What could your clients do to make your job easier?

I big time disagree with your first one. Printed out proofs are my biggest pet peeve. First, it wastes paper (granted, you may want the FIRST proof you send to them to be "for color"-- but after that, go digital). Second, when they are changing a crap load of text, I have to reset it not to mention try to read their horrible handwriting. No thanks. If they type it in an email, I can copy and paste.

I think the "too little/too much copy" is a moot-point.

A few to add:

• Have a clear idea of what you want before you hire a designer, or let that designer set the task for you. Don't go in saying, "I'll know what I want when I see it".
• Be clear about your budget for the project
• Have ONE decision-maker internally to limit confusion and cost overruns
• TRUST YOUR DESIGNER. They are knowledgeable; don't second guess him/her
• Remember the design triangle and pick two of these: Good, Fast, Cheap.
• Plan the project from the beginning and stick to that plan. The most cost efficient project trajectory is a straight line.

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Powerpoint is not a design application

Agree with Pokie about the handwritten/paper proofs. Sometimes, they're a real nightmare to decipher. I find Acrobat's edit tools work great, plus saves on the typing.

Also agree with Nato about the workback schedule. We may not always adhere to it, but it at least provides a reference point to return to.

Another one to offer up could be knowing the client's visual likes and dislikes prior to beginning the project. I work with one person who simply abhors the colour orange, another who likes lots of white space, and yet another who likes big, blowsy loud graphics. If you haven't already, I would draft up a creative brief worksheet that both you and the client could go through together. I find this saves a lot of time in the long run knowing their preferences and who their target audience is. A great online start for this is:

http://www.creativepublic.com/our_products.php

"Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible."
— Frank Zappa

If the client wants to see how the piece will look incolor, a proof isn't really going to give them that much precision, unless they pop for an Iris or other high-level proof. A lot of print shops don't even provide these anymore. "Soft proofs" are they way to go. That means PDFs that the client can either print out at their end for ease of reference when e-mailing changes to you, or they can use Adobe Acrobat's editing features. You need to know up front if they have that capability. If they do, take full advantage if it.

Another thing I find about the kinds of paper color proofs most of us can afford to hand out is the client will get confused about the color. If they hate it, and you'll have to explain that it's not accurate, which could make the client think you're too low-end. If they love it, they may expect the finished printed piece to look just like that and will be unhappy when you deliver the job. It's no win.

When the client asks me what a specific color will look like when printed, as one of mine did just this morning, I whip out the Pantone Process Coated SWOP book and show them the exact build I used. (And BTW, that's a good reason not to deviate too much from the book's breakdowns on highly visible builds such as backgrounds, type colors, etc.

Maybe this is obvious, but as a digital designer, I get clients printing out 72 dpi webpages and thinking it's the real deal.

"Why's this ismage so blurry?"

Anyway...
I think the intention of such a list a noble, but in my experience clients want to do things their way and my suggestions sometimes land like mere opinions (you know what they say, how opinions are like a**holes... everyone has one).

It good to make sure you're covered though, so in that respect this is good. But clients will do things inefficiently, and we can try and show 'em the light, but sometimes we have to accept that it's simply dark in their world.
:)

There are three main points that we always make sure to ask our advertisers when we're asked to design their ads for them:

1. Who's their target audience?
2. What's their unique selling benefit (or USB)? (ie: what makes them stand out from their competition)
3. What's going to be the "stop sign" of their ad? Meaning when someone's eyeballs are skimming the multitude of ads in the paper, what's going to get their eyes to stop and look at their particular ad?