What would you do if your great design was rejected by the client?

I am no designer but a strategist. And sometime it hapens for us too. This is my personal comment and may or maynot apply to a designer.

I hate it when it hapens but take the solace in the understanding that it can hapen to the best of us and try to get a perspective on what's the mental picture of my client. But if I firmly believe that what  the client have in mind is not going to work, I state my facts based on cases I've come across And work out a solution where  both of us is happy.

It is an interesting observation and the result has to be viewed very positively. No offence but please understand that you may like Jazz music but your partner or client may not. Therefore what you may find great may not be what the client is looking for. 

As my experience goes the most important aspect of attending to the client requirement is to understand their need and then attempt or create the design or a solution.

I have also observed many times is that a client is not able to describe their requirement accurately / explicitly. I observed this when people hire consultants to get their website designed. They do not exactly know what they are looking for or what they want and it takes lot of time to understand and read the thoughts of the client and project it on paper and create a solution.

A famous citation by an inventor Charles Kettering applies here “ A problem well stated is a problem half-solved.”

 Similarly Albert Einstein cited that  A Well Defined Problem Is Half Solved!

“If I were given one hour to save the world, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute solving it.”

Thus my suggestion is to understand the customer need very well and also ensure that he is able to express their requirement very clearly then what you will create will be accepted overwhelmingly.

As I strongly feel creativity is the strength of an artist which improves with experience and this skill is a passion that never dies. I can feel that you are a very creative person and thus so emotional about what you create. 

So please don’t be disheartened meet your client again and understand clearly their need and give them a revised design it will be a sure hit. CHEERS ! 

Constructive criticism is the process of offering valid and well-reasoned opinions about the work of others, usually involving both positive and negative comments, in a friendly manner rather than an oppositional one. In collaborative work, this kind of criticism is often a valuable tool in raising and maintaining performance standards.

There are some steps that you can take to minimize the chances of rejected work. Here are a few:

Ask the client to show you an example of what they have in mind. If possible, share preliminary work before you get too far along. Always, always use a contract that contains a detailed scope of work. Specialize in one or two areas where you excel. Think of rejection as clearing the path towards your best successes. All those prospects who are turning down, they’re just obstacles you need to get past before you finally reach the prospects who will hire you. Every rejection brings you that much closer to an acceptance.  Rejection brings you better clients. You may be thinking — especially if you’re a newish in your field— that any client would be a good client, but believe me (I know from experience) that there is such a thing as a bad client, and that you don’t want one. So the ones who turn you down? They’re sparing you from slogging through an assignment for a client that isn’t a match for you in work style level. When you get a rejection from one prospect, that leaves room for better ones to enter your life. Can you see how rejection can be used as an ally in your work, instead of merely a hard bump in the road?

It would be a disappointment indeed. But the client comes first. and Besides, the more designs we make, the more WE get GOOD at our job. So there's no downfall in that right?. 

Dear Ghadeer,

You must be flexible to hear from your customers, whatever their feedback or comments on your work, but also you must understand their needs before starting your work.

In order to avoid customer rejection, please follow the3 simple steps:

1- Needs analysis (1 Simple meeting with client).

2- Prototype & wireframing show-cast.

3- Pre-confirmation work request.

Regards,

Hany Sewilam AbdelHamid

Head of Business Development | Sales & Marketing

Entrepreneurship Coach & Consultant

Digital & Social Marketing Certified Expert

Many time this happen with me. Actually before design firstly we must read the mind of client and make according to his demand. 

Obviously client's acceptance in very important for us. If he reject any design we must have to do according to his demand and mind.

I would accept all the clients critisicm and maybe try and reason with them and find a common ground between us. Everything could be improved with communication, understanding the clients need is just a job as the actual design of it. It is a skill that you will learn to grow throughout the years. You always should be diplomatic in such cases unless it goes against your beleifs. But always accept critisicm and in return try to explain yourself correctly with intelligent thoughts and words. 

If they still reject your design then you will have to learn to accept it and move on. Of course you will feel bad about it, but every critic you get or every mistake you stumble upon will make you a stronger person because we all know that we learn more from our mistakes rather than our successes. This will motivate you to work harder and there is always room for improvement.

Try to stay positive and at the end you will get what you want. "What you get is what you think"

Most of time Im creating more then1 designs for my clients so they can choose and they can make comment on selected one. If client will reject all so im trying my best to understand client requirement again then working again. But it never happens to me that client rejected my design :)

This happens a lot with my creative agency, some times am not happy with a copy they have worked so hard for me to approve and when this happens we go back to the drawing board to see how it can be improved or if the idea should be killed altogether.

I work tirelessly with my creative team to make a copy or design, i think the design is perfect and i take it to my director for final approval and he says its a NO NO for him. I have to go back and see what went wrong or what we missed.

So i think generally, creativity has to do with your target audience, client or customer because a copy or design you see to be fantastic might just be the worst to another person. 

Maybe! It’s great in your opinion but your client needs completely different thing in short understand & observe your Clint, what he want actually

In my experience:

1. You take a detailed brief of the design during the early meetings.
2. Make sure to create two outlines and run the outlines20 precent into the design project.
3. Run the outlines by the client, showing him two different outline.
4. Take a percentage of the money at this point based on this agreed in the beginning, to secure your effort made.

The rest should go smoothly.