late for the party

Recently we parted company with a client.. well we kind of dropped them really. The client was an established boutique in the fashionable part of town, and was run by a rather hard to please madame. We'd had a very difficult relationship with her from the beginning, she considered us to be "the plumbers" and behind her website. We were not invited to the website launch party, we were the last to know when she wanted a change to the site and of course she always wanted it immediately. We quietly "plumbed" while the clients PA would hurl her ridiculous requests and then question every small detail and decision to the point where producing any sort of work was basically a ball ache.

Now being a designer can be a painful career sometimes. Its not like being a programmer or a washing machine engineer or even a plumber. For them its instantly clear if whatever they're working on is done wrong. But for designers there really is no absolute right way to do things, its just what feels right, and what feels right to one person sometimes feels very wrong to another. Its all about interpretation, how you interpret what the client wants or how you interpret the brief. Anyway for one reason or another she clearly hated our company, and the feeling was very much mutual. So after gritting our teeth for 4 years we downed tools and said goodbye, perhaps 4 years was rather a long time to not be enjoying what your doing but it took a while to realize that actually we shouldn't have to feel like this about a client. We shouldn't have to bend over backwards for a company that didn't recognize the pride we take in our work and lets face it she would never recommend us to anyone so whats the point.

So we are free and it feels great. She can carry on and I wish her every success...

Labels: clients