Here is a quick list of things you can do to ensure your quality won’t get sidetracked and you begin to hate it.

1. Set a timeline that both you and your client can maintain. If your client strays from the project, loses interest in finishing things properly, or starts dragging their feet, call them out on it.
2. Take a breather. If it’s a big project that gets drawn out, take a step back and let your mind clear. The worst thing you can do is overwork the project. That will lead to poor decisions, and you’re forcing the design to work.
3. Maintain communication with the client. Who of us hasn’t looked at the caller ID on the phone and said “I’m not gonna pick that up” in fear that it’s your client calling to chew your ear off? Maintaining open dialogue lets both parties understand where things are with the project.
4. Stay inspired. One of the things I hate about design is a lot of times, I hate design. I lose track of what I like my job for, and the feeling that I’m doing is actually a REALLY cool job. Go online and look at work you like, go to the bookstore and pick up a book. Go walk around the mall and look at design. Just do whatever you can to find inspiration.
5. Be creative outside of your computer. One of the worst things a designer can do is do all their work on the computer. Pick up a pencil and paper. Get some paint and a brush. Whatever it is that you do do get the juices flowing.
6. Don’t work on just one thing at a time. When I get a project that I know is going to be time consuming. I like to have another thing that I can look at. If you look at something for too long, you stop seeing what you’re doing, and you just see what’s there. This is kind of like taking a breather.
7. Get feedback from people that matter. My mom is a great critique. She always makes me feel good when she looks at something I’ve done, but unfortunately mom, it’s not a critique that counts. Join some websites where you get good honest critical feedback. I’m a big fan of ArtSig. It’s not as good as it once was, but it still is ok. Also, Reddit.com is a good website if you want feedback, but a lot of times, you’ll get someone on there who just wants to be an ass.
8. Don’t take shortcuts. Enough said on that one.
9. Try and keep a healthy work schedule. Even though sometimes you might have to work REALLY late hours. Try and have a cut off time. This will help you keep your sanity, and in the long run, your work will benefit from it.
10. Try and only work for good clients. I know this sounds impossible, but having a good client can make a project go SO much better. Bad clients can bring down a project by haggling the price meaning you have less time to work on it. Good clients open up doors and allow you to do good work by backing you up in your decisions.

That’s all I have to say about that.

Anyone else have any ideas for ways to keep the quality of your work up?

The question at hand here is this. Do you want to be a big fish in a small pond, or a little fish in a big pond?

This is an open ended article that I want to get some reader feedback on. I’ve tried writing this article 3 different times, get all the way to the end, and realize that I’m not able to come up with a conclusion. There isn’t any coverall answer here. I’ve seen companies that just do one thing, and they are excellent at that one thing, and they do great because of it.

On the other hand, I’ve also seen firms that offer everything under the sun. They do great because people like the fact that they do a good job, not great, but a good job on everything.

So what do you think readers? Do you think it’s better to be able to just do one thing and do it well, or do you prefer to be able to do a lot of things, and be average at them?

I remember the first client I had that tried to take over a project from me. To keep things ambiguous, I’ll call this person Mrs. X. Mrs. X owned a store that did invite design stuff. They’d help the client pick out the order and then place the order. Very little design other than picking a paper an a font. The rest they just sent off to a company who designed it and printed it. But Mrs. X was confident that what she was doing was design, and therefore she had an “eye” for design, and in turn, it gave her the confidence to design the actual site herself. She calls me up one day from a referral from one of her friends who was a client of mine. She calls in and tells me “I want a new website, I know nothing about the internet but what I do know is good design, and I wanna work with you in building the site.” I should have know then that this was gonna be a second guess the designer type of projects.

Our first meeting is at the shop. It’s a very cutesy boutique style place. She sets in front of me some examples of sites she likes. Pretty straight forward. I take her designs to heart and lay out a couple of potential website layouts. Over the course of the next few weeks, she sends me her comments. Nearly every design decision that I made was second guessed, questioned, and eventually changed. After making revisions to the layout numerous times, I tell her that I think there must be a lapse in communication as it never takes this long to design a website. I tell her I’ll be happy to finish the site, but the quote I gave her is no longer valid as I didn’t anticipate it taking this long for the design.

She writes me back a LONG verbally aggressive email claiming that I didn’t know what I was doing and a lot of the edits where things that she didn’t like. After going through the notes, and speaking with the designer that was working on the project I began to notice a theme. She would ask for something, then change her mind. I had no issue with charging more for things that we not my fault.

She calls me the next day and tells me that she has laid out the website and wants me to look it over. I agree to come in and examine her new layout. The website she laid out was quite possibly the worst design I had seen in a while. Imagine a pink gingham grenade exploded over a doily and created a super pink gingham doily mess. She decided the links should be in a certain array that basically removed any ability to edit them once they were up. The entire thing was against any morsel of design credibility that I had.

At this point I washed my hands from the project and just wanted out. We get the site up, it’s horrible atrocious. We didn’t even put our logo or name on the site cause we were so ashamed of the design.

That was the first project I ever did just for the money. It was kind of like having a one night stand with design! I felt a little embarrassed and didn’t like myself for it for a couple of days.

After that happened, I set down with my staff and we had a talk. We decided that from that point on, we would stand up for our design decisions and be more proactive about clients taking over a project.

Then in comes my next client who wanted to take over a project. This time, I saw it coming way in advance. This guy owned a car shop. He built custom cars that honestly looked really cool. We have our first meeting, and he comes to me with a couple examples of sites he liked. He also had a rough layout that he had his friend lay out that knew photoshop, but couldn’t program a site.

So this time, instead of letting him try and steamroll the project, I told him, I’ll give you one round of changes. We’ll take your ideas to heart when putting the design together, from there, you get one opportunity to make revisions. If there is anything major down the road, we’ll bill extra for each change.

It was amazing how the threat of adding a few hundred bucks changes someone’s attitude. We set down for the second meeting, where I had the design in front of him. He started to point things out and I politely stopped him. I said “design isn’t just design. You have web design, print design, car design, all of them require different needs…what would work with a print piece won’t work on a car.” Basically what I was telling him was that just cause you might have an eye for aesthetics, doesn’t mean that you’ll have an eye for laying out a website.

I didn’t bully him, there was no struggle for supremacy over the project. He respected me for standing up for the work we did, and the website came out really nice.

Now, the final example I’ll give you again is a client that didn’t necessarily what to take over the project, but felt that this was his baby,and didn’t want his baby to grow up to be a stripper. I can honestly feel for the guy. He spends years working hard to build his name up, make sure that everything he has done up to that point is quality, and it nervous about letting go of control and having someone else come in and mess up his hard work. That makes sense to me.

I find that a lot of times when a client oversteps their bounds in a project isn’t because they have control issues, or they think they know better than me, I think it’s simply because they see their project as their baby. They want their baby to grow up and be the best it possibly can be.

So next time you have a client that is trying to play god in the project, just tell them that their best interests are being taken into account, and that your work is just as important to you, as their project is to them.

I spend a lot of time on the internet. I’ve actually almost finished it. It’s good, it just falls off towards the end. Anyway, back to my point. I spend a lot of time on the internet. In doing this, I’ve come across a TON of bogus deals for designers and photographers. A few years ago, there was this program I went to that offered a free lunch. FUCK YEA I want a free lunch! I go, and it starts talking about schemes to make it big in online sales. Long story short, you pay them a few thousand bucks and they’ll give you a shopping cart ready to start making you millions!

Well, the latest thing I’ve come across is this dude that’s looking for a photographer for an event. He’s gonna pay $150 for 50 photos. The problem is the tickets to the show cost almost $300. Now, the deal doesn’t look so good. Now, I wouldn’t be writing this post if the story stopped there. Oh no…the rabbit hole goes much deeper here Neo.

Some like minded individual the posted a response on Craigslist. Saying how much of a rip off it was, and how the guy needed to get his head out of his ass….well that’s what I took from it anyway.

$ 125.00 for 50 pictures!!??? Only serious individuals apply….? I have Compact flash cards that cost more than $125.00. Get real. Serious individuals are looking for lot more than 125.00. Go hire some one with a point and shoot. Your not looking for quality work at that price.

Nothing too harsh I thought, so I wrote the guy telling him I agreed with him.

Well, later today, I go back in to check and see what’s new on there….and low and behold, the OP has gone and started himself a fight!  Here is what the guy wrote back.

the problem is, is that people like you pay to get your talent, I mean sure if I was in 6 figure debt due to student loans and paying 125 for a flash card I would feel working for 150 was pointless, fortunately my talent comes natural to
me I did not have to pay someone to teach me what depth of field was, or how to use NIK Software. I use a Sony Alpha A200 that I paid 400 for, did not have to re finance my house to get a camera and I am a artist not a photographer but I can certainly give 50 professional photos of $150. Guess when you know how to use your camera that 150 seems worth it for a half a days work!

So if your so hung up on your self that you won’t work for $150 stop complaining and let someone who has the talent feed there family with the money!

WHAT?!?!??!!? I was really pissed when I read this. It was like I was seeing a girl get punched or something. I just knew I had to step in.  So I decided to pen my own little response to the whole mess.

To the person that originally posted the ad for hiring a person for bonarroo. You lack a general understanding of both economics and how the industry works. I’ll explain.

First off, a ticket to the show along with parking costs about $300. You’re paying $150. “Oh cool, that’s 1/2 my ticket price.” Well not exactly. Figure you’re paying $300 to go to the show. You’re already planning on paying the $300 for a 4 day show. Split into 4th (4 days of the show) we’ll call it $70 a day, for the sake of easy math. So you’ve spent $280 to go to 4 days of shows. Now you’re only spending $130 after you pay. But, you’re also only getting to see half of the shows. Cause you need to take 50 photos. Taking 50 photos isn’t just pointing the camera and clicking.

It’s asking someone to take a photo, setting up the photo, taking a couple of pictures to make sure you get the best shot, then I assume you’re going to have some sort of release for them to sign right? So that can easily take 10 minutes to do. That adds up to 500 minutes or 8 hours of work. Working 8 hours as a photographer is a long day, and doing it in the sun, outside during the summer is even longer, so they’ll probably split that time up between a couple of days. Each day at the show is $70, and they split that up to 2 days…that’s $140 worth of show time. So they’re only getting 1/2 of the show they paid the full price for. You’re paying them $150. So, in the end, them spending time and effort in taking photos for you will come out to them making a whopping $10 or about $1.20 an hour!

Also, you’re not looking for a legit photographer. You’re looking for a person that owns a camera. As you are just a person that owns a camera. Owning a camera doesn’t make you a photographer. Just like owning a paintbrush doesn’t make you an artist. It’s stuff like this that drives me to insanity! This guy is trying to screw people out of money. That shit about “put food on your table”. How are you gonna put food on the table when you’re making that kind of money? You honestly don’t understand the first thing about how the creative industry works, and you’re in here trying to preach to people about it.

Good day sir!

So who knows, maybe my little not will make the guy understand that what he’s doing isn’t a good deal and maybe i’ll have changed the world a little bit. But I doubt it.

How about some of you guys help me pick up the fucking torch! It’s heavy and I’m tired of being the only one fighting the good fight!

So what are some good ways to stay organized and on top of things? I have a number of little tricks that I use to help me manage my business without going insane.

1. First things first, if you’re like me, you’re a visual person. Having things laid out in front of you helps you not loose track of what’s going on. When I had 10 or 15 active projects, a staff, and clients to manage,  I used a white board.  On there, I cut out pictures of my staff and would tape their picture to what they were doing. I could easily and quickly glance at the board to see who was covering what. Then I’d write in with a marker what they were doing, what our deadlines were, what we needed, and so on.  Anything that related to the project could easily be seen at a glance.
2. Don’t forget about new business. Just cause you’re busy, you still need to be cultivating new business. Set aside a few hours each week to keep working on bringing in new business.  The biggest problem with getting busy is that when you’ve finished the work, sometimes you hear crickets. You have been so immersed in finishing the work in front of you, you’re not looking ahead. The roller coaster can really kill you if you’re not careful.
3. If you get covered up, pass it along. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for biting off more than you can chew, but if you take too big of a bite, you’ll choke on it.  Leaving your client pissed and chances are you won’t get a second chance.
4. Schedule. Make sure that you are honest with your schedule. You never know when a project will be changed at the last minute, a printer will be slowed down, or a programmer will run into an issue that takes them a week longer to finish then expected.  Be honest when you schedule something. I tend to add a little, then add a little longer.  That way you’ve got enough wiggle room to be safe.
5. Use a CALENDAR. If I were speaking to you, I’d say the word CALENDAR very loudly and very S L O W L Y. Keep track of all sorts of things. Make sure you put deadlines, and also reminders ahead of time about deadlines. Put waypoint dates in there as well to make sure you’re on track. Working without a calendar is like sex without a condom, no wait, it’s like weed eating without eye protection, no, it’s like drinking and driving….shit, these are no good.  Point is, you can probably get away with it most of the time, but at some point, it WILL catch you when you least expected it. I have done it before, and you get that phone call “hey, I’m here, where are you?” You have to play it off like you knew about it, but ran into something…..long story short….it SUCKS!  USE A CALENDAR!

Ok, that’s all for tonight class.  Hopefully these little tips will help you better manage your work. Now, time to watch lost.  Anyone else as confused as I am?

Alright, so I’ve been doing the job search thing for a bit now….to call it frustrating is a HUGE understatement.  But I’m starting to see a pretty big issue here.  For one, there are almost no design job, secondly, the jobs that are out there want you to be able to do a dozen different things.  So instead of a well written, insightful post, today, I’m going to asking you a question.  (it’s not like any of these are well written anyway, notice my misuse of commas?)

So, the question, what do you think are acceptable skills sets for an employer to ask you for.  Assuming that this is a graphic designer job, is it ok for them to want you to be able to do the following?

Copywriting

Proof Reading

Programming

Event Planning

Marketing

Photography

Is there something I’ve left out?  Let me know.

As you may know, I’m on the job hunt.  For the past year or so, I’ve been looking for a full time gig somewhere.  Needless to say it’s a bit frustrating.  Just the other day, I found a post for a job where they wanted someone who can design, update the website, write marketing material, photograph at events, and do the social media and SEO for their website.  Oh, also, they wanted you to have a Masters….all for the low low price of $38,000 a year!  Pretty disgusting.

So I ask you a question.  What are some things you’ve done to beat this decline in our industry, and why is our industry particularly susceptible to this drought in the economy verses other industries?

Do you think that websites like 99 designs and other competition based websites are part of the reason for the constant “lowering of the bar” for our freelance industry? Are we cannibalizing ourselves by allowing sites like this to exist or is this just survival of the fittest? I want to know what you think.

In college, I had a project where I had to research Josef Muller Brockman’s style, and then create a project in that style.  I hadn’t ever heard of “Swiss Style” before then, but was enlightened during the process.  Today, I found an absolutely amazing article on the Swiss Style’s origin, examples, and more.  A great read!

www.smashingmagazine.com

Any tips on how to use twitter to it’s full potential would be greatly appreciated. I almost just wrote a post that said “I’m thinking about what to twitter.” I know that’s not right….oh man, I’m so lost.

It’s happened to all of us at some point, we’ve done work for someone we REALLY don’t know all that well, and they disappear. So what are your options if your client won’t pay? There are a couple of things you can do to help ensure payment or partial payment. It won’t ALWAYS work, but it’s worth a shot.

1. Hire a collections agency. Typically they’ll take about 30%, but it’s better than nothing. Many collection agencies won’t charge you anything if they don’t collect, so you won’t lose anything if it doesn’t work. But use them as a last resort.

2. Get a lawyer. Again, the last resort method, talking with a lawyer can be expensive and doesn’t always work. Many times a lawyer can “settle” for a price rather than taking it to court, but if it’s enough money, it’s worth it.

3. Show up. I’ve gone into people’s offices and set down at their desk. Lots of times, people will just ignore phone calls and emails. Go in and talk to them face to face. They are a lot less likely to ignore you if you are right in front of them.  But DON’T go in with a bad attitude. Go in and be understanding of their situation. You want to make sure not to cause a scene and make things worse than they already are.

4. Have a friend act as a collection agency. If your friend is a good friend, they won’t charge, but ask a friend call on your behalf. They can say something like “I’m calling on behalf of Design Firm X and we need to have a chat about an overdue balance.” This might scare your client into making the payment.

5. Remove their website, work, whatever from the internet. This is the first thing you should do. If you have already sent their work to print, ask your printer to put a hold on the work. If you work with a printer on a regular basis, they’ll have no problem doing this.

Hopefully you won’t have to call in someone to break their knees, unless you’re the mob.  In that case, people probably won’t be stiffing you in the first place.

It’s a good idea to ALWAYS have a contract, and set a payment schedule so they are always invested in the project. When they pay 1/3 up front, they already have some investment in the work. If you don’t have a contract, in many states, you’re out of luck.  Some states view emails or phone calls as verbal contracts, and they can hold up in court, but if your state doesn’t, then you have no recourse. So sign a contract first, and then do the work.

Share your ideas with how to collect money from dead beat clients.