It is oh-so-tempting to choose a designer or agency for your project by asking a handful of them to produce sample or speculative designs for you to review. But doing so is not only harmful to the designer, robbing them of valuable income, but is harmful to you as the client.
In this article, we’ll explain speculative design, why it’s harmful to both client and designer, and show you the best alternative so you can hire the best designer for your project.
So often, business owners feel rushed when starting a new project. They want a logo, business cards, a brochure, a web site, and a post card within 3 weeks – but more often than not, clients who rushed their creative projects either feel unhappy with the result at the end, or find themselves stalled in deadlock before the project is completed.
It pays to allow plenty of time for good quality work to be done, for plenty of exploration of design direction, and for building and cementing relationships between client and designer. Time can make all the difference in the outcome of a creative project.
If you need a web site for yourself or your business, it can be tempting to try and save money by building the web site yourself. More and more options are available all the time for someone interested in tackling the job themselves without any prior experience. Hiring a web developer can be prohibitively expensive for small businesses and individuals, but more and more an online presence is as vital today as a yellow page listing was 20 years ago, before the web changed the way we find and interact with businesses.
So which is the right choice – go it alone or hire someone to do it for you? We’ll discuss both options, the pros and cons, and then reveal secret option number three – the consultant.
Learn why you shouldn’t keep the budget for your web site a secret. Share it with anyone you’re considering hiring to build your site. We’ll also cover some basic rules of thumb for pricing web sites and talk about the exceptions to those rules. A web site project can be tailored to meet just about any budget, so make sure you discuss the possible adjustments with the agency you hire – sometimes a small change has a big impact on the cost.
Subscribe to Purple Pen 