Embrace the Crap

Let me clarify. Through word of mouth someone found me and asked for help on their website. I visited their existing site and it’s horrendous. It’s just plain 1997-old-stale-HTML nasty. My gut said, delete this email now and move on.
Then I decided not to do this. I wrote a quick, blunt email back to this person on where their site is failing. Just quick bullet points. It was harsh, but it was meant as constructive criticism and I told them that.
They heard me, and wanted to talk on the phone. We talked, I told them how I work, what you get for when you hire me – the whole process.
The bottom line is, if you’re a designer, you want success stories in your portfolio. Nothing says success more than taking lead and turning it into gold. This isn’t always easy. I let my clients know that I demand quality on both sides my projects. I will listen to them if they listen to me. Clients need to understand how to heed to design – and I’m not talking about fonts or grids. I’m talking about why I did certain things. How what I’ve done to their site will impact their business.
So next time a poorly designed site comes your way… consider it. If the client is on board with your vision, make some gold.