Being a Starving Graphic Artist Sucks

Essential Graphic Design Advice: What's the Problem if You Decide to Work with Every Client that Comes Your Way?

As I look through some of the apps, games and miscellaneous do-dads on the Apple App Store earlier today I was stuck by the vast difference in quality from one developer to another. Without trying to be too blunt, I was amazed that Apple was allowing most of these folks to sell apps on their platform - the apps that were being developed were simply dreadful.

What's painfully obvious is that Apple really doesn't care how bad, how dumb or how pointless your app is - they know that they'll make $100 off of you for purchasing a developer's certificate and a notable percentage on anything you sell. If you put an app up there that doesn't sell 1 unit (other than the one you bought yourself to try to boost sales), Apple doesn't care, they still made money off of you.

For a while the leading sales getter was a program called iFart - I won't get into the details but it certainly wasn't what I would call a productivity generator. There are some apps on there that look like a 2 year old developed, some don't work and others are just plain scams - they're reprehensible. But it really doesn't matter for Apple does it? After all, they're making "coin".

Actually it does matter.

Apple is playing a dangerous game here by allowing anyone and everyone the opportunity to sell their worthless app on their store; they're losing the value credibility and exclusivity. It's almost like Apple is selling their soul to make money off of as many people as they can (no matter how inept of an app they submit). Apple may someday pay for it if the public's opinion of the App Store is that it's just a big joke where 2-bit developers try to make it rich.

As a freelancer, you've got the same decision to make as Apple does - you decision involves which clients to work for and which ones you don't. Do you decide to work with anyone that crosses your path or are you going to be selective. The choice is yours. My personal opinion lies somewhere in the middle of being exclusive and working with everyone.

Early on in my career I worked for a big party limousine service, and while the work was good I later felt that it hurt my career since the clients I wanted to attract didn't have that lifestyle. I had attracted clients that were selling drink cards...one guy was selling a hang-over pill, and I knew then I had to be more exclusive with who I worked with in the future.

I know paying bills in number 1, but don't forsake your long-term goals for short-term gains by working with clients that don't fit your lifestyle, comfort level, quality level or long-term goals. Be selective.

PS - Here are Cnet's Top 5 Worst iPhone apps.

Oh Great, Spec Work Companies are Now Spamming Graphic Designers

I've long defended spec work companies the opportunity to get out there and earn a buck just like the rest of us. As a freelancer, whether I like their business model or not, I don't feel I have the right to tell others how to run their business (so long as it's legal). Today however I received an interesting email that I wanted to share with you - mind you that I didn't sign up for a newsletter, list or anything else.

These guys were "kind enough" to send me this "wonderful invitation" without me even asking for it:

"Dear Designer,
We would like to invite you to send quotations to clients around the world and build your client base.
Few of our latest projects that are awaiting quotations are:

Respect Our Lakes - $3000-$5000
Sweet Pea Daycare - <$1000
Sherbrooke painting - Negotiable

Sending quotations is very simple. All you will need to do is to register with us and select the project you would like to quote.To register visit: http://www.onlinedesignquote.com/register-designers.html

We look forward to serving you and building your client base.
Wishing you good luck,
team@onlinedesignquote"

Hey look, I've got no problem with these guys trying to put bread on the table, but sending out spam email to freelancers that didn't ask to be emailed doesn't feel quite ethical to me. My suggestion to companies like this is to get involved with the design community, use social networking and build relationships versus trying to make the quick score.

Whether you're an independent freelancer or a spec work company like this, the result is the same: emailing everyone on some list you purchased (without any social or trust building marketing) may get you a couple of quick sales but it's going to turn off a lot of people. I would be one of those people.

I do wish this company that emailed me the best of luck, but I do wish they would remove me from their list.

Want to learn more about what I think about spec work - get the honest truth here (and please retweet and share these with other freelancers if you got some value out of them!)

Initial Thoughts on Spec Work (based off of Forbes Magazine article)
Why are we Still Debating About Spec Work?
Love 'em or hate 'em, I decided to rate 'em: my first-hand experience & review with spec work, using CrowdSpring.com

8 Reasons Why You're Not Making as Much as You Could as a Freelance Graphic Designer

From talking with designers over the years I've found a direct correlation between how much they make and several undeniable factors - many of them aren't related to their design prowess. Recently I'd see a post on another blog that listed the "Top 10 Things They Don't Teach In Design School", it inspired me to put this together.

If you asked 10 designers if they aren't making the money they want to be, 9 out of the 10, or in some cases 10 out of the 10 are going to say, "No". This got me thinking, "If they're not happy with the money they're making why don't they do something about it? Do they not have the talent? Are they just lazy, or are they uncertain what to do about it?"

In this post I'll address the later: designers that want to bring in more money but aren't sure why they aren't. For those designers who really (I mean really) want to start to bring in more money, the process starts with looking at what's going on now. Here are my non talent-based reasons why designers don't bring in the money they want:

They:

1. Weren't taught, don't care about or are scared how to market and sell their services. Can't market or sell? Better learn to do something else.
2. Don't understand that being an expert in Photoshop won't by itself bring in business. They don't get that clients don't care if you're a Photoshop expert.
3. Mistakenly feel like everything they need to know about freelancing they learned in school, can learn online for free or will just be able to figure it out themselves.
4. Invest way too many resources in "fun" things: picking up the latest Adobe CS, checking out the latest free tutorials, IMing, Twittering, etc... instead of focusing on expanding their business. They are unwilling (not unable) to invest any time, money or energy in growing their business...but they'll spend an extraordinary amount of resources if they are being entertained. 
5. Don't have a mentor or someone that is willing and able to provide sound advice for the specific situations, challenges the freelancer runs into (no, buddies and freelancers on the chat rooms don't count...if the chat room freelancers were that good, why aren't they working on projects instead of wasting time in the chat rooms?)
6. Weren't taught and don't how to communicate with clients in an effective, compelling way, so they end up working with the wrong clients, spending way too much time on them, not getting fairly paid for their talent and giving away free services.
7. Have difficulty understanding what clients truly want from them (it's not "good design"), so they end up talking about things clients don't care about...and the client decides not to hire them.
8. Fool themselves into thinking someday "it'll just happen". Here's an exact copy of a tweet I pasted directly from a designer on Twitter, "Being poor sucks, but... it... builds character????? I'm a "starving artist" myself. 1 of these days I'll be tattooed & rich!" What do you think his chances are?
9. Bonus one here that happened after I initially wrote this entry - on the 15th I had a user (both in the figurative and literal sense of the word) systematically went through every single page of this blog trolling for free information. Not only is this a snarky thing to do, it's really not going to help him/her become successful. In doing my own research on what's out there I've just found the free information I stumbled was stuff I already knew...and overly simplified as well. If freelancers really think they're going to find the secret to their success by rummaging the Intenet for free tidbits are just fooling themselves...I should know, I tried this approach early in my career. I went through a marketing expert's blog and copied all of his entries, thinking I hit the jackpot...in the end, I didn't spend a lot of time on them and they didn't do a damn thing for me.
   

Pretty harsh stuff I know, almost like getting a cold bucket of water tossed on you. But for those of you out there that are thinking about freelancing, just starting out or in need of a boost, I would rather be honest with you rather than try to sugar-coat it, I hope that makes sense.

I know that most freelancers that read this will ignore it - that's cool. Over 75% of freelancing businesses don't make it after 2-3 years...and someone has to make up those statistics. But I also know there are a few of you who will see some wisdom in this and take action.

You can listen or you can ignore, the choice is all yours, my role is just to show you where the water is...your role is to decide to drink it or not.

The Freelancer, the Client and the Dying

I've got a client on the East Coast that's driving me nuts right now - woman's clearly got OCD issues. Over this Easter/Passover weekend she has called and left me two messages (both extended beyond the 2 minute limit on my machine so she got cut-off in mid sentence), she also left me 6-7 emails (I lost track after 5). Even though we're on record pace, she's desperately trying to get her web site up and running for...well, there isn't a specific event or date we're shooting for, it's just become an insatiable obsession for her.

She's like Chicken Little running around screaming that the sky is falling because her web site isn't up. Well this may be an insatiable obsession for her but not me - I've been down this road before, and I know the sky isn't falling.  

This woman will keep pushing and pushing, calling at night, early in the morning and yes on weekends (holiday weekends too), to try to get me to work as hard and as fast as she desires. As a younger, more naive designer I would have begrudgingly followed her lead, but "homey don't play that now". I of course want clients to get a terrific ROI and experience from working with me, but I don't work on their schedule and I no longer put off people and events just to cater to their ridiculous demands. I often think, "Hey, just because you don't have a life beyond this project right now doesn't mean that I don't."

I did the best thing I could do to ensure I enjoyed my family and my weekend: I just ignored her. Yep, just ignored her.

Depending on the career stage you are as a freelancer, you either applauded my decision or thought, "Dude, what are you doing? You're losing business and you might even lose the client." You veterans probably applauded, because you know...

If you'll allow me to back up just a bit, I'll explain why I did what I did.

Remember the first company you worked for out of college? You know, the one that you'll take just about anything just to get into the corporate world...well, I worked for a hospice company. While most fresh-faced kids in their first "real" job get to see how the world works, I not only saw that but I saw what people were like (really like) at the end of their lives. I saw people that were dying, which of course engrained an indelible impression on the rest of my life.

The one thing I noticed more than anything else was that whether the patient lived a good/tough life, was male/female or was old/Moses old was that none of them ever expressed ANY regret that they hadn't worked harder in their lives. In fact, in talking with them it was hard for them to talk about anything but their friends, family and memories.

I have tried to carry that sentiment throughout my life, and at times not doing a very good job of it. There have been too many times in my career as a freelancer that I passed up on life's memories just to cater to snarky, demanding jackass clients, so I could earn a buck and perhaps earn a testimonial and referral from them.

I won't do that anymore, I will never do that again. I have missed too many wonderful times when I should have been enjoying myself and my family; instead I am banging out some project for a client that in a couple of weeks won't care about me in the slightest.  

If you're new to freelancing, I understand that getting your career off the ground is important - it should be. My career was and is still vitally important to me. But if I may give you a small piece of friendly advice...from someone that has seen first-hand how easy it is for demanding clients to suck you into their time frame and make you miss out on other aspects of your life, I suggest that you shut down PhotoShop, turn the computer off and enjoy yourself, your family and your life.

At the end of your life, and I hope it's a happy and healthy life, I can promise you that you'll never find "I should have worked harder" as one of your regrets.

Happy late Easter and Passover.

God bless.

PS - a little different style and topic for me, I hope you enjoyed it. Please retweet this and share it with other designers out there...and feel free to comment.

Think You've Made Mistakes as a Freelancer? Check Out What I Did...

Hey guys,
Here's a clip I submitted to Cdbaby for their promotional podcasts - it's me describing one of the most embarrassing situations I got into as an up-and-coming freelance designer.  

The run time on it is 3:11; enjoy...and please don't make the same mistake I did :)

PS - If you liked clip, you may want to check out my From Zero to Graphic Design Hero audio mp3 series.

PPS - Thanks to Angel for sending this in, "Just wanted to say thanks, I bought BASAS book, Verbal Kung Fu, & Work Smarter not Harder Contracts & More. All these things helped me out so much, I'm more confident about myself when I'm in front of a client and I'm also not scared to turn customers away when they just want to rip me off, lol, I'm also getting more work and getting busy, I might have to hire someone to help me. oh, and thanks for recommending the Seth Godin Marketing stuff."

A Freelancer's Non-Biased Look at CrowdSpring - Through the Client's Eyes

If I Am a Freelancer, Why Did I Do This?
What I wanted to do here was to take an objective (as much as I can) look at what all of the buzz was about concerning CrowdSpring and this concept of "spec work". Jeremiah Owyang (social media and cutting-edge Internet genius) tried a similar experiment with one of his creative projects - I figured I'd do the same.

Concerning the whole spec work debate - I know both sides and I know their talking points, honestly I can empathize with both of them. I've already covered that terrain in past posts (search for them if you'd like) so I won't get into that here. Both sides will undoubtedly be checking this post out and looking for ammunition for their respective side - I can appreciate this, but I've done my best to just write a simple, objective look at what I experienced being a client instead of a designer.

I'd also like to point out before getting into the actual review that the folks at CrowdSpring were both respectful and encouraging when it came to this review. I know some love this company and some not so much, but whatever side of the fence you're on I wanted to first say that they were pretty cool about hearing I was going to review their process - I appreciated that.

 Pros

• The designer that won the contest (Brad) was friendly and fairly timely with his designs.
• I made a comment about the speed of the customer service at CrowdSpring, but they were quite helpful and friendly.
• I was able to upload sample files for designers to look at and get inspiration from - nice touch.
• Even though some of the logos weren't of the best quality, there were a few in there that weren't bad - and my client did pick one of them and seemed pretty happy with it.
• You don't have to leave the office.
• You can have a lot of different creative looks to your project (versus having 1 designer try many concepts).
• Payment is quick and easy.
  
  

Cons (Many of these have nothing to do with CrowdSpring, just the nature of working with someone purely online - eLance, Guru and Sologig would have many of the same issues):

• As the client/business owner, you have to type EVERYTHING out. From working with clients for years, I know they despise this - they would rather dictate and have me scramble to take notes.
• You can plan on investing 1-3 hours typing communications/emails and reviews back and forth. Between feedback and clarification this can eat up a lot of time.
• As a business owner, if you aren't really sure you know what you want, be prepared for ANYTHING. I laid out pretty clear instructions (again, I've been doing this for over 10 years), but I still got some wacky concepts. In all fairness, I'm sure I've created off-the-wall concepts as well.
• The logos I received varied in quality quite a bit (some good and some were pretty bad) in fairness to CrowdSpring, I placed a $200 bid which the site indicated was a bit low (sorry this was for a non-profit). I am sure if a client places a higher dollar figure on it, they'll get better results.
• The site does promise 25 different entries/designs to choose from - I received 26. However, many of the entries were designed by the same artist and varied just a little from their other designs. I am not sure if I have a better solution for CrowdSpring on this, but I felt a little cheated. Again, I am sure at a higher dollar figure would ensure this might not happen as much. 
• The customer service at CrowdSpring was a little slow in getting back to me (a few hours to a day)...I don't think I saw a phone number either. But in fairness to them, I am used to Twitter's speed so I am spoiled.
• Don't expect marketing advice or guidance, CrowdSpring and other sites like it focus purely on design. If you are a savvy marketer, this shouldn't be a problem. If you don't know positioning, niche marketing and psychographic profiling from the hole in your rear, you might want to look into someone who can provide both marketing expertise and design.

The Bottom Line:
Based on my experience, do I think spec work will completely obliterate traditional freelance designers as we know them...and perhaps replace them all with super cyborg designers who will work for next to nothing?
No. I can see where spec work might be attractive to some clients, but for others I am not sure it's a good fit - especially when they haven't worked with a designer before.

Did I feel badly for those that didn't win?
Absolutely. I am not sure every client out there will, but didn't feel right about telling artists that clearly put some time into their logo that they didn't win. By the way, I offered everyone who entered a logo their choice of my Being a Starving Artist Sucks or Verbal Kung Fu for Freelancers book for free.

Do I think spec work is evil?
Hmm, I think the word "evil" is tossed around a little too loosely. Sadly, there's a lot of evil in this world - I mean real evil but I am not sure I would put spec work in this category. I see this is causing freelancers to rethink their strategy (including me), but I still see opportunities for those that can adapt.

Was this review fair or foul?
Drop in a comment, share it, or retweet it...

PS - Tutorialblog.org just reviewed Being a Starving Artist Sucks and Verbal Kung Fu for Freelancers, did think they were "sleepers" or "keepers"?

What Kung Fu Panda Can Teach Aspiring Creative Freelancers

Interesting but bizarre title, I know. I caught this movie a while back (I admit I am a bit of a sucker for these CG animation movies).

If you've seen the movie this post may mean a little more to you, if you haven't don't worry about - I'll make sure it's relevant and that I don't blow the plot.

In a nutshell, the story centers around an overweight, insecure, underachieving panda that has a tremendous passion for kung fu, but is stuck working in a noodle house with his father. "Po", the main character's name (played by Jack Black) aspires to be a kung fu master but is burdened by the reality that he'll never realize this dream. It's just not in the cards for Po; he recognizes he doesn't have the talent, the speed or the coordination, so he lives a life in quiet desperation - he dreams of something more than his current place in life. 

Through his unquenchable desire to learn more about kung fu (in whatever way he can), and a series of comical events, Po finds himself in the unusual position to realize his dream. Po makes the most of it...

I was Po once...no not a fat panda. When I started freelancing I wasn't sure I had what it took to realize my dream of being a successful freelancer. Being a self-taught designer I can relate to this self-doubting but passionate bear who desperately aspired to something more out of life than a dead-end job. Maybe you've felt like this before - maybe you feel it now.

Again, without giving away the plot of the story, I wanted to touch on why I felt Po was able to achieve success even though he wasn't initially blessed with a terrific amount of talent and prestige:

• Desire - while he wasn't formally taught, Po knew just about everything about kung fu. He lived it and he loved it.
• When Po gets his chance, he doesn't waste it. He works hard, and is found already training before the rest of his friends are even awake.
• He doesn't quit. Despite getting the pulp beat out of him, he kept coming back for more.
• Po accepts and relishes the help of a mentor/master. Po sought the help from someone who could help him; he knew he couldn't "learn it as he went".
• Po is confronted with doubters at every turn but he keeps pushing forward, he keeps trying to do his best.
• He knows going in that he doesn't know everything. He's eager to learn, has a good attitude. He trusts his mentor and he's a good student.
• Po wasn't just a hobbyist who just went through the motions, he was devoted to success. Po didn't pay any money for his training (often what we do), but he does pay a great deal with time, energy and pain.

On the surface these are just silly reasons a CG panda achieved success in a Dreamwork's movie, but they're also the reasons why I believe I achieved success as a freelance designer.

Every so often an aspiring or struggling designer drops me a line and asks me how to get to that next level - do what the panda did.
If you're doubting your ability to realize your dream because you didn't attend a prestige design school, haven't won any awards or don't feel you have the right pedigree. Forget about it.

Check this out. I saw a post from a guy that considers himself a top-notch, well-educated freelancer. He touts himself as an expert in the field with an outstanding resume. From the outside looking in, most aspiring freelancers would be thoroughly impressed with this dude. I know the guy the though, I hired him once because he was starving for work...and quite honestly, the work he did for me wasn't all that good.

What I am trying to say is that whether it's me, or some other schmuck out there, don't buy into the hype that we're so far above you. If you think is something magical or special about me, you're wrong. I didn't achieve success because I was overwhelmingly talented or lucky. I just worked hard, learned from experts who knew what they were doing. You can do the same, just like me...and just like Po.

Kung Fu Panda had it right, "There is no secret ingredient..."

Hope you guys found this encouraging, if you haven't seen the movie check it out and let me know if you liked it.

PS - Hate spec work or love it? Be sure to check back on 4/7/09 to see my unique and brutally honest look at CrowdSpring - from the client's perspective.