DesignerWithGun
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Homepage: http://www.designerswithguns.com
Yahoo Messenger: bigmur72
AIM: bigmur72
Posts by DesignerWithGun
Yes Man!
Jan 16th
Client wanted to do design, be a “yes man“, no input desired. Played my part for 2 years, did not explode.
Final project: Pleaded for a kodak proof to check color of a large run of boxes, offered to take care of it on my own time, no luck. Package art was approved by pdf, by the owners son. No input from me. Client rejected the final package — too dark — go figure. Darn I lost him on this project.
LESSON LEARNED:
It’s your professional obligation to do what you think is best. If your client won’t listen, keep telling them. Don’t just sit there with your mouth shut. There is nothing wrong with firing a client, and from time to time it has to happen.
Try and put something in your contract that will set roles. Your job should always include doing press checks.
Designer Spotlight: Henry Moore
Jan 14th
We are ecstatic to announce our first Design Spotlight participant, Henry Moore. Henry is a designer out of South Florida. We asked Henry a couple of questions about design, his technique and his girlfriend. Henry is currently working on a graphic novel called “Gate” which can be found here.
So here is a bit about Henry, and some of his work. More >
Submit Your Questions for the Terry Marks Interview
Jan 13th
Apparently Designers just look at photos and don’t read…it’s cool, I do the same thing. I’ve gotten a couple of questions about why the interview isn’t up. I’ll bullet point what I need in hopes that it helps.
- Comment with questions for Terry about design
- We will take the questions and include them in the interview
- Once we get enough questions, we will do the interview
A couple of years ago, I was lucky enough to meet Terry Marks. He’s one of those designers you want to grow up to be like. He runs a multi-disciplinary design firm out of Seattle with clients that we all dream to land! If you are a designer just starting out or you’ve been in the industry for a couple of years, you want to listen to what he has to say.
He has agreed to sit down and do an interview with us, so what do you want to hear him talk about?
If you want to learn a little more about Terry or what he does, check out his website above. Or this link will take you directly to his work.
The Life Coach
Jan 13th
I’ll keep this brief, as I could be prone to ranting…
I was approached by a lady who had recently moved to North Carolina in hopes of starting her own business. She needed a logo, business cards, letterhead, and brochures. As a student, I was excited to have some freelance work to make some extra dough. I explained to her that freelance designers usually make between 40-50 bucks an hour and she agreed that this was a fair rate. I designed her logo (which she said she loved) and proceeded to make a business card. After multiple revisions and the typical bull crap (my daughter doesn’t like the color, can we make the text more bold, etc) she finally decided that the card was done. All in all, i spent maybe 4 hours on the project but decided to only charge for 3, as she was new to the area and had no real clients yet. After getting the cards printed, she informs me that she has no money to pay me and had planned all along on paying me in gift cards….gift cards to HER business. ”What was her business?” you may ask… she’s a “life coach.” She helps people determine the right “cosmic path” for themselves. What a load of horse crap. Thanks, but I already know my path. I’m a graphic designer. When I called her out on the ridiculousness of her proposition, she claimed that she had never misrepresented herself and felt no guilt. Weeks later, she had a change of heart, claiming she’d mail me a check. It has now been several months since she sent that last email, and guess what? Still no check. I think we should start posting the names of these parasitic “business people” to protect other designers from being sucked into the same traps.
What’s the worst thing you ever worked on?
Jan 13th
We’ve all done it. We’ve delivered a project that you just want to pretend like you never did! I know I have at least. I’ll share mine first….y’all tell me about yours too though. Cause this is embarrasing if it’s just me.
A couple of years ago, I had some guy call me up about creating a website for a dog / cat supply company. I had just gotten a dog, and I forget how we met, but he said he could train my dog, if I could do a banner on his website.
How to make a project go your way.
Jan 13th
What can you do to make sure a project goes well? There are a couple of steps I take to make sure that both my client and myself leave the project happy.
Interviews
Jan 12th
One of the things we are really looking forward to for this site is the chance to interview different designers. But we want to make sure and interview people, or types of people that you will be the most interested about. Aim high, make it something that’s going to be tougher than “pre-flight print guys” or something like that!
Comment to this post with specific people or types of people you want interviewed, and we will do our best to deliver.
Site Update
Jan 12th
I didn’t think that this could happen, but our site crashed last night due to traffic. We got such a great response from people that our server died on us, and we had to get a mew hard drive to handle the load!
Posts and comments that were sent in yesterday somehow got lost in the mix, so if you added any comments or questions please be patient as we are filtering through them now.
TOXIC CLIENTS
Jan 11th
Last night I fired a client.
I liked it.
Oh, and I did it last month too.
That’s right. You heard me.
This is not one one those sissy-esqe “how to drive crazy sales” blogs -
This is to sell you on a serious “how to get rid of those clients that drive you crazy!” column!
Successful business people agree that keeping a client is less costly that finding a new one. But sometimes, that is not the case. More >
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