I get to hear both sides. Creative individuals sometimes think clients are clueless and only concerned about the bottom line. Clients often wonder if designers have a clue about the bottom line since they’re so “artsy-fartsy.” Maybe it’s time we started appreciating each other.

I appreciate both art and profit in the marriage between entrepreneurship and design. Sometimes we designers are so idealistic that we don’t like to think in terms of time and cost. Our philosophy becomes, “if it’s beautiful, who cares about the dollar amount?” Meanwhile the business client is waiting for the return so he can feed his family and build his company to new heights.

Here are some things we should probably learn to appreciate about each other…

Five Things Clients Should Appreciate About Creatives

• Creativity. Plain and simple. Most designers have the ability to think abstractly, which can push the edges a bit. While old business models grow stale, a creative individual can force a business person to explore new realms of thought.
• Form and function. Personally, I see both design and code as art, so good designers have the ability to make something work, and make it pretty.
• Advocacy for the consumer. An entrepreneurial friend of mine told me flatly, “Advocate for our clients. Don’t let us do something that we think is smart but will cost us sales.” We who study user experience as a discipline should do this, and it should be appreciated.
• Expertise. Client, don’t under-appreciate the technical ability of designers. Yes, you can probably get it done cheaper at one of the many design warehouses online, but you’re paying someone to know something that very few people really know – how to make a logo pop, how to make a site standards-compliant, etc.
• Exposure to the online world at large. Don’t under-value this. Most designers understand how to network quite well and are exposed to what’s happening on the cutting edge. While you’re reading Forbes, they’re reading Wired and becoming cultural geniuses… hopefully. Trust me, this can help you!

Five Things Creatives Should Appreciate About Clients

• Money. Plain and simple. Don’t whine and complain too much about the guy who is providing food for your family. And realize that you should earn what you’re paid by good old-fashioned hard work.
• Drive and vision. Learn all that you can from entrepreneurial risk-takers, especially if you’re a freelance designer. Believe me, you can use a little help most of the time.
• Connections. This one is simple – choose not to cooperate with a client and it will most definitely cost you a potential future new relationship. Sometimes this is unavoidable, but this should be rare. If business relationships are crumbling around you ask yourself what the common denominator is. (hint: it’s you)
• Focus. Clients have a good way of saying, “Yes that’s cool, but will it help us sell?” This is a better question than we sometimes think.
• Help with discipline. Clients – here’s a secret – creatives don’t like deadlines at all, but when the deadline comes, they’re appreciative for the benefit of the pressure. Admit it, creatives, you cram at the last minute, but sometimes you need the push.

You’ve heard people say, “I just love it when a plan comes together.” Well, I just love it when a project comes together because a client and a creative got together and arrived at a grand conclusion and were mutually beneficial to each other in the process. How else are we going to grow?

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My newest post at Fuel Your Blogging has just been posted, and it’s intended for those of us who have this annoying habit of starting a whole lot of things at the same time – especially blogs!

Tips for Managing Multiple Blogs

And in case you hadn’t noticed, I also launched a new blog for bloggers about blogging…

WeBlogBetter.com

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A long time ago I purchased the .info version of my name to use as a simple business card site. I’ve finally gotten around to launching it and thought I’d take the super-simple html template and make it available to others for free. It’s a single page of code and just a few lines of style. Images are included as well as layered psd and png files (I’m a Fireworks guy). Just edit the text or take it and make something totally new out of it. Just have fun. No credit is necessary, but feel free to link back here if you’re in the mood. I would love to see it in action, so feel free to leave your link in the comments if you use it.

Live Demo (In Action)

Download the Zip File

Another Alternative

I also highly recommend Hein Maas’ v-Card Template from Themeforest. (aff link)

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N. Karsten Chearis needed a blogger template for his blog, 2Live4Him, so along with the blog template came an idea for a logo. The logo itself is designed to convey that we are to live for Him 24 hours per day (this was my thought at least). Karsten wanted a paper look and his own logo concept included kind of a dark stone background. It’s a great blog by the way – the content is well worth subscribing to!

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• The New eGrace Creative Is Here!

I’ve been a fan of the whole family of sites belonging to the Fuel Brand Network for quite some time as a source of inspiration and instruction. Today, a post went live on one of the newest Fuel sites, Fuel Your Blogging. Oh, and I wrote it. Check it out…

Eight Inner-Qualities of Great Bloggers

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Stormswift Media recently contacted me in need of a logo design that would represent, in a very simple and iconic way, their name and identity. They requested the use of the four colors often used to identify video media and a typeface that would give a tech feel. In case you missed it, the four colors make a tornado, or at least a movement of clouds – hence a swift storm.

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On the Web: www.missouricompassion.org
Website Design, Wordpress Integration, Hosting

Missouri Compassion is an organization that brings together the efforts of churches and state foster and adoption agencies to help put families together. It’s a tremendous effort and they needed a website that would allow them to distribute information, offer helpful articles, and tie together a directory of resources. Some parts of the site are still coming together as content becomes available. It was developed on Wordpress.

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Probably a lot more! You probably should know that this article is inspired by three different interactions. One, reading Niki Brown’s article, Why Logos Should Cost More Than $300. Two, reading Jacob Cass’ Why logo design does not cost $5. Third, a common question I hear from Pastors, “how do I convince my church to spend money on a website when they don’t see the need?

So leaders, I’m going to attempt to give you some viable and truthful information about why a church should invest money in a church website…

To Honor God

Your building and grounds, bulletin shells, and website should all be done with exellence, fit for the King! Simple enough.

To Communicate the Gospel

A web site is another platform from which to spread the message of eternal life. I don’t think you should see your website as “just one more tool,” but that’s probably best left for a future post.

To Connect with the Public

You might still use a phone book, but most people under 30… no wait, 40 don’t. We use Google… or Bing… or Local, Ask, Dogpile (don’t ask) or something similar. The closest we get to the yellow pages is Google-411 or Anywho.com. So when John, Jane, and their kids Johnny, Jr., Jimmy, and Jasmin move to your town, they’re going to search for “churches in anytown, usa.” You might want to be there to meet them.

At Bethel, about 70% of the people who walk through our doors saw our website before coming!

To Provide Information About Your Church

Service times, maps, events, ministries offered, staff and leadership – all are common ingredients of church websites, and they should be. You’re telling everyone who you are.

Wait… our question wasn’t just “why do we need a website,” but “why do we need a good website, that costs money?” Well, here then…

Your Website Should Reflect Your Church’s Story and Personality

Please, please don’t use the template and space that comes with your home ISP account. Let me make this simple – your pastoral business card, church sign, bulletin, and website should all have a common theme – a brand if you will.

Your Website Should Encompass a Well-planned Usability Strategy

A page with a bunch of links and text worked great way back in the 90’s, but that was a previous century! A professional designer will understand your website from the perspective of a user, a visitor. The flow of information will be user-centric. You’ve got to think through your online communication strategy.

Your Website Should Look Good

Plain and simple – your church website shouldn’t stink. It should really look great, like these.

What Should A Website Cost?

Impossible to answer here. Why? Because there are a variety of needs, a variety of solutions, and a variety of approaches taken by a variety of designers. Personally, I’d be wary of anyone charging less than $750 – 1,000 for a complete site solution. I’d also probably avoid anyone charing more than a few thousand dollars, unless they’re really creating some awesome applications for you from scratch. So, anywhere from $750 – $5,000 depending on a range of factors.

Rather than look for a particular price, keep these points in mind…

• Find a designer you can trust based on references, previous work, and the evidence of strong ethics.
• Don’t be cheap. You’re paying for creativity and art, not a mass-produced commodity.
• Don’t be extravagant. It’s God’s money (all of it) so be a wise steward, but don’t be cheap…
• Form a relationship with your designer so that he can perform future work for you with a growing understanding of your vision and values.
• Value a designer’s work as a contribution to the honor and glory of God.

They’re Still Not Convinced

I’ve been there. In fact, eGrace Creative exists today because I felt a $2,500 price tag would shock some of my congregational leaders into immediate cardiac arrest. So I started playing around with web creation software. That was 1998 and the rest is history. I’ve been helping churches since then. So my next post along these lines is going to be quite the opposite sentiment… How Can My Church Have a Nice Website for Less than $100 (They’re Too Cheap To Spend More)

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• Great Thought About Church Logos
• A Little Church Web Site Discipline
• Designing A Church Logo? Some Things to Remember
• Dear Churches and Nonprofits – Excellence Matters!
• Why Clients and Creatives Need to Come Together

Dear Google Reader,

All I want for Christmas is a tiny little “mark as read” checkbox. Today I was in meetings all day. I’m in my room with 250 items to read and here’s my dilemma…

If I “mark all as read” I miss important stories. If I “expand all” I have to do way too much scrolling, and loading. If I expand each item one at a time, well, it’s a pain.

I just want to judge a story by its title and mark it as read (or more appropriately, I don’t think I’m ever gonna want to read this one). That way, I can close my browser halfway through and when I open it up again, I have the other half, not the other half plus the hundred I didn’t read, and still don’t want to.

Just one little box…

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• But What Can You Do?

Of all the design periodicals and blogs I read online (and trust me, they be many!) none surpasses Smashing Magazine in scope and quality. So when a friend pointed out that my Twitter background was featured in their recent post, I was pretty excited. It’s an excellent post with some great guidelines and suggestions about how to design an effective background, and mine somehow landed in the list of some really great creative backgrounds. Check it out…

Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Best Practices

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