So, sadly, as a designer, I’ve encountered many of the pitfalls I indicate in this form. In the interest of the love of design and the pursuit of acceptance, I’ve made each of the mistakes I list on the top part of the form. There’s the time that I did hours of work on a logo for a new business, and got yelled at by a printer who wanted different dimensions, and in the transaction found out that the printer was being paid full price.
There are the various jobs I’ve done for family where it turned into a way to have them push buttons about self-worth, power, and the relative value of the arts. There are the clients who decided that it wasn’t worth paying for because all I did was push some buttons. There are also more positive situations, such as turning back the work because I wanted to encourage a self-doubting designer to take the work into their own hands.
If I’ve ever done free design work for you, consider yourself a good friend, or someone who I respect deeply. If you’re ever compensated me for design work, I want to say thank you for your consideration and promotion of the art form.
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5 replies on “81 of 365: I’m sorry, I won’t design your logo for free form by John LeMasney”
I really enjoyed this work. This really hit home and made me understand a little deeper why I can’t seem to work for anyone at the moment, maybe ever again. Of course wallowing in obscurity for so many years begins to take it’s toll. I’ve experienced this kind of attitude so many times it all becomes a blur. Thanks world!
I definitely have taken a work-in-life approach, and as such, I’ve become defensive of the balance between life, work, and all the stuff in between. Design for me falls into that middle section, especially because of my deep love for it. So, I do a lot of free work for people in both technology and design, but I have certain internal, intrinsically driven rules for it, such as what the end effect will be for the greater good, whether I know, like and trust the person, and so on. For instance, you and I work together without any mention of payment, but if we had sold that piece at Art All Night, I would like to think both you and I would have been happy with some extra money. At any rate, I think I understand our differences about money, but I like to think that both of our views can be separately and equally justified.
My hubbie would love this.
I hope designers everywhere revel in its painful, slightly irritable truths. 😉
I have seen this kind of gripe elsewhere, and I figured I’d share 2 that come to mind here: https://webdesignledger.com/top-8-dreaded-favors-asked-of-web-designers/ and https://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell — in case you thought what I had to say was interesting, these others are where I got the idea to say something. Cheers!