Suzanne Stephens wrote:
> Next time around, you might find the process a lot less painful if you start
> out by hiring designers whose portfolio already demonstrates the kind of
> graphically rich design you're looking for. You need to make sure the
> designers are capable of doing the kind of work you want. And if you're
> hiring a large firm with several designers or a number of freelancers, make
> sure they've assigned your project the designer whose work in their
> portfolio you liked.
>
*chuckle*
Okay, we're still crossing wires here.
Designers have an excellent portfolio. Some of the best sites I've seen
in the non-profit area, including:
http://www.heifer.org/
http://www.panda.org/
http://www.unicefusa.org/
http://www.greenpeaceusa.org/ (java warning . . .)
http://www.savetibet.org/
Full range of stuff, including links to their AOL and MCI work, is at:
http://www.nmpinc.com/nmp_site/clients_long.htm
*Absolutely* no complaints with them . . . best decision I ever made.
The preference for Bauhaus was on *our* end, mostly among the Board and
their spouses, and the accountants (i.e., people who probably shouldn't
be allowed opinions in site design, and the latter of whom were clearly
concerned with little more than riding prevailing winds . . . :P). The
designers were 100% willing to give them this if they really wanted it.
It was totally unrealistic, though, given about 200 supporting goals for
projects and campaigns that needed to be met that qualify as "little
things" that they aren't concerned with--so it was my job to find the
middle. The balance struck was getting these designers, anxious to
please the client but clearly also great at complex interfaces and
architecture, to help me lay a foundation that was acceptable to the
client, but realistically allowed the expansion and growth (to the tune
of about 10 times the current investment) over the next four years that
these decision makers simply weren't accounting for.
And this "preference" was expressed as nothing but that. No real
feedback other than "too busy". No actual websites they liked to point
to. It was just the weird constraint we worked with for four weeks
until we hit a design that everyone could live with and I "locked it in"
and then we fit the content into as best we could (given that that
wasn't delivered until *after* we had achieved the agreement on look and
feel).
I still consider this site plain, while they consider it "too busy." i
think the navigation should have been more issue and theme oriented, and
totally lost that battle in favor of those who thought it should mimic
the annual report categories. I think it ought to make use of the
thousands of pictures we can get for free and contain some nice photo
work (I kind of like what Earth Island did with their last revamp),
there was an express preference for clean boxes and sparse pics.
So much fun, this consulting business. Next time around, I'm pulling an
Eades, finding a client with a nice happy web site with lots of support
(and hopefully very few overseers) and settling in to a much saner
routine :)
B
____________________________________________________________________
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Join The NEW Web Consultants Association FORUMS and CHAT:
Register Today at: http://just4u.com/forums/
Web Consultants Web Site : http://just4u.com/webconsultants
Give the Gift of Life This Year...
Just4U Stop Smoking Support forum - helping smokers for
over three years-tell a friend: http://just4u.com/forums/
To get 500 Banner Ads for FREE
go to http://www.linkbuddies.com/start.go?id=111261
---------------------------------------------------------------------
