In the brochure design industry, relying on creativity exclusively will not help you to earn success and professional reputation. To become a successful designer, you need to possess powerful interpersonal skills for handling clients. If you lack these skills and do not invest enough effort for developing them, chances are high that clients will start bullying you for their own gains.

In any creative industry, two basic types of clients exist-one type who exactly know what they want from designers and stick to their demands. The second type of client, on the other hand, aims to take advantage of designers. We think that the best way to save your time and professional reputation is by avoiding these clients who try to take advantage of unsuspecting designers.

In this post, we will discuss few smart ways that certain clients opt for to dupe designers. Additionally, we will inform you how you can handle these situations.

Instructs the Designer to Submit Work within an Impossible Deadline

This is the most shrewd technique implemented by some clients. They employ this technique to avail a month’s work at minimal costs. Some use this technique, knowing well that the designer will not be able to meet the deadline. This will provide them with the opportunity to demand a refund or reduce payment further.

If you come across a client who provides you with an unreasonable deadline, avoid taking up the brochure or stationary design project. In case you feel that the project will add value to your portfolio, try to negotiate with the client about the deadline.

Threatens

Some clients try to take advantage by blackmailing or threatening to take legal actions against the designer. Unfortunately, you cannot always predict such activities beforehand.

The best way to avoid involving yourself with such legal matters is to keep records of your communication with the client. These records can include emails, invoices or even receipts. In case of any legal hassles, you can present these records for explaining the incidents.

Delays Payment

Almost all designers at some point of their careers have worked with clients who delay payment, stating false excuses. This mostly happens with inexperienced designers, since shrewd clients sense the fact that they are vulnerable and desperate for brochure or flyer design projects.

The best way to avoid such situation is to demand an advance payment. However, consider the fact that such a strategy may result in loss of projects. Also, if you are an inexperienced designer, you may not feel confident about implementing this strategy.

Demands Unjustified Revisions

Some clients demand excessive revisions from designers. While demands for one or two revisions are justified, excessive revisions can mess up your schedule.

To avoid any such unfortunate situation, prepare a detailed contract before taking up any project. State how many revisions you would do for free (2 or 3, for example). Also, state that you would require extra payment if the client needs more than 2 or 3 revisions.

Studying these strategies carefully will help you to avoid unwanted situations.

When I say ‘banner blindness’, I am not referring to ‘color blindness’ that hinders a colorblind viewer’s ability to percept colors as they are. Banner blindness is more a disease of the Internet that occurs in viewers who have been hooked on to the web for many nears.
Banners have been around for quite sometime now, and as traditional advertising mediums, used widely across varied sites. So much so, we have almost come to expect a banner ad on sites we visit, and we also know that we have to bypass it for real, informative content. Ignoring banners almost work like an involuntary reflex and sometimes we literally don’t see it. It’s like walking past your office reception and looking at the receptionist, but not really noticing what she’s wearing.
How Can Banner Blindness Be Beaten?
Problems don’t arise without solutions lurking in the corners. You just have to look hard. In that spirit, here are two approaches you can take to beat banner blindness when working on a website design.
1. A banner that is obviously a banner, yet a clever piece of art – I will resort to clichés for this one: a banner has to stand out and be the most visible thing on a page. Your banner has to be impossible to overlook, like a flashy orange tie on a black suit. To achieve this rather startling effect, there are several things you can do…

• Use the power of attraction. A pretty face will grab attention instantly. Hence, capitalize on looks as much as you can. Better still, choose pictures with models looking straight at the camera. Eye contact grabs attention, especially eyes on an attractive face.
• Cute can kill, not literally, but images of cute animals and babies help manipulate viewer emotions. If you have pictures with them looking straight at the camera, all the more useful.
• Use trigger words like ‘Free’, ‘Discount up to 51%’, ‘Sale’, ‘New’; these are proven and time honored. ‘Free’ is bound to elicit positive reactions 99.99% of the times. If you are giving away something for free, don’t forget to mention it.
• Add humor, but not the type humor that only you can understand. Funny beats boring but funny has to have clarity. Your text should carry wit and your images reflect it. Smiling models hit a home run; winks work too.
• Interact. Don’t just have a nicely put together text and image sort of ad. Flash banners have a lot of interactive scope. A graphic banner should use the right call to action text.

2. A banner that doesn’t look like a banner – If your banner doesn’t look like a banner at first glance, it might just escape banner blindness. Here’s how you can put up a visibly invisible banner:

• You could create a text banner, only make it look like a text ad. Graphics should be minimal; you could include a graphical representation of the word ‘Free’ (or some such) only.
• You banner could be designed along the lines of the site it will be placed in. The idea is to blend in with the site’s design so it looks like an extra menu or a sidebar element. Chances are, people will click for information.
• You could also create fake elements like checkboxes, or videos. Assuming that you are not advertising some sort of scam program, it’s okay to be ‘fake’.

Always remember, an appealing banner is only good so far as the results it shows. Make your banner attractive, but not just attractive. Make sure it has enough of what it takes to make viewers click.