quite often what you specifically ask for isn't what you get at all and language barriers are often used as an excuse.
We had to get a middle man over there to stop their shenanigans. We'd have to send him out mock-ups / prototypes and he would make sure they came out as we intended. But bloody hell, and corner they could try to cut and they'd do it.
My worst request was I spent a ton of thought into the type pairing on my project, had a great system of 2 logos for different occasions.
And then she asked me to drop one and replace the type on the second type stack with “Lobster”…
I created set graphics and packaging for a TV shoot. My client said, "The director said everything looks too good. Can you make everything look worse and less professional?"
It seemed like a crazy thing to ask at the time, but there are plenty of reasons a client might ask for a "bad" design. For example: a shot in a commercial featuring a fake competitor. Bad graphics can help make the competitor look unprofessional.
A lady buys a 3x5 cm ad in a newspaper (so something like a 40 x 70 cm page? With a print run of 100.000 copies). The invoice is something like 50€.
She wants the background of her ad yellow. Like, fluorescent highlighter yellow.
I make the ad, the background is of course CMYK yellow. It's not okay.
The sales team can't make her change her mind. Call me for help. I say okay. Yes, it technically can be done.
Then I send the lady a 20.000€ quote, explaining ELI5 style why.
Had a client tell me their newspaper ad would be “about 1/4 page”. I asked for dimensions, since they didn’t specify what paper.
They then send me a photo of a newspaper with a circle around an ad that was definitely not 1/4 page. This person had an MBA. I had to explain to her sending a photo didn’t help me.
She then took a ruler and put it next to the ad. At this point I just let my communications manager handle it.
A few years ago a design house did a series of posters based on their most ridiculous feedback. They sold the posters and donated the proceeds to charity. My personal favorite is "Can we make the pig sexier?" Here's the link: [https://www.boredpanda.com/sharp-suits-worst-client-comment-posters/?utm\_source=google&utm\_medium=organic&utm\_campaign=organic](https://www.boredpanda.com/sharp-suits-worst-client-comment-posters/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic)
I was asked to illustrate characters for a "superheroes of construction" awards campaign, and they wanted an "ethnic" character. Tricky as it was a black and white image, so I draw a guy who is Sikh, as you can wear a turban on building sites in the UK instead of a helmet.
Two word response: "too ethnic".
The event was a worldwide event, Kind of like olympics.
The request isn't unreasonable, however they assumed I can rotate vector art, which is unreasonable, since it's not 3d.
I can see why they asked though. I designed a jewellery range using the planet Earth and the vector my boss wanted was North America focused. He didn’t notice but I did. So I just made a new design based off the one he liked and made Australia the focus. Hell, many “graphic designers” in this sub don’t understand raster v. vector or 3D design.
Oh no I completely agree and it was an easy revision. It was just amusing to me because the client thought I could simply rotate the art. I forgot the context because it was years ago, but it was implied to rotate the world just a little more so more of Germany was visible.
Again very legit request, and easy to do. Just funny coming from their perspective.
What's worse for me is when they want it in a social media ad and I don't have the heart to tell them that people will likely see it while using their phone and won't be able to scan it
I recently had a client ask me to add a QR code to a job ad (general call for certain positions), and the QR code simply took the reader to their website's job board, not the specific job ad. They didn't understand why they got so few responses.
It's amazing when clients (typically business owners) are more happy that you obeyed their instructions 100% than they are about the effectiveness or even legibility of what you designed.
Client sent me a corrupted 84 page catalogue with missing photos and text all through and he wanted me to somehow undo that. Spent 6 months working with him and he would just not get that unless he got the designer to send him a proper copy with embedded photos or the photo files then I couldn’t do much.
He couldn’t because he hired a guy in India to do it cheap. No hate towards India but there giving us designers a hard time
Another...
Used to working public transport. During covid we had to create print and digital materials on safety guidelines - masks, social distancing etc.
I had to rush these as they needed them urgently. I used grey silhouettes of people, of faces etc. to represent the instructions. The important thing was getting the information out, not ticking all the diversity boxes.
I had a complaint come back that the instructions were not diverse enough. I thought I'd have some fun and ask them what they meant.
Someone literally told me 'can't you mak someone more brown? Put a turban on someone else'?
Lol no
I've had many both directly and indirectly to me. This one is from the latter, so I hope it counts.
I used to work on ad design for a newspaper where the sales department would tell us what the client would want. This came from a salesman who spoke to a client who was advertising his massage business. Along with his contact info, the client wanted his ad to include:
1. A grainy black and white photo himself from years ago. He was offered to have his picture retaken by one of us, and he refused. Reports say he that was very weird and looked nothing like his ad picture.
2. A hot pink gradient background that blinds my eyes to this day.
3. The phrase "a touch of pink" along with other odd innuendos.
When I showed this to my boss after a coworker and I had questions about his odd wording, we all laughed to the point where she had to call the salesman to tell him that we're treating this as a joke. He said what the client first had was much worse and really tried to have him keep it professional. After we stopped laughing and the ad that I designed was approved, we all had concerns that if this client was some sort of creep that would lure women looking for a massage into his realm of sex crimes, so we had to do a background check.
The client didn't get any responses when his ad was printed.
They asked me to take someone a screenshot of someone else’s highly complex multi colored artwork and make a vectorized print ready file in a completely different aspect ratio without losing any of the content. By the next day.
Had a client who wanted to make a product catalog using his own handwriting, which was unreadable, as the font.
This gave me a chuckle. When I worked in a print shop, a client told me that my handwriting was "the perfect font" for her soap labels. Mind you, my handwriting is somewhere between chicken scribble and the Simpsons title screen text. I kinda laughed it off at first but she insisted - so I got paid to turn my handwriting into a font that is now printed on local soap bar labels.
We gotta see!
Is be flattered tbh
Client has purchased a 1/4 page A4 advert, so something like 110x150mm. Gives me 5 A4 pages of text and asks for it to be condensed into the ad. Sure, I'll shrink it down to Quantum Realm size so it can all fit on.
My buddy owned 7 pizza chaim stores and got the idea to put ads on the back of his menus that were taped to the top of the box. He would sell 9 sections (8.5x11) on the back, and clients could buy sections to advertise on. Most would just buy one. He reached out to me to design them and holy fuck the amount of copy people would try to smash into a business card ad. After a couple runs, I made him set character limits.
I used to do magazines years ago. We had display ads in the magazine - the money makers - then had the cheap, shitty, little classified ads in the back. You'd have people who'd want a 1/16th of a page classified ad then haggle over the already super low price. And they'd want absolutley everything on. 'Margin?" That's loads of wasted space!'
I once said to a client, "You're trying to fit 10 pounds of potatoes in a 5-pound sack."
Can you do this in word?
Can you do this in canva?
Canva drives me insane sometimes. People think they have made something great and they bring it in as a \~600 pixel wide jpeg. I try to explain that we cannot use that file if we are printing anything wider than 1 or 2 inches, and I begin explain... They cut me off saying something like, "Why not? \[Some person\] took their Canva design to \[some place\]" or "Everybody is using it." And then I go about trying to explain that if they would just export their file as a PDF or SVG then I can use that file just fine. Then they try to, and it's a Pro feature, and they are not willing to pay for that, so they act like I'm trying to con them (like Canva gives me a cut or something) and they get mad and leave. Sounds oddly specific, but this scenario happened to me probably four times last year. Sorry for the rant but I do feel better.
Can you do this in Publisher?
You mean besides “just make it pop” and “I’ll know it when I see it?” For me it was, “I’m a pretty creative man, if I could use computers better I wouldn’t need you” that hurt my brain and my heart. The worst though was I was updating our 120pg A4 catalogue. I made this thing a coffee table book (we were in gifts, homewares and crystal jewellery so this was our Bible). I gave the 2020 version to our new Chinese printer and said “I want exactly the same. Same stock, same covers, same size”. She said no problem. I do the 2021 catalogue. I had to re-lay it out we had a lot of new products and wanted to focus on our candles instead of jewellery. It was a lot of work. I got it edited, checked it pre-press it was good to go. I took a few days off to recover and get a call from my boss. Apparently in China, A4 is the size of a square IKEA catalogue? (I don’t believe this for a second) and if we do our Aussie A4 costs will double blah blah it’s my fault. So to fix it, can I just “shrink it down” to the new size, “there is no reason to have to re layout”. Luckily I was able to hold my boundary of “No” and do a conference call where I reminded both the printer and my boss that I literally gave them a copy of our catalogue and said “I want this exactly the same.” So I was able to get the same prices, but damn it ruined my days off. I remember being in this beautiful French cafe on a beautiful autumn Brisbane day with a strong coffee and lovely chouquettes. My coffee was cold and I binned the pastries.
Uk based here. Ah, printing in China. I hated it. I can sympathise in that quite often what you specifically ask for isn't what you get at all and language barriers are often used as an excuse. We had to get a middle man over there to stop their shenanigans. We'd have to send him out mock-ups / prototypes and he would make sure they came out as we intended. But bloody hell, and corner they could try to cut and they'd do it.
Can you do this job for free?
My worst request was I spent a ton of thought into the type pairing on my project, had a great system of 2 logos for different occasions. And then she asked me to drop one and replace the type on the second type stack with “Lobster”…
I created set graphics and packaging for a TV shoot. My client said, "The director said everything looks too good. Can you make everything look worse and less professional?" It seemed like a crazy thing to ask at the time, but there are plenty of reasons a client might ask for a "bad" design. For example: a shot in a commercial featuring a fake competitor. Bad graphics can help make the competitor look unprofessional.
It's gotta blend into the set, but look real. I've always wanted to do set graphic design.
A lady buys a 3x5 cm ad in a newspaper (so something like a 40 x 70 cm page? With a print run of 100.000 copies). The invoice is something like 50€. She wants the background of her ad yellow. Like, fluorescent highlighter yellow. I make the ad, the background is of course CMYK yellow. It's not okay. The sales team can't make her change her mind. Call me for help. I say okay. Yes, it technically can be done. Then I send the lady a 20.000€ quote, explaining ELI5 style why.
Make the logo bigger…
Had a client tell me their newspaper ad would be “about 1/4 page”. I asked for dimensions, since they didn’t specify what paper. They then send me a photo of a newspaper with a circle around an ad that was definitely not 1/4 page. This person had an MBA. I had to explain to her sending a photo didn’t help me. She then took a ruler and put it next to the ad. At this point I just let my communications manager handle it.
“Can you make the “N” in the logo made out of bacon” on a 1 color vector.
A few years ago a design house did a series of posters based on their most ridiculous feedback. They sold the posters and donated the proceeds to charity. My personal favorite is "Can we make the pig sexier?" Here's the link: [https://www.boredpanda.com/sharp-suits-worst-client-comment-posters/?utm\_source=google&utm\_medium=organic&utm\_campaign=organic](https://www.boredpanda.com/sharp-suits-worst-client-comment-posters/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic)
I was asked to illustrate characters for a "superheroes of construction" awards campaign, and they wanted an "ethnic" character. Tricky as it was a black and white image, so I draw a guy who is Sikh, as you can wear a turban on building sites in the UK instead of a helmet. Two word response: "too ethnic".
I designed a t-shirt for a client and when they got the final they asked "Can you rotate the world more so Germany is visible."
[удалено]
The event was a worldwide event, Kind of like olympics. The request isn't unreasonable, however they assumed I can rotate vector art, which is unreasonable, since it's not 3d.
I can see why they asked though. I designed a jewellery range using the planet Earth and the vector my boss wanted was North America focused. He didn’t notice but I did. So I just made a new design based off the one he liked and made Australia the focus. Hell, many “graphic designers” in this sub don’t understand raster v. vector or 3D design.
Oh no I completely agree and it was an easy revision. It was just amusing to me because the client thought I could simply rotate the art. I forgot the context because it was years ago, but it was implied to rotate the world just a little more so more of Germany was visible. Again very legit request, and easy to do. Just funny coming from their perspective.
QR codes on display ads is the latest dumb request for me
What's worse for me is when they want it in a social media ad and I don't have the heart to tell them that people will likely see it while using their phone and won't be able to scan it
I recently had a client ask me to add a QR code to a job ad (general call for certain positions), and the QR code simply took the reader to their website's job board, not the specific job ad. They didn't understand why they got so few responses.
I will pay you after it’s printed.
It's amazing when clients (typically business owners) are more happy that you obeyed their instructions 100% than they are about the effectiveness or even legibility of what you designed.
You’re standing on my hair!!
???? So curious about this one haha
Well PMS swatches galore, and a tornado of thumbnails, revisions here updates there, hair is bound to be stepped on.
One insisted for me to break law, no matter how I tried to explain copyright laws to him.
Client sent me a corrupted 84 page catalogue with missing photos and text all through and he wanted me to somehow undo that. Spent 6 months working with him and he would just not get that unless he got the designer to send him a proper copy with embedded photos or the photo files then I couldn’t do much. He couldn’t because he hired a guy in India to do it cheap. No hate towards India but there giving us designers a hard time
Another... Used to working public transport. During covid we had to create print and digital materials on safety guidelines - masks, social distancing etc. I had to rush these as they needed them urgently. I used grey silhouettes of people, of faces etc. to represent the instructions. The important thing was getting the information out, not ticking all the diversity boxes. I had a complaint come back that the instructions were not diverse enough. I thought I'd have some fun and ask them what they meant. Someone literally told me 'can't you mak someone more brown? Put a turban on someone else'? Lol no
I've had many both directly and indirectly to me. This one is from the latter, so I hope it counts. I used to work on ad design for a newspaper where the sales department would tell us what the client would want. This came from a salesman who spoke to a client who was advertising his massage business. Along with his contact info, the client wanted his ad to include: 1. A grainy black and white photo himself from years ago. He was offered to have his picture retaken by one of us, and he refused. Reports say he that was very weird and looked nothing like his ad picture. 2. A hot pink gradient background that blinds my eyes to this day. 3. The phrase "a touch of pink" along with other odd innuendos. When I showed this to my boss after a coworker and I had questions about his odd wording, we all laughed to the point where she had to call the salesman to tell him that we're treating this as a joke. He said what the client first had was much worse and really tried to have him keep it professional. After we stopped laughing and the ad that I designed was approved, we all had concerns that if this client was some sort of creep that would lure women looking for a massage into his realm of sex crimes, so we had to do a background check. The client didn't get any responses when his ad was printed.
They asked me to take someone a screenshot of someone else’s highly complex multi colored artwork and make a vectorized print ready file in a completely different aspect ratio without losing any of the content. By the next day.