Should we as designers follow the customer’s ideas when creating an art for them, or should we as experts educate and tell them when they are wrong on his/her idea and convince them from the beginning to trust our experience?
On 15 years of experience in this field I have found so many obstacles and objections when designing a marketing piece for a client, most of the time because they think that being the business owners and because they are paying for the job, qualify them to assume that their idea is the correct one. There are some customers that no matter how professional you make them look, they still want you to design a piece that the niece or neighbor sketched on a piece of napkin. Once the job is done they realize that it is not a good idea as they thought it would be, and want to come back to the original piece you created for them in the first place. At this point you’ve been working twice first in your design, then on their idea. If you are charging them per hour it shouldn’t be a problem because there are paying for your time anyway, but… if instead you gave them a fixed quote to design a Flyer or a Logo then be ready because your profit will start adopting an elongated curved shape that look like those spiral waves created in a toilet when the handle turns down and your creativity, time and expertise are ready to be flushed away.