10 of the craziest client requests EVER!
Clients want all sorts of things. And sometimes it's the stuff of nightmares. We compile just what kind of outrageous, baffling and downright weird questions some leading design agencies and freelancers have to answer
In our .net profiles we tend to ask agencies and freelancers what the weirdest requests were they've received from clients. We've now compiled 10 of the best ones, which you can read below. Some might not be the most outrageous ones you've ever come across but they're still pretty out there and sure to have caused some headaches and stunned faces.
We don't want to just poke fun at clients, by the way. Make sure you check netmagazine.com over the next few weeks, when we will go into details of how to improve the relationship with your clients. But for now, let's just have a laugh:
1. How much for the Southwest Airlines site?
"Client: 'How much did the Southwest Airlines site cost?' Me: 'We didn’t build it so I’m not sure.' Client: 'I know you didn’t build it, but you build websites right … so, how much did it cost?'"
Evan Owens, director of consulting at Centresource
2. Make it glossy black!
"At a previous agency I was asked to make a piece of work ‘glossy black’ – the glossy black they saw in the office on my new Mac monitor – because it was too matt on their screen."
Laura Jordan Bambach, executive creative director at LBi London
3. Make it more Manga!
"Can you make this a bit more Manga please? The client was Daniel Bedingfield – remember him?"
Flo Heiss, creative partner at Dare
4. I want a nodding dog!
"A very famous computer manufacturer back in 2000 asked for an animated GIF (remember them?) of a nodding dog. I kid you not. We had to take a picture of a three-legged retriever, comp in a leg and then nod its head. For the director’s cut, we beheaded it at the end."
Simon Gill, also executive creative director at LBi London
5. I just want the sketches!
"We once had a client who fell so head over heels in love with our sketches of his icons that he asked us to render them exactly as they were in the sketches. Surprisingly, he wanted us to keep all the pencil-like lines and watercolour brush strokes that were in the vector. That was even after we'd rendered the icons in fancy chrome with a 3D look!"
Dmitry Tsozik, creative director at SoftFacade
6. Use the code word!
"The manager of a very high-profile celebrity asked us to come up with a ‘code word’. She wanted to use it when her client was in the room to tip us off that we should do the opposite of what the celebrity was asking us to do. Coincidentally, this kicked off our ‘stop working with celebrities’ phase. Except for Brian Regan – he’s awesome."
Brian Williams, CEO of Viget Labs
7. Get rid of the sheep poo!
"While building the Shaun the Sheep microsite for Disney US, they specifically requested we edit out the plasticine sheep poo from the farmyard scene."
Robin Davey, Flash animator at Aardman Digital
8. I want an animated tornado!
"Can you make the animation go outside of the browser? And have an animated tornado come in from offscreen, blowing icons all around, and then land on the site."
Arlo Jamrong and Michael Eades, senior developers at KNI
9. Design me in a bubble bath with my dogs!
"The majority if not all bizarre requests come from our eccentric music clients. It's not uncommon to get off a conference call only to have to sit down and design the client taking a bubble bath with their dogs, a talking dolphin wearing a headset named Bubbles and a illustration of a penis with glimpses of Richard Simmons. Always great conversation pieces!"
Jeff Toll, creative director at BKWLD
10. I want a monkey with its tail on fire!
"Shortly after the Firefox logo launched, I had a lot of requests for animal logos. The best one was for ‘Burning Monkey Software’, who wanted a (wait for it) monkey with its tail on fire, wrapped around a CD. I politely declined!"
Jon Hicks, one half of Hicksdesign
So, now we want to hear from you! What were the weirdest requests you've ever received from clients? Let us know in the comments!
14 comments
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Link to my Tumblr as follows... http://steverobertsco.tumblr.com/
Comment: 6
Although recently under meeting the worse client in the world "official" that has changed to "A client never know's what they want until it has been changed again, changed again, then designed by the client using microsoft paint and sent back via email in a pdf, changed again, meet up, changed again, finally being built, changed again, additions, changed again, additions, gotten rid of additions, back to layout in photoshop, answer tedious amount of questions, changed again, given up, deposit returned, a feeling of new and excitement with the job has returned, decide this job will continue and you no longer have thoughts of working as a gardener or with animals... 3 ok to good clients and 2 years later client has come back to you, meetings, changed again, additions, changed again and the cycle continues until the client slowly fades away due to lack of emailing them back and all your left with is a 40% deposit and weeks and weeks wasted which could have been spent on that holiday you booked but had to cancel due to the same client having a deadline that week."
I think I want to work with animals... They seem so nice and don't talk.
Comment: 7
Client: "Have you heard of a website called Facebook?"
Me: "Yes, I have."
Client: "OK, well how much would it be to build me one of those?"
Me: "Even keeping it simple you would be looking in the region of 6 figures"
Client: "Oh, like £10,000?"
Me: "Actually a lot more than that! And more importantly you'd need to do something different, offer something new to entice people away from Facebook."
Client: "Well if you think of something to beat Facebook you let me know"
Of course, if I do think of a way to develop the next Facebook on a shoestring budget I think I'd be best off keeping it to myself!
Comment: 8
He gave my friend the options of;
A. Setting-up a bed for his wife to sleep-in.
OR
B. His wife would turn-up at his house at 07:00am every morning and leave at 20:30 at night.
I read the e-mail, and this is a direct quote; "Personally, I would prefer option A, but I will understand if you have commitment issues.."
Suffice to say, the project was never started.
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I just had to fire him ignoring the promise of "lots of steady work".
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Another was prospective client when I started freelancing, who wanted a feature on their website that allowed people to chat with others. They were complaining about why my price was high, saying that they saw the feature on Facebook and I should be able to copy and paste it into their website.
It appears I seem to attract the type of people who think everything can be made by copying and pasting things from different places :-/.
Comment: 12
3. Make it more Manga- I wish most of the clients were so clear on what they need. If I present a drawing to a client and he tells me this, he has to say no more, I know what he wants.
4. I want a nodding dog- You don't like it? You think is tacky? Fine, but there is nothing wrong with an animation of a dog nodding. It's not a C..RA...Z.ZZ.Y... request.
5. I just want the sketches- This is the worst, if the client think the sketches represent better the image he wants in his page, what the hell? There are HUNDREDS of nice designs that are sketches (even TV commercials). Sketch is a design style.
7. Get rid of the Sheep Poo- Come on!!!! Can the company that made this drawing can honestly say there was no secret plan in putting those rocks in exactly that place??? They made an inside joke, the client noticed it, and now the client is the one on a lame list.
8. I want an animated tornado. There are HUNDREDS of software programs that do exactly that. What's so crazy of the client asking if it can be done via a Web based module?
I recommend you Room 650 or The Oatmeal for really funny and logic examples of crazy client requests.
Comment: 13
In my opinion, some of the requests in this article aren't really that "crazy" -- especially the one about using the sketches. I actually like the idea of designing sites with sketches.
Anyway, I think what's "crazy" is often not so easy to describe. What's crazy is often not the specific design elements, but clients' work expectations.
For example, I'm working with a client right now who is putting together a major event scheduled to take place two weeks from today. Just this morning, they sent me six pages of rough MS Word text cobbled together by a committee, as well as an "event schedule" graphic made with MS Excel. Within two weeks, they want me to turn their rough text into a series of polished Web pages about the event. This includes a registration form (with e-commerce elements), an interactive schedule (based on the MS Excel spreadsheet!), and a map of the event site.
That's crazy!
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