[thelist] Re: Client Relations Re: 'design by..' line

aardvark roselli at earthlink.net
Tue Jul 4 23:14:02 CDT 2000


> -----Original Message-----
> From: isaac forman
> 
> I disagree - people are unlikely to call 
> competitors to find out who they used
> for their site. People would also prefer to click

competitors, no, but then again, they might not come to you anyway, mention in the footer or 
not... some aren't sure that you'd be loyal to them given their competitor as a client...

> I've seen footer credits used by decently sized 
> local agencies, el cheapo
> designers, and multi-million dollar agencies

the larger agencies i have seen do it are those who don't understand the medium and 
outsource all the web work anyway...

as a rule, i find the there is an inverse relationship between the quality of the site and the size 
of the credit... the ugliest sites have the largest, proudest links to their creators... the clean, 
refined sites have the subtle or non-existent link...

there are exceptions of course...

> alike. I think that the sign of an
> amateur site is the counter (especially the 
> freebie counter), and the stolen,
> animated email gif... I do not consider a small, 
> subtle footer credit unprofessional.

subtle can work, but it has to be part of the design... if it's wedged in there, it doesn't look so 
good... also, it depends on the firm... an agency should never let anyone list a credit on their 
site, nor should a technology or software company (IMO)... a health care company, sure, but 
who cares?

back in the days, when there used to be an 'about this site' page (you know, back when they 
actually posted an email link to the webmaster) i used to treat is a colophon... talk about the 
server, the software, the goals, and the developers... that has fallen out of fashion...

> A lot of brochures that I see have the printer's 
> name and contact info included
> in small print. Sign companies often have their 
> name directly below a billboard
> so that they can be contacted to commission/display an ad.

billboards aren't quite the same metaphor... they own real estate with constantly changing 
clients... that would be like rotating clients through foo.com on a regular basis...

the brochures i usually see have nothing more than a tracking code that the agency uses... 
people who know their agencies can read which one did a piece by this code... and hopefully 
your otherwise-useless marketing staff can at least do that...

actually, i can't find *any* brochures or direct mail pieces anywhere here that list who made 
them, and i have 3 filing cabinet drawers full of them (don't ask)...

but some people get some calls from those footer credits, and until they are doing business on 
more than just referrals, you won't get them to change...

> I think that it's a far from a clear-cut issue: 
> not every footer credit is unprofessional at all.

quite true...

but the connotation without seeing how it looks is that is the sign of an amateur...





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