[thelist] help! client bought Photoshop!!

[Shirley Kaiser, SKDesigns]

Michael,

What you're going through is another reason why I explicitly write my 
contracts with clients to not allow this kind of thing -- I own the 
copyright to the design. You might keep this in mind for future. If they 
want to mess with the design, which would include messing with images, then 
they can purchase the copyright and I'll walk away from the Web site and 
let them do whatever they want.... and I won't include that site in my 
portfolio, either. I have no problem with clients updating content if they 
wish, as long as they don't mess up the site.

That doesn't help you in your situation, but it's something you might 
consider keeping in mind to avoid this kind of situation. If the person 
wants to keep a professional site, then he needs to have a professional do 
it. If not, then if you don't have a contract protecting you from clients 
messing with it, I'd think about what you can do about this to protect your 
client's professional site and yourself if your name is on that site as the 
designer especially.

Unfortunately this stuff hits a bad button with me as I've had a couple of 
people pull this on me, too. One of my now former clients paid someone 
around $3,000 for a new logo, and then he went in and messed with it, 
ruined it, and then wanted to use it with his tweaks. After I quit doing 
work for him, he then took my design and had the new designer mess with his 
web site, totally ruining all the images I'd done, and now the site has 
graphics for all the content on the main page and all JavaScript navigation 
so the search engines can't even crawl the site or have content.... but 
that's only the beginning.

So some clients just don't get it.

It's nuts that some people think they can just buy the tool and do 
everything. Buying a piano doesn't automatically turn someone into a 
concert pianist -- it takes years of lessons and practice. Some may 
understand that after they buy the piano and some may think they're great 
when even the dog runs and hides.

Warmly,
Shirley
--
Shirley E. Kaiser, M.A.
SKDesigns  mailto:skaiser1 at skdesigns.com
Website Development  http://www.skdesigns.com/
Pianist, Composer  http://www.shirleykaiser.com/
Moderator, I-Design http://www.adventive.com/lists/idesign/summary.html

At 02:13 PM 08/24/2001, you wrote:
>In regards to the suggestions on providing the client with a plethora of
>information, you might want to be careful on how far you go. If they have
>other resources available that they can ask whether 'calibrating the
>arbitrary pixels' is valid, then you can potentially lose face. Even though
>it is frustrating and you can see the potential problems to come, it's kind
>of like raising a child - you have to let them go ahead and try and
>potentially fail. My best suggestion is to sit back and try to REALLY put
>yourself in their shoes. If they actually learn something, they might be a
>better person for it.
>
>Andrea A Belk
>
>Creative Director
>Geonetric Technologies
>200 1st Avenue NE  Suite 220
>Cedar Rapids, Iowa  52401
>
>P:319.221.1667 / F:319.221.1450 / www.geonetric.com
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: thelist-admin at lists.evolt.org
>[mailto:thelist-admin at lists.evolt.org]On Behalf Of Chris George
>Sent: Friday, August 24, 2001 3:38 PM
>To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
>Subject: Re: [thelist] help! client bought Photoshop!!
>
>
>on 8/24/2001 2:27 PM, Michael Barrett at mbarrett at triad.rr.com wrote:
>
> > Aha.
> > Then you should tell them to "Calibrate the arbitrary pixels" and to
>"adjust
> > for output regulation"
>
>Speaking of which, download the 'celestial babble' extension for
>DreamWeaver.  VERY cool!
>
>Actually, do you have access to a Debabelizer manual?  There's some great
>(read: useful) stuff in there...
>
><tip subject="logo design">
>A good rule of thumb in logo design: Can it be embroidered?
>
>In other words, if you're using the bevelembossdropshadowfire filter, back
>the truck up.
></tip>
>
> >
> >> I'm trying to compile a list so huge and full of minute details that
> >> they'll realize that they shouldn't be responsible for the images.
> >
> > -- Michael Barrett
> > -O^O-
> > -
> >
> > mbarrett at triad.rr.com
> > AIM: device5