I am a big fan of spicy food?so much that I crave for it if I dont have a spciy dish often enough. Last week I went to this restaurant that I usually visit twice a month and the food was particularly more spicy than usual?or at least I felt it so.

I think I can eat really spicy food?but this time around, altough I enjoyed the dish tremendously, my lips burned during the meal. I didnt think it was anything serious?but now a few days later, I find my lips still burning and a bit puffed up. Taking a closer look to them revealed they also have tiny blisters?and this is when I discover this was my first chili related burn.

I am using olive oil and lemon juice to treat them.

Lessons to be learnt:

1. Chili can produce burns, bad burns.

2. No need to inject restylane or any other man made crap to make your lips bigger?chili is the solution! It is found in nature and thus doesnt contain synthetic materials and since it is fairly common, it comes cheap! The only thing is that your lips will burn like hell, but I thought that if women we are willing to carry skyscraper-type-of-heels, getting our private parts waxed and take electrical discharges in our muscles all in the name of beauty, this will be a piece of cake ;)

I dont usually review products I buy?unless they are really good or crappy enough to make me share it with world!

This time is Slanket Review time. I ordered a Slanket online and I must say a few things:

1. The United States Postal Service tracking is awesome. I knew exactly where the packet was at all times. I found out it was stuck in customs before I received the official notification for me to pick it up here in the country.

2.  The Slanket is double awesome. I know, I know?big fuzz over a blanket with sleeves? Well, it turns out that even though I love cold weather, I start suffering when we are only a few degrees below the average. I suffer Raynaud?s disease ?primary not secondary and please God let?s keep it like this!- and if you know what I am talking about, you know I am always cold. Laying on the bed is not bad, cos you throw a few blankets and you are done. But I work sitting in front of the computer several hours a day and so I get cold in my hands and legs and I cant use the heat everytime I feel cold because it would be ridiculous, not very enviroment-friendly and hell expensive. On the other hand, if I have to dress up in several layers, I feel uncomfortable and I have to be comfortable to work. So I decided to give it a try with the slanket. And it works for me. The oversized sleeves are comfy, the fleece is soft and thick and I get to cover myself from toes to neck and keep myself really warm. I look like an old grandma while working all covered up like this, but hey?.I am not cold anymore and that is the whole point.

I also like to read, or watch tv in bed and I hate taking out the arms from the warm blankets and get frozen in a second, so this is a really good solution.

Definitely a great example of how a simple ?some would say silly- idea sometimes are the best ones.

Taste is subjective and design is a matter of taste. I truly believe that in order to be able to work with a client and have a happy relationship, you have to be able to know when to draw the line and move on. And I am not talking about limiting the customer?s choice?not at all. I am talking about stepping back when you and the client are clearly not on the same page.

I never thought I would end up working on web design. Never occured to me even once. I am a programmer at heart and I studied computer science.

But all true entrepeneurs out there will share this fundamental truth of a startup: you have to be willing to do a bit of everything to get afloat. Unless you have a lot of resources and when I say resources I mean money, when you first start your business, you cant afford to outsource all the bits that you dont know how to do. So, if you are willing to learn and work very very very hard, you will find yourself dwelling in all the areas that are part of a company: legal, accounting, manteinance, cleaning?and so on and so forth.

When we first started, we couldnt afford an office, less alone a designer to build our brand and design all aspects of our corporate identity. Hence, and like many other tasks, we had to do it ourselves. We didnt have a group of marketing masters to think of a name?we picked a bunch of names we liked from books we read and found out which one had a .com domain that was available. We came up with the logo and the website that followed too.

Where am I going with this and how it is related to the design part? Well, Mariano and myself did all the design for the first customers we had. Of course these designs werent as nearly as great as they are now (very amateur) but they worked and our clients were happy with them. We thought that in the future, we might hire a design agency to outsource all this but ahhh?destiny had a different path for us.

With time, I found design to be more important that I originally thought and I found myself reading a lot and practicing with every client that we had. And I enjoyed it so much that I took the matter seriously. Somehow I ended up taking care of that area here in Cricava. Eventually, our regular clients digged my designs and hired me for it so I figured that if they did, some others could feel the same way and hire me for it as well. So I did a lot of design for free just to improve my skills, and I designed all Cricava websites and its different versions. I showcased my designs to some pretty good designers and they thought they were nice so this gave me a boost. I really wanted to learn more and improve constantly.

And here I am today with a modest portfolio with several designs and I do get hired for it quiet a bit :) I am working on my drawing skills these days but that is another issue for some other post.

I never tell people I am a designer, because I feel I would be disrespecting all the folks that have formal studies in the subject and hold a diploma. I tell people that I am a programmer who designs as well and I show them my work.

So, having no formal background on the subject I struggled for sometime to be able to come up with an effective process when it comes to work on a design for a client. Coding is easier on that aspect. You need to make this work in this way and even thought you may argue on how to do it, the client will evaluate how it works and if you did your job or not (I know it is a bit more complex than this, but humor me for now)

Design is more tricky, because it is subjective. And so we go back to the original topic of the post. It is a bit harder to evaluate whether a design is good or bad because in the end, it is a matter of taste. I have had countless opinions about several web designs ?both mine and others- and it is very hard to find consensus. What works for me, doesnt neccesarily work for everyone else and the other way around. With this in mind, up until I came up with my own process for this type of work, I never knew how to approach design gigs because I was afraid of the possibility of the client not liking my work and so I kept thinking?then what do I do? If I worked I should get paid, but if the client wont use my design because they thinks it is terrible. they shouldnt pay either, so it was a bit of a pickle.

At the same time, I find myself almost incapable of being forced into designing something I hate. It is not that I am picky but it is just I cant make myself do something I believe it is ugly. You know when the client comes with a fixed idea of what they want?and you try in a subtle way to make it ?more beautiful? according to your own taste which in the end is like trying to force your own ideas on someone else?s throat which is what you complained about to begin with!

Isnt this a double standard? Didnt I just rant about how design is about taste and so it is subjective? YES!!!?that is why I decided to find a fix to deal with this.

I went online and read countless forum threads on how designers charge their customers for the work and about like and dislikes and how to deal with that and I found I was not alone. This was refreshing to say the least, because I had proof that I wasnt the only crazy person dealing with such a conundrum. And it is nice not to feel alone ;)

So I approached the problem as rationally as I could. First, I took all the unncesesary variables out of my way: recurrent clients are not part of the problem because I know them already and I know what they want or like so, forget about them for now. Let?s focus on new unknown potential customers.

With them, I decided to apply a double filter. First off, they see our portfolio. That is already a good start, they see what I have done, what I am capable of and they can see if my style is initially compatible with theirs. But it is not enough for me.

The second filter is the mockup. I prepare a proposal for them and based on that we both decide if we want to go ahead or we part ways. This doesnt mean the mockup might be the final version of anything?this should prove if me and the prospect are on the same page or not. If there is potential at least to move forward. Iterations can be made, even new designs can be spawned but you are already starting out with the right foot.

If the client feels that the mockup is not what they expected and doesnt come close to what they like or envision and feel there is no potential, then chances are you wont make them happy and the project will be doomed if you force yourself to keep trying. I am not saying exceptions are imposible, but I rather deal with the odds and those are that it is better that you both move on and find someone more suitable. It is better to part ways at this point and do so amicably that moving forward and probably ending up bitterly. I prefer a short list of happy customers rather than a long list of battles.

The double filter is an excelent method for me but is no silver bullet. I found that it improves the chances of entering the right project greatly. 95% of the times when the client is happy with the portfolio and the proposal, the project is a walk in the park for all the parties involved.

But what about that remaining 5%? Or what about if I want to take my chances and move forward anyway trusting that I will make the client happy after all? Then, this might happen:

1. You might nail it on a subsequent shot. If this is the case?everything is dandy so this is a dead path.

2. After a while, when you have iterated several times and the client doesnt feel satisfied and when you think nothing of what you do will ever be satisfying for them, frustration begins on both sides of the table. The client feels you cant nail it, and you feel your job might not be apreciated. This is where all logic is gone and feelings start getting in the way. No provider likes to be told their work is not good enough for the customer and no customer likes to be told what they should like or accept. What to do?

Sometimes this can be resolved if the client wants a very specific thing and gives very specific instructions which the designer follows closely and deliver what the client wants even when they might hate it or they might have done differently. This is far from ideal, but you get the job done, the client is satisfied ?maybe not over the moon but satisfied-, you get paid but you might never ever want to take responsibility for the design you did. It will be like a bastard child and tossed aside.

I can?t say I never did this, because it would be a flat out lie. And this is the second best case scenario. Sometimes you cant even get away with that.

What if things are even worse or what if this is clearly not what you want? If you can afford it ?meaning if you are willing to not get paid and move on- there is another way. This is where learning to draw the line and let go become important skills to acquire in order to work happy.

If you or the client are really unhappy with the project or if the thing is being dragged out for a long time with no visible end in the near future, I say stop it. Now this might seem rude, but if you lay out the law at the beggining and explain this before entering the project, not only most clients would agree with this but they will happily comply because you are leaving the option open to end the misery for you both. The only thing you ought to clear out and agree with the customer before starting out are the consequences of this on two fronts:

1. Payment: After all the work done even when you havent reached an agreement, will you be charging the client at all? Some people decide to charge at least a small fee for their time invested so they dont feel the whole thing was a waste and at the same time you dont get the full amount so the client doesnt feel robbed. I dont do this because I wouldnt like to pay for something I dont like and wont put to use but I dont think is wrong if you both agreed to it.

2. Rights to the work done: Who own the work? Will you let the client use chunks of it they might have liked? This is also related to the payment issue. Depending if you got paid even when it might not be the full amount you might want to release the work anyway or part of it. In my case, the terms are??you keep your money, I keep my ideas and you cant use them?.

It is easier for me anyway. I dont end up bitter over a project and the client doesnt hate me after all. We simply part ways and wish each other more luck in the future. If the client was really nice to me even when we didnt click and even when I didnt claim payment, I might release the part or the work they liked. It is a nice gesture and it speaks greatly of you as provider and mort importantly as a person. And even if they might never hire you again, they might recommend you for your honest attitude or give you a bonus after you told them no payment was needed. It has happened to me :)

I know this might sound unreasonible if you need the cash?I have been desperate to work too, and I know the feeling of looking for work everywhere. Sometimes you even lower the price to get the gig, or accept conditions you wouldnt normally accept. It is all about needs and priorities too. And these are variable in time as well. What works for you now, might not be acceptable in the future or the other way around.

I find myself in a phase where I want to work a lot, but I am not willing to feel dreadful for it so while I scan for work on all fronts, I use my double filter and draw the line when things start to look bitter. It feels right for me now and it is one of the pilars of me being so happy about my work.

This can be applied to other things as well. Hopefully this will trigger some unknown reader to rethink their strategy or at least not to feel alone? Who knows!

Clauz

PS: When I started the post, I meant to disscuss how I deal with the process of working on a design project and how it is pretty subjective but then again I thought it was important to share where my reasoning comes from.

A while back, a woman wrote to us about a picture we had published at Flickr and that was taken during a trip to Germany last year. She asked our permission to submit the picture and make it a candidate for an online city guide of Munich.

The picture in question was simply a picture of the angel of peace, located in the city, near the south tail of the English Garden. Wit great joy, I saw this message in my flickr account a couple of days ago:

I am delighted to let you know that your submitted photo has been selected for inclusion in the newly released seventh edition of our Schmap Munich Guide

Yay! I am so glad to be part of the Schmap Guide for such a lovely city that I will definitely visit again sometime in the future.

Hace unos dias ordene una slanket y segun el tracking de mi orden, esta en proceso de envio. Igual con el calor que esta haciendo en esta epoca, se me hace que no le voy a dar taaaaaanto uso este invierno. Pero probablemente con el no-tan-lejano-en-el-tiempo cambio de latitud, me vendra bien en futuros inviernos :)