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Lessons learned from designing truck lightning

Posted on January 10th, 2008 | By Kyle Racki 10

Posted under: Business

There was a time when I was green and new. I had only been working as a designer for about a year. So, when a friend of mine who owned a vinyl shop came to me with a client who needed some freelance work, I was happy to take it on. This guy (ahem) wanted lightning designs on his black pick-up. Not for his company, just for him. And he was willing to pay. Not the most exciting freelance project, agreed, but a project nonetheless. Or so I thought.

After a phone conversation with him, I realized he wasn’t exactly a class act, but I started work on the project anyway. He agreed over the phone to pay $300, so because I charged low at the time, I had about 10 hours of work ahead of me. After presenting the designs by email, and a few rounds of revisions, he dropped off the face of the planet. Months went by and several emails were sent. Then, I finally heard back from him. His email said something to the effect of; ‘We’re not paying you, we didn’t really like the designs you did.‘ I made a vain threat to sue him, but he knew it was empty as much as I did. I later found out he got the designs printed on his truck.

Sure, I was upset about it, but you know what? I learned something. Actually I learned several things:

Get a contract

Many have a negative view of contracts, thinking they are meant to fool people with fine print, or that its a reflection of the trust you have in them.

Even if I’m working for a family member or friend, I make them sign a contract. It’s just the thing to do. No one ever balks at signing a contract when setting up a bank account or buying cell phone service - why should they when contracting a designer to produce marketing materials? In fact, a contract is protection for both you and your clients, plus it adds respect to the work you’re doing.

There is a great free contract template for designers from AIGA. You can customize it to your liking, and be sure to change the American information to suit whatever country you live in, Canada in my case.

Charge enough to be competitive

Along the lines of adding perceived respect to the work, charge enough money. Even if its a small client that doesn’t have a lot of money, or a non-profit client, remember that they don’t realize the level of effort that goes into this stuff. If your charging low just so that you’ll get the project, the client usually won’t appreciate it, and therefore won’t think twice about making unnecessary revisions, or requesting additional items.

If the work is a gift from you to them, in the case of non-profits or friends, make it clear that you are doing them a favor and charging less than the work is worth - this way they’ll appreciate it and be happy to pay you promptly with a minimum number of revisions. If you don’t appear to value your work, your client surely wont.

Require an initial deposit

A great way to sift through the people who are looking for free work, charge 30-50% up front. If they weren’t planning on paying, or wanted to wait and see if they liked the work before paying, they’ll drop out quickly. At least this way, they drop out before you’ve spent the hours designing.

I’ve never had any reputable clients express concern about up-front payment. They assume that the work will be done well, and on time - and they don’t expect me to sink a month into their projects before getting any payment.

Communicate in writing

This I didn’t do from the beginning - communicating by email can be a life saver. Make sure the client fully understands what they’re getting, how much it costs, and that they are paying for a service, not a product. Your getting paid is not determined upon whether they like what you design - they need to be sure you’re right for them (by looking at your work and checking your references) before they commission you to do the work.

Emails keep track of these types of interactions so that, in the event you get screwed out of more than $300, there is a record for legal purposes.

Make sure the client is the right fit for you

Everyone can learn from this lesson, because it’s something that even many large design companies struggle with, not just freelancers:

If the work isn’t interesting, the client isn’t reputable or the person your talking to gives you a bad feeling, don’t work for them.

There is enough work out there that we don’t need to say yes to everybody that asks for a quote. Although in this example, it was just a yokel who wanted truck lightning (no offense to yokels), there are many low-lives who own companies, and who you can tell from an initial meeting or phone call that they are going to be trouble. Trust me, no matter how tempting the money may be, you actually save more money by turning these prospects down!

Accept work only from a client who is the right fit for you, and who you feel will be pleasant to work for. Life is just too short for jerks.

Bottom line

I put all of these lessons into practice recently. I had a request for a logo come from a person who was starting a Greek restaurant. He said he already had fired 2 designers because they weren’t giving him what he wanted. He asked me to start immediately.

Instead, I sent a formal email stating that the work would be started upon sign-off on the budget and 30% payment up front. I also charged according to the time and effort that I guessed would be spent on the design. My email was short and concise, and more importantly, didn’t waste too much of my time - I never got so much as a reply back from him.

Design, while fun, is still a business—and as such, safety nets need to be in place so that you’re protected and can make a fair profit from your skills. And by the way, if you ever see a black pick-up truck with lighting designs all over it, give the driver a good fist-shaking for me.

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