Being a Starving Graphic Artist Sucks

What You Need to Know When Deciding to Charge or Not Charge for Your Time and Talent

There's always been a notable discrepancy between what one freelancer will charge versus another. Freelancers often email in and ask, "Would you charge for this?" All things considered, really there is no one answer that works for everyone. I know that can be frustrating especially if you're new to freelancing, I felt the same way when I first started (don't worry, I'll hook you up with some ideas - keep reading).

Getting advice from other designers in the field isn't a bad idea but I'll warn you to expect to get A LOT  of different responses - freelancers just have different ways of handling this, and that's fine.

In the end, the key to remember is that it's your decision, you have to be comfortable on how you charge clients and when you charge them. If you're on the fence, or if you really need some ideas on how and when to charge, here are a few ideas that may help you...

If You're In Doubt Whether to Charge or Not, Consider the Following:

1. How long did it or will it take you?
2. How many hours did it take you to learn/master this skill?
3. How technically specialized is what you’re being asked to do?
4. How much time, money and energy will you be saving the client?
5. How many other people can do this skill?
6. Is what you’re being asked to do enjoyable or mind-numbing?
7. Do you like the client; do you enjoy working with her/him?
8. Does the client provide you with referrals?
9. Does the client either frequently ask for freebies or hint she/he wants one?
10. Does the client understand and respect the time and expertise that will go into what’s being asked?

My Personal Philosophy:
I typically give clients a 15 minute grace period whereby I’ll make changes, fixes or help them out however I can without charging them. This however is contingent on a few unwritten rules...

The Client:

1. Is actively working with me, has worked with me recently or has occasionally referred business over to me.
2. Isn’t asking something that is incredibly time consuming, technically challenging or mind-numbingly brutal to do.
3.  Doesn’t abuse my generosity. 
4. Respects and understands what goes into the task(s) I am being asked to do.
5. Asks politely and respectfully.
6. Isn’t expecting but hoping I will help her/him.
7. Isn’t expecting me to drop what I am working on and help them asap – they are patient.
8. Knows that if she/he has additional work/revisions, I will bill them.

Don’t expect clients to volunteer to pay you. In my over 10 years as a freelance graphic designer, I’ve NEVER had a client volunteer to pay me for work if they thought they could get for free - they're not going to do it for you either.

It's not that these clients are horribly nasty people, they just want to get as much out of me or you as their freelancer as they can. It's OUR own responsibility as freelancers to learn how to stand up and defend our interests (even if we're new to the industry or shy) - that's what I developed with Verbal Kung Fu for Freelancers.

PS - If you're tired of clients taking advantage of you or you just want to develop more confidence in dealing with them, pop on over to Jacob Cass' Blog "Just Creative Design" - you can read his review on the Verbal Kung Fu for Freelancers and score BIG with sweet discounts on all Being a Starving Artists Sucks products.

Seth Godin Hit's It Right on the Head - Why Some Freelancers Get Paid, Others Don't

Yesterday in his post, "What do you need me to do?" Seth Godin had quick thought regarding how this question defines the person asking it. I'd take this further and say it defines how much this person...consultant or freelancer is going to be paid.

When you work with clients do you ask them, "What do you need me to do?" or are you saying, "Here's what I think we should be doing?"

I touch on this in the Being a Starving Artist Sucks book - it's the difference between being an order taker who asks, "What should I do now?" versus a consultant who guides the client by saying, "Based on what we've talked about, I am recommending we do ____________ now."

Consultants guide their clients, look for opportunities and have their client's best interests at heart, and produce results while order takers just wait for instructions. Consultants rely on their expertise, order takers rely on the client's. And finally...and most importantly, if you are perceived as a consultant you can easily charge double, triple or quadruple what order takers are charging, and client WILL be happy to pay for your services and expertise.

So which are you, a consultant or an order taker?

PS - (Friday, 8:30 MST) Wanted to add a quick note and thanks to Jill, she just emailed me this, "...48 hours after studying your products, I was able to get a client who usually takes weeks to get back to me to not only respond immediately, but enthusiastically. I successfully turned it into an upsell at the same time!  I am definitely much more aware of how clearly my e-mails can be worded and used the techniques in Verbal Kung Fu for Freelancers and From Zero to Graphic Design Hero to help him transform from unsure about the upcoming project to enthusiastic." Rock on Jill, rock on!

Quick Thanks to Jacob Cass for Reviewing Verbal Kung Fu for Freelancers

Hey guys,
Just wanted to take a moment and thank Jacob for checking out the Being a Starving Artist Sucks and Verbal Kung Fu for Freelancers books. Mate's got an awful lot going on but still found some time in his schedule to review them.

I'd guess there's a really good chance that if you've been following me, you already know Jacob and you've probably been following him a heck of a lot longer - if you haven't get your butt over there now and see what he's up to (you'll be glad you did, he's got loads of solid info, insights and tips).

If you'd like to see what he's written about the two books I've put together, visit Jacob here...you might find a nice discount for visiting him as well :) Thanks again Jacob, it's been quite an honor to visit with you back and forth over email, thank you again for your time.

The Top 5 Worst NCAA Division I-A College Logos I Could Find

You guys have been asking for it, so I finally carved out some time and found the top five worst NCAA Division I-A logos.

Before you dive into the logos themselves, I'll set this up for you with a few preliminary thoughts:

• No, I didn't go through ALL of the schools in DI-A. Are there some hideous logos that didn't make the list? Probably, but I'll leave it to you to comment about them. 
• Am I knocking the schools themselves? Nah, but the logos are downright weak.

Okay on to the "winners":

The University of Arizona:
Neighbor to the south and bitter rival of in-town ASU. I've seen a couple of different U of A logos floating around (you'll notice I've included both of them and they're both bad). The large, unadorned "A" is a prototype logo for colleges. No imagination, no nothing...they essentially typed and "A" and created several outlines in AI around it. The other logo...holy moly if you were ever faced with explaining what clip art is to a bushman in a 3rd world country, you'd want to use this as an example. If you lived in AZ and saw how many graphics have this exact silly configuration it'll make you throw up on a rattlesnake.

Stamford...I mean Stanford Cardinal:
High standards, wonderful educators and some of the country's best minds...and yet they have one of the worst logos I've seen. Not wanting to totally follow one of U of A's logo debacles, these guys decided to combine both types into one piece of (fill in blank). These geniuses took the conventional collegiate letter and slapped a clip art tree over top of it. I'd admit, with the grades I had leaving high school, this college would have turned me down, but I would have created a much better logo than this thing.

The University of Iowa:
Maybe it's that I've always harbored resentment towards the Hawkeyes for ripping off the Pittsburgh Steelers colors, but I had to add this logo to the list. Maybe I am just not artistic enough to get it, I don't know, but to me the darn thing looks like an ink blot. I can't help but think that if I stare at it long enough that I'll see something really cool like Gandhi or Eddie Van Halen. Since I haven't had any luck, this made the list.

Washington State University:
(Refer back to most of the previous entry for most of my thoughts). This school tried WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too hard to combine the "WSU" into a ferocious cat - they failed. Instead it just looks like someone used the Twirl filter in Photoshop. I'd bet that if you put this in front of a kid that has seen a cat...even HAS a cat, she/he still isn't going to be able to tell that "SU" is a cat.

The University of Idaho:
I've never been to Idaho but I've heard the rafting up there is decent. Not too make enemies of my friends up in that neck of the woods but this logo is the worst of the bunch. Sure, the other 4 logos are enough to make a cow choke on its cud, but at least there was "some" creative effort. What's with the "I"? These guys didn't even try to do anything with it, they just type an "I" in AI and put a 4 pt stroke around it...then they called it a day. I am sure a few days later the administration called the designer(s) in and said, "We need something else." A few days later the designer(s) came back with the word "Vandals" scrawled over the "I"...okay, NOW we can call it a day. Ouch fellas, looks like the logo was vandalized.

PS - Think I completely fumbled this post or that you've got a logo that missed the list? Drop in a comment. You might also want to check out my US pro logo review: best / worst.

PPS - If you haven't checked out my recent guest blogging post, check it out now.

Just Bad Photoshop Work, Another "Winner"

Saw this ad on a popular news web site - while there's nothing wrong with the image itself but they decided to "animate" the ad by taking the mouth, flipping it around and toggling between the two images (I just stacked them one on top of the other so you could see them both), the result is a cheesy animated gif effect.

Newsflash...When you have light hitting a subject it's going to create highlights and certain areas and shadows in others - all which are influenced by the angle the light is hitting them. Of course, when you flip just certain parts of the picture around (like they did here with the mouth), it causes all of the inconsistencies in the lighting...and looks silly. In the top picture you'll see the light hitting the upper left part of the woman's lip, when they flipped the image around there is now a bit of a shadow in that upper left area. Doh!

Most people won't be able to tell exactly what's wrong with the image, they just know something isn't quite kosher. For designers and photographers, it's pretty easy to spot, and is a sure sign that the person who designed artwork/ad was either lazy or an amateur.

How Face Cleanser Illustrates How Clients Seek Out and Go with a Cheaper Creative Freelancer

I've been using St. Ives facial scrub for years. I know, that's perhaps not the most "manly" thing I've started a blog post with, but it is what it is (a girlfriend introduced me to it a long time ago - get over it :)

My wife who does the shopping noticed that it was running us about $4-$5 at the store and felt that was a little high. She poked around the "soap aisle" at the grocery store and found they had a few generic store brands that were virtually the same - all offered at about $2 cheaper.

She let me know that she felt the current price was a bit high, that we could get it for about 1/2 as much and that she didn't feel there was much of a difference. Hmm, I don't often like to tinker with things that "aren't broken" but in examining both soaps, she didn't perceive any difference in quality so I decided try one of the generic brands.

My wife was right, I didn't see much of a difference (other than the packaging wasn't quite as nice - who cares?), it didn't feel any different, smell any different or work any different. All of these things made my decision pretty easy - I switched.

I hear about this a lot from other freelancers when it comes to them working with a client one month and all of a sudden they are working with someone else. The products are different, but the same story is probably unfolding as my example above.

Here's the run down: 

1. One of the clients/buyers recognized that we were paying a lot for a good/service.
2. That same client/buyer took note that there were other options available. Those options looked fairly comparable to the current option.
3. The clients/buyers discussed the higher cost and the alternative available options
4. The clients/buyers decide that the risk of trying an alternative option isn't that great, so they decide to give one of them a shot.
5. Upon trying the new option the clients/buyers don't feel or perceive any difference in quality, performance etc.
6. The clients/buyers enjoy the cost savings and decide to permanently switch to the new option

The bottom line is that if your clients can't feel, see or perceive any difference between you and other freelancers out there, they'll eventually gravitate to using the cheapest option. How can you differentiate your service versus other freelancers?

Told you I'd be able to relate face scrub back to freelancing!

PS - If you found this helpful you might want to take a peek at my Being a Starving Artist Sucks book's table of contents, it's jammed with info like this.Thanks to Gwen who wrote me, "...What I’ve read so far has been great, affirming, and has already bolstered my confidence. Thanks for writing them!" Thank you Gwen, remember if you have questions, I am here to help.

How to Deal with Clients Who have "Selective Hearing" When It Comes to Email

One of the challenges I've faced (as well as other freelancers who've written in) with clients throughout my career is apparently the same challenge wives often have with their husbands - selective hearing.

If you've freelanced for any length of time, you've experienced clients with "selectively hearing" or responding only to the part of your email that benefits them.

For example, let's say you sent an email that says:

"Hi Jodi, Thanks for the kind words about the progress we've made haven't received your check for the middle payment yet, could you let me know if you sent it? I've also gone ahead and made the changes you asked for on your web site, you'll be able to see them at www.yourwebsite.com/test. You'll notice that I went changed the color of the banner and added some links to the bottom navigation as well. Please contact me when you have a moment."

Not a bad message, but extremely ineffective in accomplishing your goals of getting paid and moving the project along. In fact, there's a good chance based on this email that your client will ignore or forget about addressing the issue with the check.

Creating an effective email's a lot like designing an effective ad: there's an art and a science behind what you're doing - you can't just throw everything together and expect a good result.

Here's what to keep in mind when you have a specific agenda in communicating with your client:

Order matters - if you bury your main point in the middle of the email it will often get lost. See how the issue with the check gets buried in the above example?

Use bold and even another color to draw attention. Using ALL CAPS is considered tacky, but you can use bold and a different color to draw attention to a specific request. Avoid using fire engine red, but another shade of red or orange might be a good fit.

Just as you would in your design, make sure you make good use of white space. Break your ideas up so they are easy to digest. No one wants to read a blob of text.

Add a "PS" in there. It's proven that people almost always read and recall the PS in an email - use this to your advantage. 

Simple tips - sure they are, but I've been using these techniques for years and I rarely have clients selectively ignore what I am asking them for - unless they are intentionally doing it. In those cases I pick up the phone and call them.

PS - If you've enjoyed this post please retweet, Digg and or share it with your crew. Traffic is way up for this month...so whichever one(s) of you guys is sharing this blog with others - thank you very much. 

PPS - Had to add this one last minute, congrats to my mates on the University of Akron Soccer team, they are 6-0 and ranked #1 in D1 schools in the entire nation. It's been a long time since I played for the Akron...long time. While we had a ranked team, we were never in the Top 10...cheers fellas, do us proud!

Guest Graphic Design Expert, Trish Schaefer: When You Love Your Work More Than Your Client

Graphic design is art... but it is also advertising. It is not simply being creative, it is about knowing your clients and their industries in order to sell them the most effectively. In order for you to successfully advertise your client’s product, business or services, you have to KNOW it and their customers as well as they do... more so. There are few careers where this is the case. You should also have a good grasp of history, culture, sociology, psychology, and technology.

What? Did someone say graphic design is easy?

That is a perception designers fight every day. There IS a difference between a professional designer and someone’s teenage nephew who just got PhotoShop.

Learn the rules and guidelines to great design, but don’t be constrained by them. Learn what it takes to create, not just beautiful design, but, highly effective, highly saleable design. If you have the creative talent, the ability to be creative no matter the constraints (brand guides, time, money, etc.), AND the drive to be constantly learning, this is the career for you.

Just remember rule #1:  NEVER, EVER, fall in love with your own designs...      

Love them, but let them go. For some potentially great designers, emotionally they cannot separate themselves from their art. They cannot give a design the client's personality or allow a client to take possession. For true artists every design has a piece of their soul in it. This is true, but being a starving artist is not fun or romantic. You have to decide if you want to design as a career... then you have to be able to let go. In the end the client owns the design, not you. Not all design is high art, intelligent or clever. Not all clients are artistic, intelligent or clever. Such is the way of BUSINESS.

For those working their way up, you will get to a place where you can exert more and more control. Your education, training and, above all, experience (and hopefully body of work), will back you up when dealing with clients. If you continue to learn, pay attention to trends and technology, if you know the business... it will show. And more and more people will seek you out for your particular brand of design. Then the control will all be yours and you can love all your designs as they deserve. 

Special thanks to Patricia R. Schaefer (Trish) over at www.contemporary-native.com  Trish is a published logo designer, found in "The Secret Life of Logos" by Leslie Cabarga, and was also featured on www.graphic-design.com.

With regards to this post, I agree with Trish, she's spot on. Designers working their way up will eventually get to a place where they can influence the design and client more, but it's important to remember the freelancers work for clients and not themselves.

There have been so many times in my career that a client when completely in the wrong creative direction (at least in my opinion), it's hard to put so much time and effort into a design only to have your client say, "Nah, I kind of liked it the way it was..." Trish is right, "Not all design is high art, intelligent or clever. Not all clients are artistic, intelligent or clever."

Freelance Graphic Designers Often Forget: Being Right Doesn't Always Mean Being Hired

My wife and I like to occasionally flip on the home channel and watch shows that design experts take a mediocre, tacky home and transform it into something respectable. What the shows are called escapes me now but it's not relevant.

The premise of these shows is to first allow the interior designer to tour the "before" home and make suggestions, rants and jokes about what needs to be improved. The designers are often unrestrained in what they can recommend that needs to be fixed, and brutally honest in their opinions.

You can see repercussions of this approach on the face of the homeowners - you can actually see the people's feelings being crushed as the designer rails on how bad the home is. This isn't the way you want your clients to feel.

As graphic and web designers we don't go into a home, but we are asked to come into a situation where we're evaluating the current state of something the client may hold dear: their web site, collateral materials and branding. All too often I hear clients complain that their designer came in and not only was rude and abrasive about what needed changed, she/he felt that nothing the client had was remotely salvageable. Everything has to be redone.

Bad idea guys.

You may walk into a situation where the client's brand looks like it was done by an 8 yr. old with an early version of Corel Draw, but going in and blasting it is a quick way to destroy any opportunity to get future work. Use your tact...and use your head. Being honest isn't an excuse to be rude.

In the same light, if you make no effort to talk about or consider working with the client's existing materials, and you pompously insist that, "This is a complete redo, we can't salvage anything", be wary that the client may decide not to hire you. If she/he as two designers bidding for the project: one says everything must be redone ASAP and the other one is flexible, they're probably going to charge the later if everything else is equal. Insisting that the client change all of their design because you say so, and refusing to operate within the parameters of the client's budget, is a great way not to get hired.

You of course may be exactly right in your assessment, but does it really matter if they don't hire you?

I am not advocating lying or sugar coating everything, but if you give off the perception that you are abrasive, opinionated, pompous...AND it's going to take a lot of time, rework and effort to work with you, you probably won't get a lot of business.

PS - Thanks to Bob in St. Louis for dropping me a line. Bob bought the BASAS book for both his daughter who is a designer and himself. He felt there was a lot of applicability to his career as well, even though he's not a graphic designer. Thanks for that Bob, go Cardinals!

A Tongue and Cheek Look at Why I Make More Money than You as a Freelance Graphic Designer

Over the last few years I've talked to a number of freelance designers in the US and even abroad, our discussions eventually turn into, "Say, how much do you charge?" And, "How is business really doing?" In comparing notes I typically found myself in the position of making more than most of my colleagues (many who were really struggling deep down). I wondered why this is, why am I able to bring in more clients and more business than most of the freelancers I've spoken to over the last 10 years.

Here's what I came up with (take this with a grain...I mean a pound of salt, it's supposed to be humorous):

Pretty easy to figure out, I am smarter than you
That's got to be it, right? It's tough to compete with someone who gets straight A's in school...although I don't remember getting straight A's. In fact, in a true but embarrassing Jessica Simpson moment, for some inexplicable reason I hadn't figured out that tuna fish was actually a fish until I was about 12 years old - Mom broke the news to me...come to think about it, maybe I am not smarter than you but I probably bring in more clients.

I am more creative than you
Well actually I was once told by a boss that I "wasn't very creative and I shouldn't try". Straight up - that's what the guy told me, thanks for the encouragement Alan...you jackass. Okay, so maybe I am not as creative as you but I probably bring in more revenue than you.

I have more artisan schooling than you
Ah yes, I have a much better schooling background than you do than you - being trained at one of the finest academic institutions in the US by renowned artists and craftspeople. Okay that's not true either. The fact is, I went to a state college that had a much better soccer team than artistic program (I played for the soccer team). And I didn't graduate with a degree in design, in fact, I didn't even take one class in design. Somehow I am probably still able to bring in more business than you.

I just design better than you
To prove this, I've included some of my earlier works (see right, this was from 2002) - try not to be jealous...wait strike that, try not to get sick or fall out of your chair laughing.

Okay, I sucked but it's hard to argue with my results nowadays.

I know more people than you
Nah, won't even try this one. When I moved to Phoenix I know a total of 5 people - all of the were relatives. You probably know more people now than when I started

I have better clients than you
Hahah, that's laughable. Sure, I've had some great clients, but I've also had some "Grade A" jerks as well. I'd like to think I have advantage in this category but I don't.

Still all jokes aside, the fact is that I do bring in a lot more money than most freelancers out there, and I haven't had to reduce my rate or try spec-work just to try to make ends meet. All of this has got to make you wonder, "What they heck does this guy know that I don't?!?"

Simple, I wrote what I know down in the books I've created.

PS - Off the subject, but I wanted to let you guys know about monoprice.com. No, I don't work for these guys but they have good deals on cables, etc, and I like them. I recently bought a charger for my iPhone and the darn thing didn't work. I emailed these guys and not only were they willing to replace the item but they didn't make me send back the defective one I have - nice. Too bad many online printers don't have the same policy for established freelance professionals.