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Thanks for posting this. It's been a very interesting read. One of the things I'm constantly struggling with is balancing making sure my clients are happy with their final products with out being taken advantage of in regards to extended revisions, additional non-agreed to additions to the project, and ever changing expectations. Luckily so far, much of my client base is from SA and the majority of them have been awesome to work with. But having some new ideas on how to manage the other ignorant or malicious clients is great. Thanks again for the info!
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Jun 4, 2012 23:45
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Authentic You posted:This is great. I especially like the comparisons to other industries. I'd really love to see it posted in SA-Mart or otherwise see SA-Mart raise awareness of the shittiness of design spec work. I've been trying to pick up small projects (since my job is going to poo poo), and I think, 'Hey, I could do a great website banner for that price so let me link my portfolio and.. oh, it's another loving contest..' It's a hard thing to argue with buyers over. By that I mean as much as we might inform people that 'hey you're kind of taking advantage of designers by doing this' they hear 'free free free / cheap cheap cheap!'. Now to be fair if every designer went on spec work strike this method would die out pretty fast, but that's wishful thinking. Some people need the work, ANY work, and welcome even just the chance at making a few $$$ and the rest have a variety of reasons for doing work that's generally not in their best interest anyway. Personally I use my entries as free advertisement and portfolio padding, but even then I know in the back of my mind that I and my competitors would be better off in the long run if we didn't follow these types of offers. Unfortunately until you're established and have a bit of a customer base, it's very difficult to see past the next spec thread, to care about the industry as a whole when an immediate profit is to be (possibly) had. I guess what I'm trying to say is that while I agree whole heartily, short of a rule revision this atmosphere isn't going to change in SAMart. When people can get free multiple submissions (final drafts no less?!) for dirt cheap why would they care about the other side of the screen...the people making those cheap submissions? Keep fighting the good fight though I wish this sentiment nothing but the best success and I too hope to eventually reach a point where I can completely forgo spec work entirely. Right now it just isn't in the cards for me and several others.
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Jul 5, 2012 06:57
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Solkanar512 posted:If nothing else, get rid of the "contest - I NEED A LOGO" sales. Oh man some people would be so pissed if this happened! 
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Jul 5, 2012 20:13
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As long as you weren't unprofessional in your correspondence most clients will understand that your time is finite and needs to be planned ahead. The ones who don't are probably going to be difficult to work with. A couple of things for your consideration: - Don't ever start work on something before agreement of terms has been set, preferably in some sort of contract. There are sites that can help you draft and sign digital contracts to avoid the turn around time of mailing and receiving physical copies. The only time in my opinion where work before agreement of terms might be acceptable is if you can use that work else where should things fall through. Your portfolio, generic design you can shop around to other similar business's, etc. - Don't deviate from the agreement terms. If your client wants you to do so, insist on rewriting the agreement/contract. Agreements/Contracts are for both parties protection. If a client takes issue with this, they're probably not some one with whom you want to work. - Never work for (just) royalties/shares. NEVER. While on the surface it might seem like a good idea the reality is that 99/100 times you're working for free and will never see a single cent. It's an amateur offer for people to extend to designers and underscores their inexperience or outright desire to swindle. - To go along with monetary quotes, keep in mind our business is all about time management. Be sure to quote time frames that are longer than you expect the project to take. Think it's something you can do in a few days? Say a week. That way when your client takes days to get back to you, or you realize you have to do a major refinement, or you eat bad clams and end up with a ridiculous case of 'whooping shits' you don't fall behind schedule. Your client will be pleasantly surprised if you get your work done sooner too. - To go along with the previous point, don't over book yourself. There's not much worse than having to miss sleep, showering, personal time, etc because of work. But when it's your own fault for promising too much to too many people, things have a way of being even more aggravating. RGBRIOT fucked around with this message at 21:24 on Aug 2, 2012 |
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Aug 2, 2012 21:20
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Holy poo poo. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3507409 Talk about undervaluing one's talents, and by extension every other designer in the SA Mart.
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Sep 21, 2012 03:19
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Bro Enlai posted:Just curious if any artists in this thread have worked on a per-click payment model, and what kinds of rates you've seen. Never, by choice. This is just as bad as royalties/shares payments. In most circumstances you'll never get your fair worth from payments like these.
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Nov 29, 2012 13:26
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Chitin posted:EDIT: OK, I spent a day reorganizing the whole thing, made it much easier to find videos related to specific genres or skills, and chose a responsive theme. The whole thing looks MUCH better now, and I feel more comfortable sharing it. Thanks for the great advice! This looks like a 90's MUD site to me. I don't think that's the sort of look that's going to snag you leads. If you really like it the way it is, I'd recommend cleaning up the alignment and margins so there isn't so much empty space through out the design. Something along these lines:  The linkedin and youtube links probably could find a better home some where else, or I should of aligned them along the same line as the right side of the player and like button. I managed to trim the height of the site down by over a third just by lessening the margins and removing the repetitive footer. But honestly, I think you'd be best served by saving up $40-$50 and finding a better theme on themeforest or a similar theme site that's offers templates for video portfolios. Either way, best of luck! RGBRIOT fucked around with this message at 03:31 on May 4, 2013 |
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May 4, 2013 02:00
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I'm on my iPad and it looks pretty good! Much better than the old design (in my opinion). Nice choice, and I hope it works out well for you!
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May 9, 2013 17:33
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Bare minimum, cost of printing* + your time. Tax and devaluation of the work can be factored in too, but those get a bit more tricky to work out. Not worth it if this is a one off type of thing. * that includes paper, ink, shipping container, postage, etc. E: and keep in mind, the places you're price quoting get much better deals on printing cost due to volume of sales. You probably can't match that and come out ahead. But again if its a one time sort of deal then that's not much a real consideration either. RGBRIOT fucked around with this message at 07:48 on May 10, 2013 |
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May 10, 2013 07:43
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After some very distasteful events, I decided to rework my current contract agreement for use when dealing with non-spec work. I've been reading quite a bit from AIGA and GAG templates and wondered if any other designers/creatives might be willing to help me tighten up my agreement via either review, sharing of their own contract, or offering additional resources to check out for consideration. Naturally I'd love to get a lawyer to look over it, but at this particular time that's not a feasible option. So if any of you Thanks!
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Apr 7, 2014 19:01
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kedo posted:Shoot me your contract and I'll take a look at it. PM me and I'll give you my email address. IANAL or anything but I've dealt with a ton of difficult clients and could probably point out spots here and there where you could tighten it up. Hey thanks! I got swamped with some gigs, so Ill be sure to shoot you over a PM as soon as I get some free time. It may be a few days, depending on my workload. I really appreciate it 
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Apr 10, 2014 14:50
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