Should you give control of your design over to the client?

January 23, 2009 2:45 pm Josh Freelancing, Web Design

It’s a question I have been thinking about a lot lately. As you can see from my portfolio, I do print and web design. For print design I use Adobe InDesign as my software of choice. Many of my clients do not have the Adobe software and do not want to purchase it due to the price. So, as an alternative, they ask me if I can create a Microsoft Word template as a deliverable so they can create their own documents. This creates a moral dilemma for me.

On the one hand, I want to give control of remedial tasks like copying and pasting text into a template over to the client. These are things that take a matter of minutes that do not have an impact on my bottom line and create more of a headache than a joy. I would rather focus my time on the core design of the piece than making sure grammer and spelling is correct.

In contrast, I find that when I hand over my design to the client, the client takes some creative freedom with the template. They’ll use weird fonts and colors. Alter line-height and kerning. The final document is like Mr. Hyde emerging from Dr. Jekyll. My fear is that this document will be distributed to other people and be attributed to RedBaron Design. So you can see my dilemma…

This also enters into another philosophical discussion of “should the designer appease the client and do what they want, or should the designer stick to his/her design principles and not necessarily go along with all the client’s suggestions?” So far in my design career, I have appeased the client. They are paying for the document and my time so I’ll do what they want. I have also found that the client understands their industry and consumers better than I do, so they may be making their suggestions based on this knowledge. If I think they are making a huge mistake or design faux pas, I will definitely let them know, but ultimately I leave it to them.

Print design isn’t the only realm where I encounter this problem. Many times I will use WordPress as a CMS for client websites. I will hand over the site to the client upon completion and find within a few months that text has been centered, fonts have been bolded and are blinking, etc. After a tear slowly drips down my cheek, I sometimes will contact the client and inform them that I would be more than happy to “clean-up” some content on the site for a nominal fee. If they don’t go for it, I get a little frustrated and move on.

What’s your opinion? Have you encountered this situation? How do you handle it? Post a comment!