If you have already set foot in the workplace as a designer, surely you are aware of the sad reality that many times holds for the graphic designer today. Unfair competition, customer abuse or deception. From here, we do not pretend to be pessimistic, but we do pretend to be alert so that you can face your profession with the greater dignity possible. There are many clients who surely give you good experiences and value your work in the right measure, but unfortunately not all will be like that.
Today I bring you a compilation that you need to know and that brings together the most common lies in our sector and that the designer usually receives from his clients. Do they sound familiar?
"Do this job for free and the next one we'll pay you double."
They are basically telling you to give away your job, your time or your merchandise in exchange for the hope of being able to get paid with a second job. In short, they are proposing that you work in exchange for words, but words do not provide sustenance. Or if? I don't know, maybe you are the type of person who can pay for food or electricity bills with words. In that case, this is your ideal customer type. However, I'm not going to be extreme either because there are times when this type of proposal may be interesting to you. This is the case of newly graduated graphic designers who still do not have a consistent portfolio that can support their knowledge and career. In this case, you can either accept this type of collaboration, or you can also choose to develop imaginary works and projects that do not really exist, such as the logo of an invented car company. This will allow you to show your capacity for synthesis and the creative processes that characterize you. But in general lines NEVER you must work accepting these types of negotiations.
"We don't pay a penny until we see the final results"
A clear indication that your potential client does not trust your ability to develop the project in question. Think that in the vast majority of professions initial deposits are needed that gradually increase depending on the work performed. In addition to the fact that this first payment will help you to seriously commit to the project and motivate you, it is a small guarantee that the client in question is serious and will effectively proceed to the payment when you offer your services. We have seen cases of clients who leave the designer literally hanging in the middle of the project precisely because they have not committed to it without paying attention to the expenses that the project may have entailed for the designer in terms of time, work or even money. This does not mean that you are not flexible and comprehensiveAt the same time, keep in mind that you must take care of your relationships with your clients, so whenever possible and do not violate your labor dignity, it offers payment facilities.
"We cannot pay you for this project but we guarantee that if you do, you will receive many new clients"
Let's do a test, tell a plumber to install us in the bathroom of our office for free, and tell him that as soon as our colleagues see it, he will win countless clients. Most likely, this plumber feels that we are stepping on his dignity as a professional and throws the tackle at our heads. Why is this example so standard within graphic design? How can we get rid of this repetitive and hateful proposition? Automatically declining them when offered to us.
"We're not really sure if we want to use your proposal, send us a sketch and description of your idea and I will discuss it with my partner."
You present a project proposal to your client. Of course you send sketches, a perfectly defined description of what the project to be developed will be and what the specific objectives are. However, you are getting into the wolf's mouth. You can be completely sure that after you have left your potential client's office, he will be in charge of contacting other designers who will of course develop your project for him at a much lower price since they will not have to do the conceptualization, sketches or work plan. That, dear reader, you have done and for your face. You just gave your idea away to another person and they haven't even thanked you.
“The project has not been canceled, but it is being delayed. Keep developing your ideas, we'll get back to it in a couple of months. "
A project can stall, in fact it is something that happens very often. Financing problems, indecision ... Anyway, it is something that can happen very easily. In these cases, it is best to send your client an invoice for the work you have done to date, it is a fair solution for both parties. When the client continues the project, you will collect your remaining part. If you don't do so, you run the risk of being assigned the job to someone else who takes advantage of your proposals or worse, who they don't even remember you after a while.
"Contract? What do you need it for? We are not friends?"
Sure you are friends, surely you have nothing to worry about, but misunderstandings exist. And if they happen, you will be a graphic designer alongside an executive who will probably take advantage of his position if he sees fit. In these cases, a contract is not a sign of an absence of friendship, it is simply a shield that you need to protect yourself and your work.
"Send us the invoice once the job is finished and printed."
If you are only going to be in charge of the design and the printing is not your responsibility, you should not wait for your work to be printed, because printing is a phase that is beyond your control and if there is any type of error or problem it may decide to lower your salary or you or not even pay you. Get paid when you have performed your duties, as quickly as possible and always with an initial deposit.
"The last designer who worked with us did it for X money, do it too."
This is a matter of logic, because if the last designer was so good and did his job so well without complaint and happy with the price, your client would not be looking for another designer. In addition, it is not your concern what the salary of another person was that you also do not even know. Professionals who charge too little to get clients are financially self-destructive, or have to change jobs. Do not forget that what you do has a lot of value.
"Our budget is a fixed amount and it is not debatable."
It is somewhat paradoxical, because this same client does not know exactly how much he is going to spend when, for example, he buys a new car, but he does know how much your work is worth. Some projects require complementary tasks and therefore an increase in the necessary budget. If you are going to accept the project you must work only for what they will pay you and clarify to the client that you could provide better results if they were to pay for them.
“We have a great idea, but financial problems. Make us a design and when we recover we will give it back to you in spades. "
A client in debt or with financial problems can make this proposal, however you must be smart and know that effectively when this client gets money you will be the last on the list whoever is going to pay. In the first place because within a project there are other jobs that are considered of greater importance than ours, and secondly because what he has done with you is surely doing with other workers involved in the project.
Anything to do with creativity has those same problems. "What difference does it make if it doesn't cost you." "You do it to me later we will see" and the best of all who above try to become your partners or representatives. "Do it here and if it works we will sell it to everyone in the union, acquaintances, clients ...". As usual. My time is only minutes agglutinated in hours, days, weeks, months…. And yet your time is money
Unfortunately, there are still many designers who continue to fall into these types of traps, many times because they are just starting their professional lives or because of the fear of staying with their arms crossed at home and losing a possible business. But if we know our abilities and we are sure that our work is of quality, there is no way that we will fall into these situations. More and more designers must be aware that our profession is worthwhile and, therefore, that it must be respected by our future clients.
Antonio Prieto, I totally agree with you, the creative's time is what is worth the most, one day of work of mine is worth 120.000 Colombian pesos (I am a freelancer). Like all of you I have suffered all these kinds of slights, however skipping these traps is extremely easy, just saying NO is enough; However, there is a problem ten times worse than this and it is when the process has already begun, the advance has been received and the client begins to request changes and modifications, there where morale is compromised and the work is advanced, that is a True predicament, you can charge for changes but clients consider that the error is yours and not theirs, the clash of ideas added to the image you want to give as a professional are affected in those cases and normally it is your turn to meet the demands and the whims of the client; In this type of predicament the only thing I have been able to find as a solution is KNOWING HOW TO CHOOSE THE CUSTOMER, looking at their behavior or the way they ask for things before signing a contract or accepting an advance, thus avoiding problematic customers (which generally pay the least and ask for the most changes) and profits are maximized with clients who trust the creative's judgment and pay the value of their training.