Client workflow for artistic works

As many designers at school might have learned to show progress of your work plus being lazy taking allot of time to finish a project cause you need to show every step you took, it is not a suggested workflow to use in an actual job for a client, the problem is that you will show so many things the client does not know or freak them out cause mostly a work that is under progress would look nothing like the end result.

For example for logo design, you should not show your sketches but show 3 concept which are finished vector designs they basically can directly use. The problem with showing sketches are they would not understand all the drawings and you will give them too much options. They would suddenly jump from what you suggested to something like a doodle that was never intended to be a logo. Or they would ask advice from people who has no knowledge of design and mainly get bad advice from them. Also the problem you would have is that the project would become tedious long and you have to do too much work before ever reaching the end.

The better flow would be to show 3 concepts they can choose and they have a certain amount of revisions and if they need more they have to pay for those. This will limit the amount of choice so they be more careful for what they chooses, they would also write more detailed changes and be more careful about what they want. And you would not work too much and get too little payment out of it.

For filming too your workflow can be improved by skipping out certain steps to show your client, back in the days you would show ruff cuts which was needed cause the progress was long and tedious cause you had to develop the film and really need get the right feedback to finish the film in the least of edits and revisions, cause time is money and every time you develop film it cost allot of money and time. However nowadays with digital it is much easier to do changes but it means if you would show ruff cuts and progress they would change allot of things in the video which in the end again you will have hundreds of edits before you ever see the end.

Also the problem is people don't understand what a ruff cut is they would give most useless feedback, cause they think that what you show is the edit. A ruff cut is just to show the shots in the order you would edit but without any detailed cut nor does it follow the music in a correct way. The basic feedback would be which shot order they would want or if the shot order is correct or not. But basically ruff cuts will freak out allot of clients cause they would think that you don't know how to edit. And might ask for full footage to find another editor.

Also the problem with showing progress videos could be a problem, you might have edit the video and it close to he finish. The problem could arise not from the client, cause most of the time when they are proud of the progress but show friends and most people are cocky and would like to give advice and opinions. Or jealousy and purposely want to ruin the vids. You will suddenly get feedback for major changes after a while, while initial feedback was great but just they asked around and gotten some big feedbacks.

The best way is to basically get all the info and materials you need to finish the video and just finish the video directly and give them 1 or few revisions limits. Most of the time will be directly happy with it or just have slight changes. The thing is when they have a finished video and limited revisions they would be more careful of the changes. But also they will show around proudly and less in a way of asking opinions than during the progress. They would promote it more than trying to see what they need to change. You will have less different cuts and see the end of the projects much faster and have more time to use for next or other projects.

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