Charitable, speculative and free design work is regularly sought after in the design industry. While the terms are often interchanged, there are important distinctions between them which define whether designers should accept or refuse the work.

Free work:

There’s no shortage of people who want free graphic design work. The most common excuses are “we’re only a small business” or “we’re a start-up company”. If we’re being honest though, this is rubbish.

No retail store tells their wholesaler they can’t afford to pay for products because they’re small. No office says they can’t pay the rest because they’re only a start-up.

Graphic design is a service like any other. And like everyone else in this work, designers get paid. The expectation of free graphic design work from any business is simply unacceptable.

While it may be tempting for students or designers just starting out to undertake free work in the hope of things to come, your time is better spent elsewhere. Design some promotional work, write guest articles for exposure or contact a real charity (we’ll get to that in a minute) who really can’t afford it. Anything but working for free.

Speculative work:

Requests for free work are often dressed up as speculative, even though people have no intention to pay. For the purposes of this discussion, let’s pretend the client is legitimate in their promises to pay if they’re happy with the work. Even if this is the case, it’s still flawed thinking.

Not wanting to pay for something which isn’t right is understandable, but if you don’t have some amount of confidence in a designer, why are you dealing with them? No one hires a builder and thinks “I’m really getting a bad vibe from this guy. Some of his work looks pretty sloppy. Oh well, I’ll hire him anyway and if my house isn’t right I just wont pay“. No, you contact someone else.

Spec work is most common in the form of design contests. A client promises an amount for the winning entry and depending on the terms & conditions of the provider, is often not required to pick a winner and can withdraw their offer. There is little to no risk for the client.

On the flip side of that coin, there is little to no chance for the designer to be compensated for their time. As a result they simply don’t care. Your design project is just one of many churn and burn jobs that the minimal amount of effort will go into for a chance at payment. Good graphic designers charge because they deliver a good service.

If you like a designers work but have any concerns, speak to them! Good designers care about the work they do and are just as eager for a successful project as you are.

Charity graphic design:

Contributing to a worthwhile charity is obviously a great thing, but “charitable organisations” come in many forms. You also may not support a particular organisation.

For example… I’ve done free design work in the past for local animal shelters, one in particular when I was living in Sydney. This cat shelter was run full time by one couple and a few dozen volunteers giving their time. They took in literally hundreds of cats, paying for everything themselves and with the help of modest donations. They only gave cats away to good homes and never put a single animal down. This is an organisation that deserves help.

On the other hand, I would not work for PETA, as they spend a fortune on advertising and legal battles while killing over 95% of the animals they “rescue”. (Note: No pro/anti PETA comments please, that topic would be better discussed elsewhere.)

You don’t need to wait for the right organisation to approach you either. Go out and find someone. There are plenty of suitable organisations with dud websites or clip-art pamphlets that would appreciate the help.

Where does charity stop?

Just because an organisation is charitable, doesn’t mean they don’t have funding. There are many national and international organisations with marketing budgets who hire agencies to co-ordinate their work.

It’s unfortunate, but some advertising agencies get paid work from charitable organisations then try to get free work from designers for the project. In this situation you’re working for the advertising agency, not the charity and you should be paid accordingly.

So what to do?

If business is good and you can give some time to a charitable organisation you support, that’s obviously great. Ultimately you’ve got to look out for number one, if the bills are piling up and your flat out, you should be focusing on paid work.

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Managing charity, speculative and free graphic design requests

A little good advice never hurt anyone. If you’re looking for a few tips on how to improve your graphic design business or just a little insight into how others do things, 100 habits of successful graphic designers is worth a read. On to a few quotes from the book…

Every business has competitors and you want clients to think of you first. Though repeat projects from some clients may be few and far between, keeping in touch occasionally will help secure you in their mind for future work.

Small projects are often treated as churn and burn jobs, but every business starts small. The better the job you do on the small job, the better your chances of landing the big job down the road.

It’s understandable that clients are excited and designers are eager to begin a new project, but you can never have too much information. However comprehensive a design brief might be, whether provided in full by a client or extracted via questions from the designer, there is always more information to be gained.

Don’t stop at just a written brief, have a few conversations. The more you understand the client and the more they understand you, the better it will be for everyone.

Although good graphic design is about what works, and not personal tastes and preferences, they sometimes can’t be avoided with some clients. If you’re constantly butting heads with a client over a their inflexible preconceived ideas or personal tastes the design can only suffer. On the other hand, working with clients on a similar creative wavelength is a recipe for success.

Advice applicable to every business, but seemingly more common in graphic design. The dreaded client who hires you for your expertise, and then proceeds to tell you exactly who/what/how/where/when every little detail should be done.

The moral of the story is, make the most effective use of your time. If your job is to drive the business, leave design to the designers, and vice versa.

To close, a few shots from inside the book.

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100 habits of successful graphic designers

“A photographer went to a socialite party in New York.

As he entered the front door, the host said ‘I love your pictures – they’re wonderful; you must have a fantastic camera.’

He said nothing until dinner was finished, then: ‘That was a wonderful dinner; you must have a terrific stove.”

– Sam Haskins

An anecdote quoted from the now late photographer, Sam Haskins. If you’re a photographer, graphic designer or work in another creative field, you’ve probably heard similar comments to that of the host in this quote, I know I have.

Can you relate?

What is your craft, and how often do your tools get the credit?

P.S. Surprisingly, after posting this I’ve had to delete quite a few comments calling the photographer various colourful insults not fit to be repeated here. It’s a story people, meant to be taken with a little humour. No need to get upset.

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An anecdote for creative types everywhere

If you’ve never made an international money transfer, it can be a bit of a chore to say the least.

I’m sure the details vary slightly depending on which country you’re transferring to/from, using Australia for example though, you need the following for an international transfer:

• The recipients banks name
• BIC / SWIFT code
• Branch name
• Bank branch code
• BSB
• Account Number,
• Account Name
• The transferring agent banks name
• Their ABA
• Their BIC/ SWIFT Code
• A week of patience
• 3 banks worth of fee’s (potentially)

What you need for a PayPal transfer:

• An email address

Much easier!

Confirmation that payment has been made is basically instant, and there’s one minimal fee to be paid. If you don’t have a PayPal account and are potentially looking to hire an international graphic designer or other professional, it makes life easier for all involved.

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Why PayPal is great for international graphic designers and clients

While there’s no harm in mentioning the particular design software you use, or whatever your tools of the trade may be, focusing on it isn’t going to bring you any business.

If you’re running a website for potential clients to find, you obviously want your design portfolio, project enquiry or design quote pages, and other contact information to be readily available to visitors. This is the information clients are looking for, and the information that will get you a job.

As for what tools your using? They probably don’t know or really care for that matter. They’re looking for someone who can provide a service, not someone who has purchased a piece of software.

I recently visited a fellow logo designers blog and portfolio where, at a glace, the site seemed more about the Adobe Creative Suite than anything else. There was a prominent post on having “purchased” the software, a permanent visual element on the site stating Now using Adobe CS5! with a collection of program icons, each project description from their graphic design portfolio was signed off with Created using Adobe CS5 and was accompanied by the same icons.

What advantage is there in displaying your new tools for the world to see? There isn’t one really…

Any of the above logo designs can be created in Illustrator CS, CS2, 3, 4 or 5. New software may bring new tools and may make the process more efficient, but the end result will be identical. The knowledge held, information interpreted and the creativity used when wielding these tools however, will drastically affect the outcome.

Anyone can wield a hammer, not everyone can build a house.

Graphic design is no different. Clients won’t pay you thousands of dollars just because you’ve purchased a piece of software, if that was all that was needed they could buy it themselves. Sell your skills and ideas, not your software. Image credit.

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Sell your graphic design skills, not your tools

Two things that graphic design seems to have over all other industries, is the expectation of speculative work, and to a lesser extent, trading services.

Spec work in my opinion is just a scam, and while I haven’t traded services I can at least appreciate the proposition because something is being offered for your time. The problem is, the person offering usually makes basketballs, sells pickled herring or does any number of things of absolutely no use to you.

I’m working on a project at the moment for a client who produces a range of savoury and sweet nuts. Chilli and lime, or honey roasted cashews for example, a 1kg bag of which was kindly sent to me as a little sample of their products.

Let me just say for future reference…

If you make delicious, honey roasted snacks, I’m open to trading services any time.

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Trading services with graphic designers

When it comes to creative thinking, the theory that most people subscribe to is that people simply are, or aren’t creative. In her TED speech on nurturing creativity “A new way to think about creativity”, author Elizabeth Gilbert discusses alternate ideas adopted throughout the ages on the source of creativity.

In past times, some believed we were all equal but for a little outside influence. To the Greeks, philosophers like Socrates had divine daemons whispering in their ear. The Romans had genius’, spirits which inhabited the walls of a studio.

More recently, American poet Ruth Stone, who in her youth was literally chased across the landscape of Virginia by poems, looking for a poet the put them to paper.

What do you think?

Next time I have an idea which doesn’t pan out I can just blame my house spirit, sounds like a plan.

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A new way to think about creativity and creative thinking

Like any business, graphic design has its share of good and bad clients. I’m currently discussing a project with a potential client, nothing is set in stone yet so lets call him “Bob”. To sum up a longer conversation with Bob, it went like this;

Q: Typically, what styles or logos do you prefer?
A: Stylish and simple, easy to remember.

Q: Logo concepts would you like?
A: One.

Q: Did you have a budget set for the project at all?
A: Andrew, to tell you the truth I don’t even know how much a project like that should cost. Maybe you can provide me with some levels of pricing and the differences between a $500 or $2000 project. Thank you.

Good design expectations, straight to the point, straightforward and honest with the sometimes awkward subject of money. So far it’s been a pleasure dealing with Bob.

On the flip side of that coin, it was surprising to read a discussion fellow designer Mark Biegel had with a potential client. After missing a call while driving, Mark quickly called back to say “Sorry I missed your call, I was driving”.

Only to have said client say “Don’t ever ring me and say sorry, when I call you I expect you to answer! I have 2 other developers who could work for me so your lucky to get my business.”

Not surprisingly Mark declined the project and 3 months later the clients website is apparently still not started, guess that attitude isn’t working for him.

How about you?

Any stories for better or worse?

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Graphic design is all about ideas, but for every great idea there is just as often something waiting in wings to squash it. Enter the new marketing director…

Created for the independent film group, Show Off!, each illustration depicts an idea personified ( give or take… ) in the form of a popular or infamous figure and their mortal enemy.

Originally in Portuguese, I’ve done my best to translate the captions but I speak precisely zero of it. Feel free to jump in if I’ve gotten something wrong.

Presenting an idea to the accountants.

The clients lawyers.

Budget. Isn’t it always…

Input from your creative director.

International brand guidelines ( I’m pretty sure… ).

Focus group testing.

Changes to the design brief.

Deadline for the advertising campaign to begin.

Insert translation here ( I have no idea what this says… ).

A creative client.

Client wants to save the idea for later. Poor Yoko Ono, she gets blamed for everything.

Great Illustrations, poor translations…

I was going to make a witty joke using the Portuguese word for terrible when explaining my translations. It turns out the Portuguese word for terrible, is “terrible”. So much for that joke.

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The enemies of ideas

As with anything graphic design has it’s ups and downs. Some jobs are unique and interesting, some are not. A colleague and I were discussing jobs recently, one in particular that came to mind was a catalogue for a commercial supplier of sinks, baths, toilets etc.

Designing a decent size catalogue is usually a pretty decent job, I did have an awful time trying not to laugh however as he explained the 30 hours spent doing vector drawings in illustrator of urinals.

Glamorous.

I haven’t been lucky enough to land a job this interesting yet. A man can dream though, a man can dream.

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Graphic design is a glamorous life…

Like any form of self employment, freelance graphic design has it’s pros and cons. More often than not pro #1 is managing your own time and working the hours that are most productive for you.

We’ve all had bouts of creative block, you can waste hours trying to force an idea with little progress. I often find myself wandering through the day only to turn out my best ideas at 1:00 in the morning. Hardly office hours.

Obviously some work has to get done during conventional hours, I doubt too many clients would be as excited as I am about a design idea if I were to call them at 1:00 in the morning for feedback. But hey, you’ve got to work when your muse is willing.

When’s your “9 to 5″?

Do you try and work to a conventional time table? Or are you a night owl like me?

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The freelance graphic designer 9 to 5

I know everyone in the world has seen Crocodile Dundee and that it’s the greatest movie ever. However I thought I’d take this opportunity to answer a few questions I’ve been asked more than once when speaking with people overseas.

Believe it or not…

• I have never ridden a Kangaroo.
• Nor has anyone else, and they do not have parking spots.
• I do not have a pet Koala.
• Wild Koalas, a.k.a. drop bears, do not dive from trees to attack people.
• Yes I like vegemite. No you probably won’t.

I have never used the following phrases;

• Lets throw another shrimp on the barbie.
• G’day Mate! ( without having a laugh … )
• She’ll be apples.

Good old television.

It’s disappointing I know, but TV and movies do exaggerate some times.
Oh well, until next time, hooroo*.

*Hooroo means see you later. No I’ve never said it.

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Facts about Australian graphic designers

When it comes down to it, graphic design is all about business. Crafting an image and/or message which distinguishes your brand, sells your products and achieves your goals. But what are your goals?

It wouldn’t be for the first time that a client had something designed, then a month later when business hasn’t increased 10 fold came and blamed the designer for the suddenly unsatisfactory design.

The S.M.A.R.T marketing principle dictates your goals meet the following criteria, they are;

Specific: What exactly do you want to achieve? more sales? more exposure? more web traffic?

Measurable: How will you know when you’ve reach your goal? Having it seem like a little extra business coming your way is hardly definitive. Have measures in place to accurately see your projects success ( or lack thereof ).

Achievable: There’s the old saying aim low and succeed which couldn’t be more true. On the flip side of that coin, setting fantasy goals you’re unlikely to achieve is going to somewhat defeat the purpose of the exercise.

Realistic: O.k. So this is much the same as achievable, but this wouldn’t be an acronym without it.

Timely: The problem with setting a rough finish line is you will never reach it. If your happy to have something finished in about 6 months time you’ll be just as content with it taking 7 months. Then 8, then 9, 10, 12, 18, then your so far past your deadline you’ve accomplished nothing.

So what are your goals?

Have you recently begun or finish a project of some kind? How successful was it and how do you know? Image credit.

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Setting S.M.A.R.T goals

“How much does a logo design cost?” is a question many clients ask and every designer has heard. Obviously the answer varies wildly depending on the clients needs and expectations.

An individual or small business will likely spend anywhere from $500 to a few thousand dollars on their logo or brand identity, a medium to large business might break into the tens of thousands while a multinational brand easily spends hundreds of thousands developing their brands mark.

Below are a handful of logos and the development costs of each, these figures are more just for points of interest rather than a buyers guide, obviously your needs and budget will determine the cost of your particular project, be it higher or lower than these examples. But enough of that, on with the article…

Starting with my personal logo design. Obviously I didn’t pay myself to do this, but a lot of time and effort went into getting the design right.

All things considered I expect the development to be worth around $2000 of time and effort. This is, in my opinion, around the high range of what an individual such as myself or a small business might spend to develop their mark.

East Lindey District Council, $16,000. ( It’s not a great design I know, just focus on the price point. )

The University of Southampton, $590,000, no wonder an education is so expensive.

Once you reach this point you’ll inevitably find people saying “wow! half a million dollars for a logo!” All manner of “designers” also come out of the woodwork saying they could have delivered the same result for a mere $50.00.

The reality of course, is that the final mark didn’t cost half a million dollars, the months of research and development did. While this is a serious amount of money to be sure, if a company is netting tens of millions, hundreds of million or possibly billions of dollars a year, spending half a million to get your branding right suddenly doesn’t seem so much.

The London 2012 Olympic Games, $660,000, which despite being a fairly horrible logo seems about on par price wise, for an international event of this scale.

The latest in a long line of Pepsi rebrands, $1 million. Their total roll out of the new brand apparently costing $300 million.

Edinburgh, $1.65 million.

The current Starz logo mark and accompanying campaign supposedly totalled around $25 million.

Finally Posten’s recent rebranding, weighing in at a whopping $55 million dollars. This obviously includes roll out costs, but what a bill for a postal service.

Had a logo designed?

Was the quote/bill what you expected for your level of business? Do the feel the end result was appropriate value for money? I’d love to know.

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How much is that logo in the window?

You need it, your clients are cautious spending it and no one likes talking about it, but sooner or later it has to come up. We’re talking about Money.

Obviously some tactfulness is required when discussing money with potential clients, broaching the subject like so isn’t going to get you far:

Client: Hello, I’m interested in having a logo…
Designer: 50% deposit first!
Client: …designed.

Typically after receiving an initial inquiry, generally by email, I write back a brief hello and thank you, as well as a few questions to clarify the clients initial design brief.

Once this is done I reply with a formal design brief as a PDF including a quotation and requirement of a deposit and request confirmation of the details without raising the question of money myself. Only once all details are agreed upon has the time for a deposit has arrived.

Graphic design has more than its fair share of tire kickers and people looking for a freebie, a.k.a. spec work, but how to broach the subject without rushing genuine clients.

What do you think?

I like to think I’m fairly gentle when it comes to the subject of money and hopefully not scaring anyone off. How do you do it?

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Using the M word