"you have total free reign on this design"

[captain spanky]

good or a bad thing?
I can't seem to cope with such a vague brief... i need details to help me create.. same for you?

[peder]

If I know what the content's going to be: No, luckily. But I do work better with some details set.

[captain spanky]

I've been asked to make a display board. They've told me the logo they want on it and given me the web address they want to feature other than that, it's up to me. I'm pretty stuck to be honest. Something to do with sports but with a corporate/business look, something that will feature in the background of photos but not a focussed advert as such. I should be loving that, shouldn't i? a chance to do something different... but I just have a block! arg

[peder]

How about looking at designs for something completely different? Take some mug from the kitchen, look at the design on it and imagine if someone asked you "Could this be a good web design for sports/business?", then ofcourse you'll answer "No! You'd have to blabla ---", and you'll be giving yourself advice! I don't know what kind of person you are, but for some people, this might work.

[Drazan]

I got free reign on designing our companies new image. :)
website, bizcards, brochure, catalog... ooodles of stuff. Even a secret project.

I get a lot of freedom on design, but I design towards the customers niche in the marketplace. aka: barnwood on a taxidermy website and clean lines on an upscale furniture website. Both customers are raving at the results. Illustrating a gear for a bearing and gear company. Illustrating a bulldogge for my sister's breader kennels.

If it's a professional look you are probably not going to have crayon colors and wild style. Probably more on clean lines with focused impact on the images and website.

Find out what the purpose is of the display board and design to that purpose.

[Virgo Nightingale]

I would love to have free rein on a design, but most of the time it doesn't work. I prefer having at least some kind of initial direction so I don't waste my time on something I think looks great only to have the client go 'this isn't quite what I had in mind...'

[Broacher]

I'd laugh, and throw it back at them that it's a nice and generous thought, but to think about what they're saying. There's really no such thing. I mean, what if you suggest a human pyramid of naked cheerleaders constructed out of a mosaic of whale penis leather with animated holograms?

When a client gives you this kind of direction, that is 'none', you know you can practically hear the foghorns. Far better to invest a few hours of constructive face to face meetings to nail down marketing objectives than to waste it all on creative speculative 'guesswork'.

[Virgo Nightingale]

Oooooh!!! Animated holograms! I want one! I want one!

[captain spanky]

aww i thought you were going to say naked cheerleaders.. :D

[frankster]

unfortunately the ones that claim to offer free reign are the ones that are most likely to say "I'll know it when I see it and that's not it" and then give you no constructive information as to what they do want. I've had a couple of decent free reign projects though, but they have mostly been down to the client being too damn busy with other aspects of the business to be arsed and really don't think the design is the important thing and just *having* the mailer/website/brochure etc is what matters.

[Virgo Nightingale]

aww i thought you were going to say naked cheerleaders.. :D
You can have the naked cheerleader and the whale penis leather all you want. I just want the animated holograms.

[MPI]

Free reign is great - so long as the client is paying the bill.

On wide open projects I actually try to have the first delivery turned down. If I don't hear them say, "whoa, that's way too 'out there'..." I figured I've failed.

It's good because what you establish is the most the client can stand, rather than doing the opposite and being left with the least you can get away with. To put it another way - backing off from too much leaves you at the top end of the spectrum, while creeping in from too little puts you at the bottom of the spectrum.

The clients might think you're wasting their time, but deep down it's actually what they want.

[patkennedy78]

i need details to help me create.. same for you?


YES, details, details, details. This is one of my current workplace pet peeves. "We want you to redesign this to make it look better" Then I have to pull teath to find out what 'look better' means. No one has a direction or theme or idea of anything. It sucks, but, when ever I show my boss, or whomever, what I did, I get a "It looks good, I like it". And that would be another pet peeve.

So I try my best to think about Message, Audience, and Voice. Or, What do I want to say?, Who am I saying it too?, and How am I saying it?. That at least gets me a start. Then I try to think of themes from obvious to radical, and from conservative to abstract.

That's my situation and thougth process, hopefully it helps you out.

[frankster]

deep down it's actually what they want.

Seems to me right now that what client really wants deep down is whatever it is, done for free, yesterday. Maybe I'm just having a bad day. :mad:

[Quirk]

the thing i hate about this is when you present your concepts... and then they tell you... "well, actually we were thinking more of this"... hate that... tell me that before... urgh...

[CamarotaDesign]

I'm gonna echo Broacher's words. There needs to be guidance. See because, I work with heating and AC companies, I just thought the best slogan:

"If Chernobyl was using our AC, everything would have been cool"

And that is why you dont give free reign to twisted designers.

[captain spanky]

Lmao!!! :D

[budafist]

While I love free reign, from experience, free reign means that the client couldn't be bothered thinking up the specifics for a brief. Therefore free reign to me means lots and lots of changes through the proofing process. No good.

[VLAHAKISA]

I love free reign, and I find that my clients that leave the design ideas up to me end up being happy faster.

Clients that try and control what is designed by making their own (usually dreadful) suggestions for imagery take longer to make happy....a process that usually involves designing their awful ideas first so they can see how bad they look, and then showing them my ideas, which are of course ten times better because I'm a designer and they are not.

Having free reign means to me that I have free reign to design what I feel is appropriate and will attract the market their are targeting - I decide the images and colours and patterns to show them for the design. All I want is their content (text) that needs to sit within the design to get their message across.

If they haven't got a brief for me, for I send a selection of questions to them about their style preferences (to make sure I'm going in the direction of what they are looking for), asking questions about the business operations and target market and so on.

[colonel5]

I voted "bad", not because I hate free reign but because I know it really doesn't exist when it comes to creating something for someone else.

[VLAHAKISA]

Good point!

You are right, 100% free reign obviously doesn't exist when you are creating for someone that is paying you to do it for them :)

[budafist]

I like personal work - now THAT is free reign.

[VLAHAKISA]

Yup, that's why I started my own retail business recently, where I am selling my own designs on a variety of products.

Such a wonderful feeling of freedom one does not get as a graphic designer working for clients :)

[paulrandfan]

I didn't read every response, because I'm tired and lazy.

I think this "free reign" bit is purely dependent on the client. If it's a new client, I almost think it's a burden, because you are really left with an open canvas, and no clue as to what the client is thinking...because you know when they say "free reign" they rarely ever mean it.

I'm fortunate to have clients that I've worked with enough to have a feeling for what they want, but still garnish the opportunity to pick and choose, as well as suggest and conceptualize.

My thoughts:)

[Broacher]

Total free reign = totally too lazy client who probably believes great creative is just a menu option. What's more valuable than an open licence to create is a client who is open to committing the time and confidentiality of being thoroughly grilled at the research stage, and then open to having confidence in your suggested creative solutions--even if they appear risky.

Imagine going to a good restaurant and asking the waiter to serve you anything. Maybe we should design some kind of 'graphic design gift card' and offer these to this kind of client with the pleasant note to return when they're willing to get serious.