Posted by : Tom Doyle in (Rantings, Web Design, Web Development) 17th Sep, 2007
Web Design - Why we don’t provide concepts with proposals
Lately, we’ve seen a significant increase in the number of RFP’s requesting a “few” concepts to be included with the proposal for the web design job. I know some companies have no problem doing this, but for us, we just won’t do it. There are a number of reasons for this.
1. It takes time and costs money
Probably the most obvious reason for not providing concept designs with proposals. With a small company, generally everyone is busy, it’s not in our best interest to take a designer off a paying job to create a design in the hope that you might win a new contract. How many builders would you expdect to build an extension to your house before they’ve got the job and run the risk of not being paid a cent? So why should we?
2. Design is subjective
In a lot of cases, it’s the design that makes or breaks a job. If you’re lucky enough to get a client that simply loves your work and will take anything you put before them, regardless of taste, you are on the pig back. However, this is rarely the case. Design is so subjective, what we think is modern and funky is someone else’s dull and lifeless.
For this reason, I think it’s a really bad idea to submit a design with a proposal, without going through a proper design brief.
3. Devaluing our work
If you do the design work for free….. what else do they expect for nothing????
So all in all, it’s up to us in the industry to cut this culture out.
Hi Tom. The GBDA have some good articles on this. I’ll try root out some links for you.
Cool - would be interested to see them!
I couldn’t agree with you more Tom. If clients want concepts at the pitching stage, they should be willing to pay for them.
I agree. Most customers have no idea the work involved in mocking up an interface. And as you say they can walk away from you with it in hand!
I can’t find the GDBA one but a quick Google brings up some similar links.
http://www.dia.org.au/content.cfm?id=245
Some of the bodies doing an RFP on eTenders have been asking for design ’samples’. There was an effort by some Irish designers to have that request removed from the Tender doc. Not sure what became of it all.
We used to host a company that did concepts. They went bust.
I rest my case
Michele
The whole concept of working for free so that you *might* win a job is ludicrous. It’s up to the company to vet vendors based on their previous work and the standard pitching process; not to ask for a few days of free work to make them feel more comfortable about their decision (unless they’re prepared to pay or the privilege of course)
Sorry to repeat myself but the way this industry is treated sometimes really boggles the mind. I’ve seen it with my own eyes where MD’s of Web agencies are so desparate to get the scraps from corporate tables that they’ll lose their bollox on a pitch. As long as this attitude pervades and we act like a bunch of desparate beggars, we’ll never really go anywhere. NEVER EVER DO WORK FOR FREE, IT CHEAPENS THE INDUSTRY FURTHER! (unless it’s for a charity or some such)