Quick Question for all Designers..

In my clans forum we have a sig request area that me & about 2-3 other guys take care of. Lately, we've been bombarded with really odd requests… the stock is horrible, the render is horrible.. The requested text is absolutely huge or about a paragraph long. I do not intend to poke fun @ anyone's individual taste, but some are bad enough that no one wants to take them leaving me to do it. Ok, fine.. I'll do it, then I sit there for about 30 minutes trying to come up with some way to make it work before I really even get to the actual designing with what they have asked for. I don't want to turn anyone down, but some of the requests are that bad...

Any suggestions?

 

search for your own stocks, just have your members suggest the theme

put restrictions on the text, tell them more is simply not an option

just tell people what can and what an't be done, every reasonable person will acvept it as it is

 

Educate them in the ways of photoshop and explain that, people have lives and over the top amounts of text just kill a sig. Then slap them repeatedly, rinse and repeat.

+ What Dinges said

 

Well, on my site we usually just ask them if it would be acceptable to choose a stock/render for them, or if they could change/limit the text, etc. They are usually willing to comply, and if they don't we explain to them that the outcome may not be what they anticipate.

 

all good suggestions..

any others?

 

Put a limit on text,and quality of stock/render(like only provide high quality)

 

Just limit the text to a certain number of characters, say 15

Say the stock must be over a certain size in pixels
And must be of decent quality

 

i'm definately going to revamp the request format to include many of these ideas.

 

Simply tell them to find better stock and shorten the text. If they get pissed, then ignore their request.

 

Its sounds like they're doing it for a joke, i'd just ban them.

 

I'd say don't do the request. Simply speak your mind. The stock is horrible? Tell them. Ask them to find another one. I mean, if someones gives you something he drew on a napkit, are you obliged to work with such a horrible stock?

Simply : Ask them nicely to find another stock of their liking, as the current one cannot be possibly used.

 

<sig request form>
Would you rather...
Me make a possibly awful signature with your stock/render + text _
Me use different stock/render + text and make a good sig _
(X one of the two please)

Add that to the end of the request form, or just tell them that you might modify text/stock

 

Do-able requests and rejected requests. Reject a request if its crap and ask the person to follow requesting guidelines(assuming you have one)