I know your problem dude. I barely just started doing art for money and I had like 5 contacts that weren’t prepared to pay for anything. I don’t do online contacts anymore. I do local stuff for friends, people that know and appreciate what I do for them.

I wouldn’t go so far as to not do online contacts anymore, frankly that seems silly to me. Your friends may appreciate what you do, but how much can they really pay you? There are lots of more then decent opportunities out there, don’t let a few bad experiences make you give up altogether. Plus, the better you get the more worthwhile clients you’ll attract.

Well yeah I won’t ever rule out not doing onliners but at the moment it’s better go get some experience behind me before I start going further afield.

Well this seems to be a problem happening on any type of designs cuz I get a lot (and think you would be surprised) of those ‟I could have done that in like 10 minutes″ or ‟that kind of money for such a simple design??″ or the all-time classic ‟I can get someone to do it for half of your price″, those remarks just make me want to go and tell them to f*ck off and go with your 20 bucks designer or something like that. I had a boss that was like that, he woud go and tell me ‟it’s unprofessional from you to make things like that″ and I would go ape sh!t inside of me and when I came home I would tell my wife how frustrating that job was.
Bottom line, I think one as a designer should try to just charge whatever you think it costs and let the other negotiate, always ask a little higher so when negotiating you can get what you first thought you would. Never undervalue your work, if someone doesn’t want to pay what you are asking for some design, I’m sure there’s going to be someone who really appreciates your work and will pay for it.

Oh, oh, yeah cheers! Only going by what I know. I also agree with Dan.

ajRAINE said: Wow, Id really like to punch that guy in the face (Not the one who wrote the article, the other one aha)

As a young artist, his comments are very discouraging. We are the artists of tomorrow, forget about us and there wont be any artists left.

Someday I’m not even going to tell a client I’m 14 (Unless they ask of course), then see the look on there face when they find out >D

I’m drawing because I want to and I think its fun, I’m not even looking for money (But Id happily take some if they offer aha) right now. Honestly, if a client is not a douch and doesn’t give me a hard time, id give it to them for free, aha. That’s how appreciative I am of these kind of people.

But of course, I’m 14 and don’t really need the money, but my views aren’t going to change on this when I’m older/

Never say never, if your experiences don’t change your views then you’re not learning and growing.

I’d say if you only want to do work for fun and aren’t in it for the money, don’t do jobs for people at all. Because giving their artwork away for free or cheap kinda has an affect on the rest of us trying to make a decent living at it. The reason a lot of bad clients expect work for cheap or even free, because there are enough inexperienced artists out there giving it away for that because they think they’re gaining something by getting the chance to do work and get “exposure”.

True..

You took the words out of my mouth (or the keys from my keyboard? haha) Stray. I suffered this in my own flesh when a couple of clients went over with another ‟designer″ who was charging him dimes to do some job. I told him to ″go ahead and work with that mediocre guy and when he gest tired of lame designs and wanted some quality work, he could give me a call″, a couple of weeks later he called me and we are working since then.

I just want to throw this out there:

Does anyone see inconsistency in the way we expect to be treated as graphic artists (i.e. validated with compensation), and the way we treat musical artists (i.e. pirating music so we don’t have to pay for it)?

I agree, Stray, If someone asks me to do something, I’m going to decline, I don’t have the skills to do something for someone else the way they want, best leave it to the people who actually can, but If I drew something I feel might have potential, I will try to sell it…..
I’m just going to stop commenting on things now because I feel everything I say is being questioned xD

On the same topic: http://clientsfromhell.net/

Don’t know if all stories on there are true, but most of them sound very familiar.

Tiny.Cue.Cards said: I just want to throw this out there:

Does anyone see inconsistency in the way we expect to be treated as graphic artists (i.e. validated with compensation), and the way we treat musical artists (i.e. pirating music so we don’t have to pay for it)?

I think the professional/client relationship is different from the fan/artist relationship. Personally I couldn’t care less about being “validated” by a client. I don’t want money for validation. I want it for rent, utilities, groceries, and etc. It’s a job like anything else. Also it’s not like a client wants your services for their own enjoyment, they want to make money off what you produce for them.

As for music piracy, blah, that topic is kinda worn out to me.

You say you don’t care about being validated, but then you say being an artist is a job “like anything else.” But it’s not really.

No one NEEDS art. It’s not food or water, shelter or community. All art is unnecessary. All art is for enjoyment, be it graphic art, literary art, music, dance . . . we don’t require any of it for survival. I buy these awesome tshirts because I love the creativity, not because I’m cold or naked. Is it so hard to see that artists have fans, just like musical entertainers have fans? Don’t you know the sound of a Michael Jackson song the same way you recognize a Mathiole piece? I do. How are they different, aside from degree of fame? Should we set a limit on the number of fans you can have before it’s okay for people to start stealing your work?

So yes, your client wants your services so they can make money off people who simply want to enjoy art.

By the way, if you think we should charge for everything, fine. If you think everything should be free and open source, fine. It just bugs me when people whine about penny-pinching clients, but won’t pay a dime for another professional artist’s work.

Tiny.Cue.Cards said: You say you don’t care about being validated, but then you say being an artist is a job “like anything else.” But it’s not really.

No one NEEDS art. It’s not food or water, shelter or community. All art is unnecessary. All art is for enjoyment, be it graphic art, literary art, music, dance . . . we don’t require any of it for survival. I buy these awesome tshirts because I love the creativity, not because I’m cold or naked. Is it so hard to see that artists have fans, just like musical entertainers have fans? Don’t you know the sound of a Michael Jackson song the same way you recognize a Mathiole piece? I do. How are they different, aside from degree of fame? Should we set a limit on the number of fans you can have before it’s okay for people to start stealing your work?

So yes, your client wants your services so they can make money off people who simply want to enjoy art.

By the way, if you think we should charge for everything, fine. If you think everything should be free and open source, fine. It just bugs me when people whine about penny-pinching clients, but won’t pay a dime for another professional artist’s work.

Art being “unnecessary” is kind of irrelevant to me. What does that have to do with anything. It’s a skill, I can do it, the person who wants me to do it for them, so they pay me. It’s a job, how a lot of people make their living. Whether people need or not, I don’t see what that has to do with anything.
I really didn’t say anything about art and music being different, at all either. I said professional/client is different from artist/fan. That’s not in defense of anything, just stating that I don’t think the relationships are parallel. A fan doesn’t ask a musician to create something special for them personally that they can then use to profit from. A client doesn’t ask a professional for something they can use just for their personal enjoyment. So I think if you want to have a separate discussion about music piracy feel free to start another thread. Personally I don’t think that topic belongs in a discussion about client relations.

This made me laugh out loud, haha.

Client: “Time? Renaming files from *.jpg to *.eps takes time?!”

Lmao….. Thats great

Haha, super old post. I’d like to say though, that I disagree with the idea of art being unnecessary or not needed for survival. I think it might be more necessary from an evolutionary standpoint than people realize, that’s just a theory of mine though. Whatevers, ha.

whoever wrote that original article is a total fish f@#ker