Before I go into the meat of this story, I feel it necessary to tell another story to set the stage for what I am about to present.
Once upon a time, there was this guy who really loved hamburgers. He had to have them all the time, but didn’t have the budget to meet his desire. When he discovered a new hamburger joint in town, he decided to give them a try, but there were some conditions that the vendor would have to agree to before he would become a customer.
First, the vendor must give him a free hamburger to try out. Second, if he really liked the hamburger, he would come back at some other time and pay for the hamburger but there was no guarantee. Third, if the vendor agreed to give him free hamburgers, he would send potential customers his way. Sounds crazy doesn’t it? How many vendors would really go for this request? Out of curiosity, and the need for validation, I tried this scenario the other day at my local McDonald's to see if this would really work. I was laughed at and quickly shown to the door. “No such thing as a free lunch,” the manager stated as he escorted me out.
So why is it that in the creative profession, potential customers in need of our products or services seem to think this type of request is okay? It has become a real problem that has grown to huge proportions in the past decade due largely to the impact of the world-wide-web. With sites like craigslist and guru.com, just to name a few, this trend is becoming the norm. My question is, what makes it right for the potential client to ask for free service to promote a business that I’m sure is requiring it’s customers to pay up front for services rendered. Why are artists, graphic designers, and other creatives discounted as true professionals by these fly-by-night businesses? Where does the perception to get free stuff from us come from?
As I talk with other designers from around the country, it seems to be a concensus that part of the problem is due to a large number of new or inexperienced designers underbidding or doing work for free to get their names out there. But is this really beneficial to the green horn designer trying to eek out a living? There are ways of doing pro-bono work that helps to keep the integrity of the design business intact. One example would be to find a non-profit organization whose cause reflects your belief and offer to help them out with your services. I’ve seen some awesome work come out of these relationships. Another way to produce some great work is to join a forum like
Speak Up where they have
Wordit, a monthly exercise, or
Illustration Friday with the weekly word. These forums provide exercises that challenge the creative to produce a solution around a given problem, and publish the work for all to see. I myself have gotten involved in a few of these forums.
SugarFrostedGoodness is another good one for illustrators and the sister site,
SugarFrostedPhotos for the shutterbugs out there.
Photofortnight is another good one for photographers.
This past weekend I was reading through a post on the
HOW design forum about a designer that was sparring with a potential client that wanted him to provide a mock-up for a website without any compensation for said mock-up. When the designer refused to work that way, the client response was, “no mock-up = NO ENGAGEMENT.” When the designer attempted to educate the client on the process, the client replied with this:
No mockup = NO ENGAGEMENT that is a matter of fact.
You have no specification because:
1.You have failed to prove yourself ! FACT !
2. You are unprofessional ! FACT !
3. You are ignorant ! FACT !
We do not have a high opinion of you as a designer, reference 1, 2 and 3 above! i.e. Causality of your actions.
Of coarse, this would be a huge red flag to any professional and the dialog would have ended with a kind thank you for consideration, but no thanks!
So why would a client think this type of statement is okay? Maybe I should have told the manager at McDonald's that the reason he didn’t provide me with the free Big Mac was because:
1. McDonald's has failed to prove itself!
2. McDonald's is unprofessional!
3. McDonald's is ignorant!
Then I could have stated, as the police were escorting me off the property, “I do not have a high opinion of McDonalds, reference 1, 2, and 3 above! i.e. Causality of your actions.
It is our responsibility to educate our clients of the processes within our profession. Sites like
NO!SPEC,
Creative Business,
Creative Latitude, and many others are doing just that. So the next time you submit a proposal to do work for a potential client, it should also include information to educate the client of processes and policies of no-spec that will prevent the dialog from going any further than, yes, we want to work further with you, or no, we have considered someone else for the job.
Remember what that Micky-Ds manager said to me? There is no such thing as a free lunch.
Labels: design issues
|
0 comments
