Price

[pixelplume]

dude.....that survey is a great idea

[glorybound]

Thanks! I just need to ask people to fill it out

[Vizioen]

That is indeed a great idea, problem is that a lot of them won't bother filling it out even when asked :/

[glorybound]

Then I need to ask them the questions and fill it out for them, I guess. It'll save time for everyone.

[hoppergrass]

I like to work as I do when I am painting or drawing, start with large broad brush strokes then refine down to smaller , finer detail.

get the basics in first, send it to the client, move onto medium detail, send to the client only then do you start on the fine detail and only where you need it.

[glorybound]

Makes sense, but what if they half heartily look and make changes later on? Changed that they should have caught earlier?

[hoppergrass]

then you scream and shout at them, storm out the room in a huff. or at least you do that in your head.
It happens and is part of the game but at least you have a record of what you have shown them and they have had plenty of chances to review. It does reduce the chances of mistakes not being picked up, but doesn't eliminate it.

Often it becomes clear during the early broad brush stage that there are design flaws than need to be addressed. It is easier/ quicker to address then now. If your base isn't right then adding more and more detail isn't going to solve the problem, only make it much easier to see and harder to fix.

I can highly recommend watching Feng Zhu videos, not for what he paints but more for his running commentary, in particular how to work in a production environment. http://www.artbyfeng.com/tutorials.htm . He makes it clear that going into too much detail, too soon and spending ages doing it is not good. What if the art director hates your concept?, or wants to seem more design options? Rather spend a short amount of time massing in several painting and concepts, show the art director and further develop those ones that are on the money.

[Deflaminis]

Great thread!

[Neilg]

Makes sense, but what if they half heartily look and make changes later on? Changed that they should have caught earlier?

Say 'you've had multiple opportunities to catch that, so it's apparent to me that this isn't a mistake on my part and you've simply changed the design and we will bill you hourly for this change. the other changes we'll make as part of our process but this comment will take 1.5 hours at $x'
And if they approve it, you send them a bill for that single comment and they're a little more attentive next time.

If it's obvious someone isnt bothering to sit down and look at our images we remind them about our stages we go through and that they will get billed if they don't bother commenting until the end.

[notamondayfan]

Often it becomes clear during the early broad brush stage that there are design flaws than need to be addressed. It is easier/ quicker to address then now. If your base isn't right then adding more and more detail isn't going to solve the problem, only make it much easier to see and harder to fix.

Totally agree on this. My first drafts are low detail, low quality. Once these are signed off, then add detail.

Also another good practice is when emailing drafts to your client, make it clear that everyone who is involved and has a voice, can see and review the draft before sending comments back. This stops the whole "oh John's been away and has only seen the first draft, and he wants changes" even though a weeks worth of work has been added since. This then gives you ammunition to either refuse "John's" changes, or charge them for it.