am i giving my customers too much choice?

[Jill Marie Welsh]

I think it’s a mistake.
Unless you only pick fonts you like to work with.
I’d only offer about 5 of them.
The customer might take all day making up their mind, wanting all caps Brush Script etc.
Many years ago I made a font/size chart on the wall (mainly for those who came to the shop wanting 10" letters on a 1′ sign)
Nobody ever looked at it.
In theory it seems like a good idea but in practice it might be a headache.
Love….Jill

[Steve McAdie]

I think as long as you keep it simple John it could be a good idea, having a template or two will save you time designing but if you give people too much choice you can end up confusing them and spend any time saved explaining things to them. i.e different fonts, different materials, hemmed or not, eyelets etc etc. You’ll never know unless you try.

Steve

[David Rogers]

Take them out of the loop – you are the designer. I just use the ‘covers all situations’ line…

"I’ll do it interesting but easy to read" – works 99% of the time.

As for a fonts list – 6 should be enough for quick work. Try to avoid anything with lots of detail or serifs. ‘Script takes about 2 times longer to weed than ‘Arial’…and about 3 times longer to cut!

You’ll ALWAYS get some muppet wanting to use some useless font the found ‘on Windows’, if they insist – they get what they asked for.

Dave

[Peter Dee]

John, you are the designer not the customer. Most customers haven’t got a clue when it comes to font choices.
They tell you what sort of business and theme they need and you design it.
I generally like to give a couple of design choices based on what I think is right.
If you give them a choice of 2 layouts, they will pick one, job done.

As Jill points out, not only will most choose Brush Script, they then want it in caps!

As a human nature example, watch a customer choose an ice cream from a typical window covered in images of all & sundry ices. They will take ages, then change their mind just as the guy has got to the bottom of the freezer.
Just show them a cone or a "99" and they will choose the 99 most times and have their face in it before they’ve even got their change.

[John Wilson]

It’s for cheap digitally printed banners so weeding is not an issue

Also I’d rather let them pick a font so that it saves them saying that it’s not what they wanted and they don’t like it 👿

[Angelique Muller]

I agree with Peter and David: You are the designer.
I have done it a couple of times that I would let the customer decide on a font…. it takes them ages to make up their mind and the process gets quite tedious…
So now most of the time I tend to -after an initial consult- show them a few options that I think are suitable (maybe 3). More often than not they are happy to pick one of them.
I did initially try to make a short-list with fonts, but it did not really work for me…………………….

[John Wilson]

Also the problem I’ll have is that it’s at a art craft market and I’ll not have a computer to show them or design it there and then so them seeing some fonts already printed out seemed like the best solution

I’m in Glasgow and I know someone will pull the "I’m not happy with that so I want it half price" 👿

[Jill Marie Welsh]

Well why didn’t you tell us that in the first place, dear heart?
😉
You would definitely need a font list.
Keep it simple, maybe 6 fonts:
Times Roman
(the dreaded) Comic Sans (people love it) or maybe Hobo
some easy-to-weed yet readable casual script like Brody
Commercial Script (something formal)
Cooper Black
Avant Garde

You know damn well they will all pick Comic Sans!
Love….Jill

[Phill Fenton]

..not forgetting Brush of course 😉

[Jill Marie Welsh]

If you don’t offer it they can’t choose it!
People also like Serpentine.
Love….Jill
PS
here’s a sample (ignore the prices, they are a joke)
You might want to do one with suggested phrases like "Happy Birthday" "Happy Anniversary" "Just Married" etc.

---

Attachments: