Being a Starving Graphic Artist Sucks

Want Graphic Design Inspiration? Ain't Going to Find it Here, But You Will Find the Truth

I recently came across the top "50 inspirational design blogs" out there - I wasn't on there, what a pile crap!

After a good 5 minutes of ranting my wife gently points out that freelance designers don't visit this blog for inspiration. She's right...most of the time I am not very inspiring and I'm not trying to bring out some hidden creativity in people or help them find their inner voice. I don't care about that stuff - besides, there are enough designers out there that do.

What I do care about is making sure that freelancers get an honest, clear picture of how to really find success in the field. That's why freelancers visit the Being a Starving Artist Sucks blog...probably why you're here now. At times my tone and the reality of what I am talking about can be a bit harsh, but I would rather visitors walk away with real knowledge they can use, than having me blowing sunshine up their butt or sharing things that won't help their business, for example: Top 10 Great Business Card Designs, Free Fonts You Should Have, or Creative Art Pictures by Some Dude.

There are too many people doing this already, and that's cool but it's never going to help freelancers actually become successful, so I'd suggest that the time you invest checking this stuff out be kept to a minimum.

My friend Steve over at the Logo Factory wrote, "...that's why your material is so apropos. Freelance Switch does it to a degree, but it's more theoretical than practical and based on a decent market (which doesn't really exist anymore)."Steve's a good egg, and he's preaching the truth as well - doesn't sugar coat things and pretty much tells it like it is, you should check his blog out as well.

My passion is writing the truth about freelancing...warts, pimples and all. That's what I've written in my books as well - real information, stuff I DIDN'T KNOW when I first started freelancing, not theory crap or stuff a chimp could figure out. 

Some designers are going to be turned off, some will ignore me and others will just think I am crazy. Still, there are is a small group of you that get it. I've found most of these designers are dedicated to really...I mean really becoming successful, not just pretending to be a freelancers and "living the lifestyle".

I write for you guys, and my passion is to help you.

Other designers that would rather do PhotoShop tuts all day long and THINK they're really making a difference in their business, I could care less about. I feel badly for them, but I've learned that you sometimes can't save people from themselves - you'll find the same thing with many potential clients you run into. You know you can help these people with your design, but they just feel, "Hey I really don't need it, I am doing fine on my own."

I guess what I am saying is that I appreciate you guys that really do appreciate the work/ideas I've been cranking out. If you do get some value out of what I am writing, please share it with the rest of the design community - the worst thing you can do to me is like what I am doing and never tell anyone else about it.

I do appreciate your emails and feedback, but if you really want to help, share with the rest of the design community what I've shared with you.

PS - if you got all the way through that rant, I wanted to hook you up with an actual business card presentation I sent to a client. You never want to just slap a new logo or brand in front of a client, remember something that all good chefs know - presentation is everything.

What to Think When a Client Tells You, "It shouldn't cost that much since it won't take you much time..."

My Wife, tired of having me use my brief case to use as a food tray (as well as a laptop desk) while watching sports on the weekend decided to buy me one of those folding trays on TV called, "The Table Mate".

It sells for about $30 depending on were you shop for it online...darn thing probably costs about $5 to make (and they probably crank out hundreds a day), but I like it and it works pretty well. This got me thinking about when clients say, "It shouldn't cost that much", or, "It won't take you that long to do". I guess what this product teaches us is that cost isn't always driven by effort or amount of time it takes - if it did this product would be $5 and not $30.

So what am I paying for? The ingenuity, the creativity and research to come up with this product/design. Does that sound familiar to what you do for clients? It should...while it may only take you 10 minutes to provide 3 updates to their web site, think about how long it took you to gain the expertise to know how to make those updates that quickly. Should your client have to pay for 10 minutes of your time?

Just something to keep in mind the next time your clients tell you that you shouldn't charge so much for projects that THEY FEEL don't take a lot of time. Should they be paying for just your time, or your expertise as well (the time that it took you the skill to do their request quickly)?

I know my answer, what do you think?

PS - Hey I've gotten a lot of good feedback lately that this blog has been helpful especially in a bad economy (at least here in the States). I appreciate you guys letting me know.

If you receive a feed or read this blog regularly would you consider helping me by sharing this with message boards, instructors/students (if you're in school) or other bloggers that might like to check this out? I know not everyone's going to spring for a book or contract package, but if you help me get the word out there - well, that would be cool.

My 3 Minute or 3 Day Quest to Get Rockband, and How it Applies to the Success of Freelance Designers

My wife bought me RockBand 2 for the Xbox recently, but if you're a nerd like me and have the game, you know that you need the original RockBand game to play the tracks off of that disc as well.

I start my search for the first game at Best Buy - the store's running the same price for RockBand 1 and Rockband 2 - $59.99, what's up with that? I'll pass. I then moved on to a local game store that sells them used - no luck.

Finally I jumped on to eBay and bid on a couple of them, in both instances I lost the item at the last minute by people that feverishly bid .50 cents incrementally until they are the highest bidder. Throughout this whole process I recognize that I am wasting time and not getting any closer to my goal. Now I could have continued to bid on Rockband games on eBay, and eventually I probably would have won, but I recognized I would be competing against people that have systems in place that will incrementally outbid you, or they nothing better to do. I can't compete with them; my time is worth too much.

I can easily relate this story when it comes to many of my creative freelancing friends and their success: they invest an incredible amount of their time scouring the message boards for tips on how to be successful and clamoring to any site that's offering free stuff, but they never seem to get anywhere when it comes to their success.

In my case, I knew the eBay approach and or waiting for a sale was only going to waste more of my time. Sure, I could have trolled around for days looking for the best deal or convinced myself that if I hunt hard enough I'll get a steal, but I wanted to accomplish my objectives and was sick of wasting my time.

I changed my approach.   

Instead of bidding, I found a "Buy It Now" seller on eBay who was selling the game for $29.75 - a little more than the "cheapies" out there, but still a lot less expensive than the stores. In the end the game was about $8 bucks more than I could have got it for, but instead of wasting days searching for a bargain, I did it in 3 minutes.

If you find yourself in the same situation I did with this silly Rockband game: wasting a lot of time running around and not really getting any closer to your goal, perhaps you consider changing your approach too. Take a moment and think about: what are you doing to become a successful freelancer, how many other freelancers are trying the same approach you are, how's it worked for you so far?

Freelancing was never and is never going to be an entry-level job, and learning as you go with a good attitude isn't enough to survive - I learned it the hard way, but you don't have to - do something different about your situation if you're not getting where you want to be.

PS - I am actually pretty good at Rockband (I play drums and my wife sings)...I can play most of the songs on Hard level of difficulty, and even a few on Expert. I thought I was pretty good until I saw some kid playing on YouTube on the Hard difficulty as well - the kid was a 6 years old. Wow, that's humbling. 

Graphic Design Advice: How to Respond to Clients Saying They Want Creative and Fast

Quick post here guys, but it's an important one. Clients often don't understand the relationship between good design and the amount of time that you invest in a project. For some reason they think creativity and inspiration are like Snickers bars that you can quickly purchase out of a vending machine.

Nope, creativity and good design doesn't often work like this. And while I don't advocate that it take you several months to design a logo or business card (WAY too much time), I know that crapping something out in 24 hours either.

Since I am billing her on a variable rate, I wanted to share with you a recent example of a client trying to push e to go faster...and yet she wants top-rate design, check it out:

Client: "See what you can do but I think you can work magic fairly quickly here. We can then move on to the next thing..."

Me: "Sounds good Dawn! I’ll get moving on it asap.
"Just to let you know I’ll work as diligently and efficiently on each of our projects, but I also know good creativity and design doesn’t just happen by rushing through things. I’ve learned that “working magic” and go “super fast” don’t typically go together. From doing design for years, and working with over a hundred designers in my life, I always have a good idea how long things should take and fortunately I’ve found that I am usually faster than 75-85% of the designers I’ve met. I’ll make the best use of our time together as possible."

You of course might respond differently, but hopefully you can use what I have above as a benchmark. I really don't like having to say these things to clients (I like Dawn), but I am certain that if I don't establish a protocol here, she's going to feel compelled to keep pushing me to go faster and faster for the rest of the project. I don't need or want to hear it...you probably wouldn't either. 

When you see a client perhaps not understanding how the creative process works, or you feel they are stepping out of line, you've got to say something - ignoring it won't help.

If you're not sure what to say or how to handle clients when they get out of hand, check out my Verbal Kung Fu for Freelancers book, and learn how to protect your rights as a freelancer...despite what they sometimes think - CLIENTS DON'T RULE.

As always, if you guys got something out of this post please share it, retweet it or comment on it. Thanks.

One Graphic Designer's Love and Hate Relationship with Online Printers

Before I let the ranting begin I want to point out that I like overnightprints.com, while I don't endorse them as my exclusive printer I have used them for years and have been happy overall with their quality and service. Ultimately my "beef" is with a customer service representative (CSR) with a piss-poor attitude rather than with the company itself.

This is a typical example of a CSR incorrectly believing that her job is to answer emails...no Einstein, your job is to help customers you just use email as a medium.

Unfortunately I've encountered this attitude not only with other online printers (so the blame shouldn't squarely be on the company), but also other industries like telephone companies and computer hardware manufacturers. CSRs failing to recognize that they get paid to help people, not to get rid of them as quickly and efficiently as possible.

By the way, I intentionally left out the CSR's name - my goal is to point out that online printing companies should look into fixing this problem, not to get someone canned. 

Well that was the set up, here's what went down:

My Initial Email (abridged):
"Hi guys, Would you be able to scan both the artwork and mailing list and let me know if there are any problems that I’ll need to fix before going ahead with things? This is one of the first responsibilities in my new position and if this gets fouled up they’ll hang me from a flag pole (little joke). Could you drop me an email and let me know if the list and artwork are ready to go?"

CSR Response (barely abridged):
"Good Afternoon, Mr. Tuber: I have reviewed your order and found the following problems.

1. The Back of the postcard is not within the USPS Regulations.  Please refer to the regulations listed under our design DESIGN GUIDE and make the appropriate changes.  Please note that all areas that are "RED" should be blank (no color, text or watermarks).
2. Your mailing list does not have Last Names.  The Last Name Suffix (Jr., Sr., III, etc) is actually appearing in the Last Name column. Please review your mailing list and if necessary contact your mailing list company for a corrected list.  You will need to delete the current list and upload the correct one.

If you need further assistance, please contact us Monday thru Friday, 7am to 5:30pm PST."

My Response back (non-abridged):
"Thanks for the reply [CSR's Name]...and it’s just “Jeremy”:) I appreciate you taking a moment to look at what we have here, instead of referring me to some page on your site (I don’t see a URL in your email), would you be open to just letting me know what you found on the back of the postcard that will need to be changed? I am glad you caught something, thank you – would you share it with me?"

CSR Response (barely abridged):
"Good Afternoon, Jeremy: Thank you for your continued interest our Mailing Services.

Below is a diagram of the USPS Reg.
Do Not Round Corners
Post Office will not accept or mail any postcards with rounded corners.
Only round the corners if your design will be used as a flyer or promotional handout.

Zone & Color Key
Yellow Area - Do not put any addresses here with a zip code and state, otherwise there may be a chance of your postcards being returned to you.
Red Area - No text , color or graphics are allowed. This is especially important for the Post Office Barcode Area. Unless you print your own mailing barcodes, this area must be kept clear or your postcards will not be mailed or returned to you.
For more comprehensive details about postal regulations, click here"

The Response Looks Okay, What's My Problem?

Despite all of this back and forth rubbish, there really was only ONE small thing wrong with my postcard.

• I didn't have any problem with rounded edges
• I didn't need to see more comprehensive details about postal regulations
• I didn't need to refer to the regulations listed under their design DESIGN GUIDE (which the CSR didn't even give me a link to)
• And I didn't need to go back and forth with this CSR.

See the bottom red strip in the diagram? I actually had a background image (I made sure there was no text in there) in the lower left corner. What I hadn't realized is that the USPS wants NOTHING in those areas, not even background or ghosted images - pure white space.

So why in the heck couldn't the CSR just say, "On the back of your postcard you'll need to make the bottom area pure white or the USPS won't mail it"? Why instead did she spend so much time giving me all of this superfluous information instead of just giving me the help I was asking for?

It almost feels like she went out of her way not to tell me the answer, doesn't it? Why?

I really don't have that answer. Maybe she's a jerk or maybe she was having a really bad day, I'll never know. What I do know is that as a CSR, if you feel your job is to get rid of people rather than help them, you might want to start looking for other employment opportunities because sooner or later you're going to tick off the wrong person and you're going to get reprimanded or worse.

PS - Am I out of line on this or should I be a bit honked off? You've got opinions, so add a comment. If you've had issues with local or online printers, share with rest of the group.

PPS - Thanks to Liam and guys over at Creativity Den, head over there for some great tips, inspiration and a chance to win a free "Being a Starving Artist Sucks" book.

The Seedier Side of Graphic Design Spec Work - Something I Knew Very Little About

Steve over at the Logo Factory's turned out to be a good friend and a great source of knowledge - he's an "ol' schooler" who's got enough mileage to know what he's talking about.

A while ago we had a back and forth conversation about spec work/design contests - each of us approaching it in a different way: he as a freelancer and me as a client. Like many people (freelancers included) until earlier this year I've been largely unaware of spec work/design contest web site, but Steve's been "carping about since around 2000", so he's got a pretty good handle on what's going on.

In running my own social experiment from the client's perspective, I found some challenges with the spec work/design contests business model that made this an okay fit for some business owners/clients and a really bad idea for others. I am pleased to report that whatever side you're on; the feedback on my review was that it was "honest and fair". After you read this post check it out for yourself if you'd like http://tinyurl.com/c54nvu.

Still, from a designer's perspective: I've never entered a contest, never planned on entering a contest and don't closely know any designers that have entered a contest. Needless to say, I knew very little about what really goes on in these contests, so I asked Steve to give me the inside scoop on what most freelancers like me didn't know spec work/design contests, here's what he came back with...by the way, make sure you're sitting down, I was blown away:

• The amount of copyright infringement is incredible. There's a lion project (from home page) that has versions of a lion's head that I'm sure Disney might have something to say about.
• The in-fighting and bickering among the 'creatives' is awesome.
• There's also a lot (and I mean a LOT) of designers posting complete rubbish (as protest I suppose) in contests - some of their comments are quite clever and the buyers don't know if they're serious or not.
• Large amounts of stock art images being entered into contests - many times different 'creatives' are entering versions of the same stock art into the same contest (most stock art licenses prohibit use in logos and/or trademarks).
• The latest thing is that buyers are planting designs (from sock-puppet accounts) and paying themselves the 'prize'. They're absconding with all the designs - though the designers are wise to this.
• Many 'creative' accounts are being opened by IT companies from India and Pakistan (the $39 unlimited revision crews) and they're not only flooding contests with entries, but moving 'buyers' off from the main contest site onto their sites where they then offer even cheaper services than the contest site. All fair enough, but it leaves the other 'participants' holding the bag when the 'buyer' walks away - (http://tinyurl.com/dkhuzd). Some of these sites guarantee their "awards" but clients still end up walking away.
• Creatives are sending really offensive e-mails to buyers when they don't win - see Twitter for some of their comments.
• The number of 'Past Due - We're On It' notices (when the buyer takes off without picking a winner) is growing.

Holy crap...never knew, though my advice to freelancers hasn't changed much. If you want to get into this type of business model to help your business grow, I've got no problem with it - but I think you're making a huge mistake. Why would you ever put yourself in a situation where you're competing with thousands of other folks for a couple hundred sporadic projects?

Let's look at this another way...guys, would you ever go on a cruise where the number of dudes outnumbered the girls 100 to 1? You're odds are terrible...as they are on spec work/design contests sites, so why are freelancers trying them. Not sure about this, but I suspect it's a combination of desperation, laziness - and wanting to avoid running a real business, fear of sales and marketing, low barriers to entry - anyone can jump in.

Am I on target or off-base, what do you think?
Feel free to comment (I'll respond) and please share this with the design community if you found some value in it.

PS - If you design logos, think about logos, talk about logos or want to know more about logos and logo design, you'll definitely want to jump over to http://www.thelogofactory.com/logo_blog/ and get some great insights from someone who knows what the hell he's talking about. Thanks for sharing Steve.

What an Aspiring Freelancer Knows that Most Everyone Else Doesn't

Hey guys,
I wanted to share with you an email that I received from a design student and aspiring freelance designer...

"So far, I think your book is awesome. I'm gearing up for getting out of school here in May. I finally figured out that I will never, ever get anywhere working for someone else. Not knowing much about running my own business, I do have sense enough to try to learn how. It only makes sense to me to seek out the best advice I can find. That is how I came across your book and etc. I was searching the net.

Regarding your book; I really, really, really like what I've read so far, and I fully intend to put every and all your information into practice. With our economy being what it is today, there's no "jobs" to find for anyone else anyway.

Sure, there's competition out there, but I'm very creative and I've got lots of ideas. I know I can do this. I'm encouraged by your book. To my surprise, it actually motivates me. What I've read so far anyway."

Here was part of my response back:

Well thanks for your feedback Joyce – glad you’ve enjoyed the book so far, that’s terrific!

I think it’s terrific that you’ve jumped into a new field and opportunity in design; I’ve found that successful creative professionals have a great mixture of talent, passion and good business sense. Your idea about getting as much information about freelancing up front is going to give you a MUCH better chance for success. Most freelancers try to learn as they go, which in this economy will never work – I know it first hand. Most won’t invest any money in growing their business, but they’ll run out and buy CS4 for a couple thousand dollars, so they end up with terrific software but no clients – ouch!

The bottom line is this guys, this Joyce has the right idea in getting as much insider information as she can. Whether you get it from me or another expert out there, you've got to give yourself the best chance of success by learning from those that have been there and done it - successfully.

Remember, freelancing is not an entry-level position. You can't just grow into the job with a bit of effort and a great attitude.

PS - Thanks for your feedback Joyce, my door is always open for your comments and questions.

PPS - Check out the other post I had over the weekend on how to cover your butt when a client wants you to take over a web project that someone else started: http://tinyurl.com/dn2cx5

Graphic Designers: How Clients Love to Dazzle, I Mean Misdirect You with Praise

Wanted to share this latest go around with a client that I've had, keep in mind that I like this client but I've seen this tactic used by clients to get what they want first...and perhaps pay for it later. Here are the exact emails (minus personal information to protect the greedy and or stupid).

ME: "Okay guys, here are the finals going to the printer. I’ll also send over a Paypal invoice in the next few minutes for the design and printing, you’ll be able to pay with a credit card even if you don’t have a Paypal account -it's pretty easy, but if you have any questions or challenges please let me know!"

CLIENT: "These look great to me Jeremy, go to print! Thank you again!!"

Hmm, what's missing here?

No mention of the invoice...or paying the invoice, just an okay to send the cards to the printer.
Know what I did?
Nothing.

Now I can't say for certain that this particular client tried to manipulate me to send in his print project without paying me first, but I've had loads of clients in my career try it. It's a rotten trick, and unfortunately fairly common. In this case the client may be trying to misdirect me by telling me how great the project was, and conveniently leaving out anything about payment. Since I don't know for sure if he's being manipulative or just forgetful I'll need to play it safe.

I'll hold off on ordering for a day and see if he pays the invoice, if he doesn't I'll kindly remind him that I'll send the project to print as soon as the balance is handled (this is in the Verbal Kung Fu for Freelancers book.

PS - If you ever wondered if clients stopped trying to pull shenanigans on me because I wrote Verbal Kung Fu for Freelancers, this post should give you the answer. Clients will NEVER stop trying to get whatever they can (intentionally or unintentionally) as freelancers we only have 2 choices: learn how to deal with clients or quit freelancing.

PPS - Like the post? Please comment or tweet about it.