Dieter Petereit February 23rd, 2015

Cartoon: If Web Designers Were Sculptors… [006]

People working in the web design and development industry need to become thick-skinned over the years if they intend to survive long term. I am in this business since web design got invented in the early Nineties, and I sure know what I’m talking about when it comes to the hidden secrets of client communication. My remedy these days is laughing. I refuse to get angry anymore. Instead, I make fun of the situations that only a few years ago made me want to hire a professional killer. There are quite a few people out there who are only still alive for the fact I couldn’t afford to pay one. Nah, just joking. As making fun of it all is the healthiest way to cope with it, we decided to start a new cartoon series titled “If Web Designers Were” here at Noupe. This is part six. Hope you enjoy it… Cartoon Series Web Design

If Web Designers Were Sculptors

Clients always tend to stretch their orders to ultimately get more out than they put in. Paying little, getting lots is a wide-spread philosophy these days. Designers have to cope with that. The only way to actually secure yourself from delivering too much work for too little money is having everything fixed in a written contract with added written extension orders for every piece of work not initially having been part of the contract. But even then, you will fall prey to your client. They might not even intend to hurt you. Blame it on their unbelievably great ignorance. Our little cartoons will help you eradicate ignorance once and for all. Collect them and show them to your clients as needed. I’m sure they’ll understand immediately.

Only a few slight changes here and there

If Web Designers Were Sculptors Then we have these clients where everything runs almost too good to be true. As always, should something feel too good to be true, most likely it actually isn't. Have you had that same feeling? Did you and your client agree on almost everything? Did you feel like project soulmates? Did you believe to know exactly where this project should be headed? Until you were almost through? It is at this point when the client starts to stagger. He thinks it might be a prime idea to ask the son of a relative of one of his closest employees, because "he is computer literate". Or maybe, but not less dangerous, he opens the design to the opinions of his family during that Sunday morning brunch. That's when anything can happen... One of these things happens to our poor sculptor right at this time.

More Cartoons from the Series

  1. If Web Designers Were Tattooers
  2. If Web Designers Were Car Salesmen
  3. If Web Designers Were Plumbers
  4. If Web Designers Were Prostitutes
  5. If Web Designers Were Pizza Boys

Want Your Favorite Quote as a Cartoon?

YOU are the designer, and YOU know all these stories. Tell us your favorite citation via the form below, and you’ll probably find it in the form of one of our upcoming cartoons. Note that only the text area is mandatory. You don’t need to tell us your name and email address if you don’t want to. If you do we will attribute you below the cartoon, we might derive from your entry. Cartoons are scheduled for a weekly release.

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Dieter Petereit

Dieter Petereit is a veteran of the web with over 25 years of experience in the world of IT. As soon as Netscape became available he started to do what already at that time was called web design and has carried on ever since. Two decades ago he started writing for several online publications, some well, some lesser known. You can meet him over on Google+.

4 comments

  1. “Sculptors” that’s the right word. Thanks for sharing Dieter. I get the same feeling when my client keep telling changes. Such ideas look great only in their head but when you make them that will only spoil your time and the design.

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