Got a Tartan designed, i'm not too happy.......

[bjproc]

..........with what i was offered

i was offered 5 "designs" but at the end of the day, there is only 1 design with a slight colour change for the other 4

and there wanting £250 + VAT for it. aye, right........

looks like theres going to be a heated discussion about this, as i've waited 4-5 weeks on these "designs" and it looks like they've not really listened to what i was looking for

i would've thought better of this mill with their designing

[Rex_Tremende]

Sounds like a bit of a bad dream. Tell us more, would you? What were you looking for? How did you explain it? What questions did they ask? How much involvement did you have?

Regards,
Rex.

[RockyR]

Just because a mill can WEAVE material, doesn't mean they can necessarily DESIGN a tartan well.

Bottom line... if you're not happy with the DESIGN, don't settle. Either have them continue to try or just take your business elsewhere to someone who listens.

We have a t-shirt company we use for our designs (with a new one coming out). I have put this poor man through H#LL trying to get the design right for our shirt. While we've FINALLY got it nailed down, it's taken about 6 weeks of back and forth and a several dozen 'images'.

I considered settling and talked to him about it and his response was "if you're not happy with it, then let's keep working." He was right... when you're doing something CUSTOM that you have a particular thing in your head, don't settle until you're happy.

[RockyR]

Another thing to be VERY careful of... once the design is finished and registered, who owns it? Do YOU own the 'rights' to it or does the mill?

FYI... there are SEVERAL people up here who have designed tartans. Some do it on a 'professional level' like Matt Newsome and some others. Nick from Scotweb just launched new software for tartan design... have you tried your OWN hand at it?

[sathor]

I'd love it if you had some with text instead of your logo. Crosses aren't really my thing, never have been.

We have a t-shirt company we use for our designs (with a new one coming out). I have put this poor man through H#LL trying to get the design right for our shirt. While we've FINALLY got it nailed down, it's taken about 6 weeks of back and forth and a several dozen 'images'.

I considered settling and talked to him about it and his response was "if you're not happy with it, then let's keep working." He was right... when you're doing something CUSTOM that you have a particular thing in your head, don't settle until you're happy.

[RockyR]

I'll PM you the idea of the design as to not hi-jack the thread...

[bjproc]

more info would be,

he asked if i liked any tartans, i gave him 3 tartans to kinda base him from, said i like this particular small part of a thread count/colour from 1 of them from.

all that he's done is kinda kept to my colour scheme, 1 design change, is to lighten the green, and make the yellow stripe a wee bit broader & thin out the white stripe


some imagination

TBH, i've seen a design on their web site for a town not to far from here and it looks really good, kinda like it's based on 1 on the tartans i mentioned


i think mondays going to be a bit of a head nip

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Not knowing what company you are working with I cannot comment on how they normally do things, but when I take a commission for a tartan design from a client, the bottom line is that I want to give them a tartan that they are happy with. While the tartan will always have my name attached to it ("designed by Matthew Newsome" in the records), it is their tartan that they have commissioned from me. It is not my tartan. So it is more important that they like the design, not me.

My normal practice is to give the client no fewer than three possible designs (a lot of times I give four, but I try not to give too many up front). I normally make these designs as different as I can be, based on the information my client has given me about what they want. I make them different so that my client can see different possibilities. I ask them to pick the one they like most, with the understanding that this is not the final design. I then ask them to give me feedback and tell me what they do and do not like about it.

Using their feedback, I begin to fine-tune the design. I'll make some changes, send them a few more images. Eventually we will get to a point where the design is just what they want. Sometimes this takes a few days, sometimes it takes several weeks. I've had clients that were 100% happy with one of my initial preliminary designs and who told me not to change a thing. More often, though, there is some fine-tuning and revision to be done.

My point is, though, that I don't stop the design work till they have a tartan they are happy with. My feeling is that this is what they are commissioning me to do, to create them a tartan that they will like.

I'm sorry you are not getting the same service from the company you are dealing with. I hope that after you explain your concerns with them, they will be able to work with you to get you a design you are happy wearing.

[svc40bt]

I'll PM you the idea of the design as to not hi-jack the thread...

Perhaps a new thread would be in order. I'd be interested to see the design as well.

As far as this thread, you will be paying a substantial amount of money, make sure you get what you want. If your current vendor isn't doing that, then let them know; if they still don't, take your business to someone who will.

If you settle, you will surely regret it. If you wanted to settle, you could simply have purchased one of the tartans you liked as a starting point.

[bjproc]

Not knowing what company you are working with I cannot comment on how they normally do things, but when I take a commission for a tartan design from a client, the bottom line is that I want to give them a tartan that they are happy with. While the tartan will always have my name attached to it ("designed by Matthew Newsome" in the records), it is their tartan that they have commissioned from me. It is not my tartan. So it is more important that they like the design, not me.

My normal practice is to give the client no fewer than three possible designs (a lot of times I give four, but I try not to give too many up front). I normally make these designs as different as I can be, based on the information my client has given me about what they want. I make them different so that my client can see different possibilities. I ask them to pick the one they like most, with the understanding that this is not the final design. I then ask them to give me feedback and tell me what they do and do not like about it.

Using their feedback, I begin to fine-tune the design. I'll make some changes, send them a few more images. Eventually we will get to a point where the design is just what they want. Sometimes this takes a few days, sometimes it takes several weeks. I've had clients that were 100% happy with one of my initial preliminary designs and who told me not to change a thing. More often, though, there is some fine-tuning and revision to be done.

My point is, though, that I don't stop the design work till they have a tartan they are happy with. My feeling is that this is what they are commissioning me to do, to create them a tartan that they will like.

I'm sorry you are not getting the same service from the company you are dealing with. I hope that after you explain your concerns with them, they will be able to work with you to get you a design you are happy wearing.

thanks Matt, i was hoping you'd comment on this.

what you have described there is what i was kinda looking for, 3-4 different designs so i could pick 1 of them and maybe fine tune as you say, but all i got was 5 designs of near the same pattern but with all wee changes to it.

so you can probably see how annoyed i am at this.

without mentioning any name yet, as i still have to speak to them, my location may give it away.

also thinking there, also due to the bad time of year and folk keeping a hold of their money, you'd think they would be bending over backwards to try and get custom, not do a shabby job to drive them away!