I thought a client's 'quick fix' was a good idea until it blew up in my face

I was doing a logo redesign for a small cafe in Portland, and after the first draft, the owner insisted I just 'make the coffee cup bigger' on the spot during our Zoom call. I mean, I figured it was a simple change, so I did it live to be helpful. But then he kept asking for more tiny tweaks one after another, like moving the text a pixel left, then right, for a solid hour. The final file got so messed up from all the rushed edits that the layers were a total mess, and when I sent it to his printer, the colors came out completely wrong. It took me three extra unpaid hours to rebuild the file from an older version. Has anyone else had a client who thought a 'quick change' during a call was no big deal?

3 comments

3 Comments

bell.jessica2d agoMost Upvoted

My last client wanted me to change a font color during a call and it somehow broke the entire layout file.

park.eric1d ago

Oh man, @bell.jessica, that's the universe punishing you for listening. Classic "one click of doom" situation.

craig.parker1d ago

Ugh, live edits are the worst. That "just one quick thing" trap is how you lose a whole afternoon fixing a wrecked file. I started saying no to on the spot changes and it saved my sanity. Do you charge extra for that kind of rebuild work now?