Although our shop has hundreds of examples of actual signs, fonts , artwork etc. There is that customer with a small order that wants to see every possible font on their sign on the computer monitor . I TRY to give them 3 choices. I have a friend who limits small customers to the 3 question limit. That never works for us.
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Discussion Fonts.. you want to see how many ?
- Thread starter Jeremiah
- Start date
John Miller
New Member
I had a couple wanting boat lettering. They were still squabbling about what the name would be as we sat down to the computer. I chose one of the names, typed in some lettering and said, "your name could look like this" Then I made a copy and changed the font. At that point the woman said to her husband "if we had more time I'd have him show us all the fonts he has" I turned to her and said" come back when you have more time I'll be happy to show you as many as you want, our design rate is $XXX" without missing a beat, said "I like the first one" It's amazing how people have no respect for your time.
kcollinsdesign
Old member
Sure beats hand lettering a transom while sitting in a dinghy, with the boat going one way while you're going another.
CanuckSigns
Active Member
My standard reply to this is "go to dafont.com and pick something there" I dont have time to swap out fonts 300 times till you see what you like.
A long time ago I made a printed booklet with visual samples of the most popular fonts we had at the time. We allowed customers to look through that as well as the fonts section in the CorelDRAW manuals. All that did was create more problems than it solved. Most clients have zero expertise in graphic design and typography much less know what works outdoors in distance challenged viewing environments. Some typefaces work great for channel letters while some others totally stink. Most clients don't know that difference much less have any raw design talent to be able to instinctively make a good choice. That's what we, the designers, are supposed to do.
kcollinsdesign
Old member
Most daFont fonts are licensed for personal use only and are not licensed for commercial use. Best practice is to to pay for the proper licensing, otherwise you risk potential damages (and you are screwing somebody who spent time and thought developing the font).
Zendavor Signs
Mmmmm....signs
Tell your customer to go to Google Fonts. They can type in their name or verbiage and see it in hundreds of fonts instantly. I use it for myself when designing sometimes.
CanuckSigns
Active Member
Yes I am aware, but 99% of the time I have something close enough that its fine.
Notarealsignguy
Arial - it's almost helvetica
You have 2 choices, Arial or Helvetica.
Grizzly
It’s all about your print!
Do you really charge $250/hr? If so, that's awesome! and at the same time how? We charge between $60-$85 and people usually are shocked.
Bert Wondervan
New Member
We charge between $ 45- $ 75 and people are satisfied.
Todd Jelle
New Member
How do you do that, Work from home?
While $250 is high , its very well worth that ( PIA fee) my time is valuable. We charge $95.00 & its not enough> we will likely soon be at $125.00
Bert Wondervan
New Member
How do you do that, Work from warehouse?
MikePro
New Member
just pick some random options that you like & may cover every "type" of font that you already have: sans/serif, script, & comic sans and just roll with it. we do options all the time, and they rarely end up with more than one or two revisions, but make sure your options are clearly labeled and their final selection is documented... too many options/revisions lead to confusion, and miscommunication leads to losingmoney.