DesignerWithGun

This client is not only bad for your business but bad for your emotional well being.
I will not name names or the business, but simply say it is a woman who runs a newspaper in East Tennessee, a very small paper in a town of misfits and criminals. I lived in Knoxville, so she could not find anyone in her town to do the work, she drove 40 miles to Knoxville and placed an ad in the Metropulse magazine to find her victims.

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aaaarrrrrgggghhh.

Where to begin? My absolute hands down worst of all time client was a woman who wanted a complete identity system for her new company, a consultancy. I had known her for a long time, so I didn’t think a formal contract was needed, and felt that since we had known each other, communication would be a snap. More >

I’ve been a designer for a few years now, and have dealt with a fair share of crazy people.  I got involved with a friend’s Yoga Studio.  I did get paid to do some work, and then those willing people left the “co-op” yoga studio ownership program. So I worked out a deal with the remaining members including my original friend, that I would build them a website in exchange for my personal studio time. So I built a website. It looked really nice, just needed some input from the co-op on final touches/verbage. etc. Well after several attempts at getting the information, I gave up. They were going to have to stay with what they had. I had to move on. The group was too disorganized.  At one point I tried to show my friend how to built and maintain the website, how to make changes, FTP etc. He himself was wanting to become a designer and taking on projects with clients. More >

I just graduated design school and I was looking for work. A guy posted an ad on craigslist saying he’s starting a new magazine and he needs a designer. I sent him a replay and he called me in for an interview. He told me he would pay me $10 per page I design. I was thinking that’s a little low but I needed money and the experience so I agreed to it. He promised he’s going to pay me the full amount once the magazine is finished. He would call me at least 10 times a day wanting designs. He would talk to someone about advertising their business  in his magazine and tell them he would have their ad right away. Then calling me and wanting me to design it right there on the spot as he was waiting. After two months of this passed by I finally finished designing the whole magazine. He wrote me a check for $1000. I deposited it. The next day the bank told me the check bounced. This guy ran out of business, never had the magazine published and now works as a car salesman. He paid me $200 cash and told me he’s going to pay me back everything he owes me. Never did heard back from him. The worst client ever!

LESSON LEARNED

You have the option to take on project or not. It’s better to pass on a bad project, even if you need the money. A bad project can hurt other work.  It will eat up your time, keep you up at night, and just bring you down altogether.

My advice is if you think something isn’t worth the time, it’s not.

On 8/8/07 we received a tip from a company we trade work with. They told me that they had an investment company contact them about a website that they weren’t going to be able to do quickly enough. I said I could handle the project. I contact the guy, who told me his name was Mark Bell, and his company was Apple Capital Inc. Mr. Bell told me that they would buy foreclosed houses and turn around and sell them. The money that was made there would go into electric gambling machines. He said that he needed the website up on Friday. I told him, not possible, and Monday would be the soonest. We had him sign a contract, and we began working on the site. On Monday, the site was active, and everything seemed normal.

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I hope this counts, but I am in school for Visual Communications. We have a class called Design Studio where you work for a company and help them with a branding project because they are not able to afford good work. The project was to create a logo, poster, website, my emma template, ticket, program shell and pop card. More >