"Clients Suck", or "Why I'm Going Back To School To Become A Chef"
Late last year, I decided that I'm going to give up Graphic Design as a career and enter culinary school. Why, you ask? Have I lost my passion for design? No. Have I lost my creativity? No. What is it then?
I've lost my will to work with others in regards to design.
Perhaps I've had an inordinate number of bad clients over the years, but given what I've heard from other designers, I think it's right around average. It's just become too taxing to play mind-reader to people who really have no idea what they want, except that they want it as cheap as possible, and that they won't know exactly what it is they need until they see it. If I don't leave design now, I'll lose every ounce of respect I have towards the entire human race.
This is the tale of a recent disappointing client.
In late spring of last year, my now-fiancée came to me and told me a co-worker of hers was looking for some graphic design work. He has a lower-level position with the company she works for, but I'm told he has a side-project that he's looking to push to market, and he's looking for a logo and a website. I agree to see him, where we meet up and he shows me a sample of what it is he wants to sell.
What's the product? It's a marbled, plastic-like material, which he claims can be used to build thing, by fusing little blocks of this stuff together. He shows me a small jewellery box made of the substance, and tells me the name of the product is "Rock Bloxx". It's a "secret" chemical recipe, apparently. We talk about what it can be used for, so I can get a good idea of what really it does. He then asks to use my web connection to show me some websites he's been impressed with. The sites he shows me are on a "pick a template and we'll build your site",bane-of-designers-everywhere-type companies.
I figure, "okay, I'm just getting an idea of what he likes."
I agree to give him a site and logo at a flat rate, based on a certain number of hours at my "friends and family" hourly charge of $30/hr. I figured it'd be a side project for my portfolio; something different than the commercial real estate and financial stuff I've been doing the last few years with my primary employer.
After a day of thought, I email him a quote. He balks a bit at the price, but agrees to it and voila the project is given the go-ahead. I'm left waiting for some more product information from him.
Two days later, I hear from my fiancée that he's talking with another friend of his who may do the work. I figured okay, he wants to avoid the confrontation of saying he doesn't want my services. Oh well, qué sera.
A few more days, and I hear back from him with the information I wanted. I was a little confused, but okay. I invite him over to my apartment (something I rarely do with clients, but he's a co-worker with my fiancée) and we discuss the project some more. He wants to show me some more stuff on the web, but as I'd literally just moved a few days before, my net connection was not yet back up and running. We talk about where he sees the product and says he sees it in hobby stores and toy stores as a building material for crafty people.
I say, we'll start with the logo first, and work on the website after. I agree to give him 4 concepts. We decide we'll meet up on a certain day. I email him the concepts in an unprotected PDF, giving him some time to think about them before we meet. That day of our proposed meeting ends up being one where I had to fill in for an ill co-worker, so I called him and we postponed our meeting to the weekend (my regular time off, I might add).
We meet and discuss the logo concepts. He tells me (with a great degree of excitement) one of them was "exactly what he wants". I think "Wow! That was easy."
I spoke too soon, I suspect.
This is where stuff just starts to go in WTF directions.
The next day I get an email from him saying it's completely wrong, and that he wants to start over with new concepts (something I'd agreed to with the initial cost estimate). He makes a snide comment that perhaps I was spending too much time with my other clients (assuming he meant my employer). I'm left a little confused, as the day before we'd found "exactly what he was looking for". I assure him it's not the case that I'm putting other clients ahead of him. We agree to meet again.
My fiancée tells me how he's been acting around work lately; that he's been noisily complaining about their employer, and making comments about how things will be different when he's running "his company." She also mentions that he's extremely susceptible to outside influence and the opinions of others.
In these next talks (about two weeks after our first meeting), he states he sees the product being used for counter-tops and flooring due to it's look and durability, and that he's now aiming to sell it to Home Depot and other big box hardware/home reno stores.
I think to myself he's got pretty lofty goals, and that "fake marbled stone" in the home is so 1990's. The type of logo he's now looking for is "dynamic, high-tech, futuristic", and he describes other logos featuring lens flares or drop shadowing or useless pseudo-designy elements that make no sense. I bite my tongue, and begin to ask a few more questions.
It turns out...
a) He sees his company as "a hip, company full of young go-getters", despite the fact that he's currently the only employee.
b) He hasn't patented the product, or has not checked if other patents currently exist, or even if his idea is original (to me the product seems awfully similar in look and feel of a marbled bakelite).
c) He hasn't researched his market at all, or come up with any business plans.
d) He has no investors, no partners, nor much of any way of producing the amounts of product he's talking about selling.
He also mentions that he wouldn't manufacture anything from the product himself, but rather sell the chemical mixture. He has not talked to any companies that could use the product in their manufacturing process.
A sense of dread goes through me. This guy really has no clue as to what he's doing, what he wants, who he wants to market to, nor even how a business is run. I suggest to him nicely and politely that perhaps I'd be able to do a much better job creating a logo if he researched his market a bit first. After much discussion of this, we agree he'll take a month to figure this stuff out and we'll meet up again.
A month goes by.
And then another. And another.
I decide, "okay, I have no idea when he's gonna get back to me." and send him a small, partial invoice for the work completed to this point. My terms (as stated on the invoice) are 30 days. I state in my email, "if there's a problem, get a hold of me."
30 days go by. I hear nothing.
I send another invoice, along with an email stating that while he's a co-worker of my fiancée, I will not treat him any differently than any other client with delinquent payments, including talking to credit bureau and taking him to small claims court if need be.
I hear more of nothing.
15 additional days go by and he calls me to meet with him at his work. He states my invoices were not "professional", and questions my business practices. He insults me by stating that perhaps the way I run things is why I'm still working out of my apartment (apparently, the fact that I telecommute part of the time means I'm a slacker or jobless).
I point out to him that he refused to contact me for 45 days past the date of the first invoice. He says he was "too mad" to do so. He tells me if it went to small claims court, he's been "assured" he would win. Really, what idiot told him that? I point out that he's refused to pay a bill without contacting me, well beyond past due. I point out that I sent him unprotected PDF files, thus actually delivering a product to him. I point out that I was left waiting for HIM to contact me about furthering the project. And I point out that nowhere did I state I would not bill him incrementally.
He claims I was unprofessional because I did not ask him if I could send an invoice. Does the phone company ask before they send a bill? He then claims I wouldn't be treating other clients this way, to which I replied "no, aside from you, I bill all my clients bi-weekly".
I really begin to get the idea that this guy just doesn't want to pay the bill. He's taking the issue personally. I say, "it's not personal, I just want to be compensated for the work I've done to this point." He offers a small token "settlement" if I want to end it and says, "but you can continue to work with me and I can pay you when we finish the project later". He has no foreseeable idea as to when that would be. I remind him again that it's not personal and that I feel he's stalling so he doesn't have to pay the bill.
There is a LOT of heated argument, his mostly illogical and emotional, in regards to this invoice. He walks out of the room saying he has nothing else to say to me unless I take his small token settlement.
I say, "I'll see you in court, and trust me it won't take almost 5 months before you hear from me. I'd taken two previous deadbeat clients to task, and won both times. This would be easy.
As I stood waiting for the elevator, what then flashed through my head was waiting months for a court date, hearing his pitiful arguments in front of a judge, and how my fiancée's work life would be worse. And above all else I thought to myself, "I hate people."
Not just clients, but people. It had spread from a small group of idiotic people I've done work for (and trust me, no amount of good clients I've ever had can make up for some of the true asses) to the entire human race.
The last thread holding me in as a graphic designer snapped. I'd not been 100% sure up until that point that my decision to go back to school was a good one. I now I knew. I just knew, that I was right to call it quits.
I walked back in and said "I'll take the settlement." I even agreed to sign something saying I'd accepted it for work done. I really didn't care. I just wanted to be done with him. Done with this garbage.
I will continue to take work from established clients; the good ones. But I will no longer be looking for new work, or take work from people I don't know. Graphic Design will soon no longer be the "thing to pay the bills", as I move to a new phase of my life.
And knowing all this, I couldn't be happier.
I've lost my will to work with others in regards to design.
Perhaps I've had an inordinate number of bad clients over the years, but given what I've heard from other designers, I think it's right around average. It's just become too taxing to play mind-reader to people who really have no idea what they want, except that they want it as cheap as possible, and that they won't know exactly what it is they need until they see it. If I don't leave design now, I'll lose every ounce of respect I have towards the entire human race.
This is the tale of a recent disappointing client.
In late spring of last year, my now-fiancée came to me and told me a co-worker of hers was looking for some graphic design work. He has a lower-level position with the company she works for, but I'm told he has a side-project that he's looking to push to market, and he's looking for a logo and a website. I agree to see him, where we meet up and he shows me a sample of what it is he wants to sell.
What's the product? It's a marbled, plastic-like material, which he claims can be used to build thing, by fusing little blocks of this stuff together. He shows me a small jewellery box made of the substance, and tells me the name of the product is "Rock Bloxx". It's a "secret" chemical recipe, apparently. We talk about what it can be used for, so I can get a good idea of what really it does. He then asks to use my web connection to show me some websites he's been impressed with. The sites he shows me are on a "pick a template and we'll build your site",bane-of-designers-everywhere-type companies.
I figure, "okay, I'm just getting an idea of what he likes."
I agree to give him a site and logo at a flat rate, based on a certain number of hours at my "friends and family" hourly charge of $30/hr. I figured it'd be a side project for my portfolio; something different than the commercial real estate and financial stuff I've been doing the last few years with my primary employer.
After a day of thought, I email him a quote. He balks a bit at the price, but agrees to it and voila the project is given the go-ahead. I'm left waiting for some more product information from him.
Two days later, I hear from my fiancée that he's talking with another friend of his who may do the work. I figured okay, he wants to avoid the confrontation of saying he doesn't want my services. Oh well, qué sera.
A few more days, and I hear back from him with the information I wanted. I was a little confused, but okay. I invite him over to my apartment (something I rarely do with clients, but he's a co-worker with my fiancée) and we discuss the project some more. He wants to show me some more stuff on the web, but as I'd literally just moved a few days before, my net connection was not yet back up and running. We talk about where he sees the product and says he sees it in hobby stores and toy stores as a building material for crafty people.
I say, we'll start with the logo first, and work on the website after. I agree to give him 4 concepts. We decide we'll meet up on a certain day. I email him the concepts in an unprotected PDF, giving him some time to think about them before we meet. That day of our proposed meeting ends up being one where I had to fill in for an ill co-worker, so I called him and we postponed our meeting to the weekend (my regular time off, I might add).
We meet and discuss the logo concepts. He tells me (with a great degree of excitement) one of them was "exactly what he wants". I think "Wow! That was easy."
I spoke too soon, I suspect.
This is where stuff just starts to go in WTF directions.
The next day I get an email from him saying it's completely wrong, and that he wants to start over with new concepts (something I'd agreed to with the initial cost estimate). He makes a snide comment that perhaps I was spending too much time with my other clients (assuming he meant my employer). I'm left a little confused, as the day before we'd found "exactly what he was looking for". I assure him it's not the case that I'm putting other clients ahead of him. We agree to meet again.
My fiancée tells me how he's been acting around work lately; that he's been noisily complaining about their employer, and making comments about how things will be different when he's running "his company." She also mentions that he's extremely susceptible to outside influence and the opinions of others.
In these next talks (about two weeks after our first meeting), he states he sees the product being used for counter-tops and flooring due to it's look and durability, and that he's now aiming to sell it to Home Depot and other big box hardware/home reno stores.
I think to myself he's got pretty lofty goals, and that "fake marbled stone" in the home is so 1990's. The type of logo he's now looking for is "dynamic, high-tech, futuristic", and he describes other logos featuring lens flares or drop shadowing or useless pseudo-designy elements that make no sense. I bite my tongue, and begin to ask a few more questions.
It turns out...
a) He sees his company as "a hip, company full of young go-getters", despite the fact that he's currently the only employee.
b) He hasn't patented the product, or has not checked if other patents currently exist, or even if his idea is original (to me the product seems awfully similar in look and feel of a marbled bakelite).
c) He hasn't researched his market at all, or come up with any business plans.
d) He has no investors, no partners, nor much of any way of producing the amounts of product he's talking about selling.
He also mentions that he wouldn't manufacture anything from the product himself, but rather sell the chemical mixture. He has not talked to any companies that could use the product in their manufacturing process.
A sense of dread goes through me. This guy really has no clue as to what he's doing, what he wants, who he wants to market to, nor even how a business is run. I suggest to him nicely and politely that perhaps I'd be able to do a much better job creating a logo if he researched his market a bit first. After much discussion of this, we agree he'll take a month to figure this stuff out and we'll meet up again.
A month goes by.
And then another. And another.
I decide, "okay, I have no idea when he's gonna get back to me." and send him a small, partial invoice for the work completed to this point. My terms (as stated on the invoice) are 30 days. I state in my email, "if there's a problem, get a hold of me."
30 days go by. I hear nothing.
I send another invoice, along with an email stating that while he's a co-worker of my fiancée, I will not treat him any differently than any other client with delinquent payments, including talking to credit bureau and taking him to small claims court if need be.
I hear more of nothing.
15 additional days go by and he calls me to meet with him at his work. He states my invoices were not "professional", and questions my business practices. He insults me by stating that perhaps the way I run things is why I'm still working out of my apartment (apparently, the fact that I telecommute part of the time means I'm a slacker or jobless).
I point out to him that he refused to contact me for 45 days past the date of the first invoice. He says he was "too mad" to do so. He tells me if it went to small claims court, he's been "assured" he would win. Really, what idiot told him that? I point out that he's refused to pay a bill without contacting me, well beyond past due. I point out that I sent him unprotected PDF files, thus actually delivering a product to him. I point out that I was left waiting for HIM to contact me about furthering the project. And I point out that nowhere did I state I would not bill him incrementally.
He claims I was unprofessional because I did not ask him if I could send an invoice. Does the phone company ask before they send a bill? He then claims I wouldn't be treating other clients this way, to which I replied "no, aside from you, I bill all my clients bi-weekly".
I really begin to get the idea that this guy just doesn't want to pay the bill. He's taking the issue personally. I say, "it's not personal, I just want to be compensated for the work I've done to this point." He offers a small token "settlement" if I want to end it and says, "but you can continue to work with me and I can pay you when we finish the project later". He has no foreseeable idea as to when that would be. I remind him again that it's not personal and that I feel he's stalling so he doesn't have to pay the bill.
There is a LOT of heated argument, his mostly illogical and emotional, in regards to this invoice. He walks out of the room saying he has nothing else to say to me unless I take his small token settlement.
I say, "I'll see you in court, and trust me it won't take almost 5 months before you hear from me. I'd taken two previous deadbeat clients to task, and won both times. This would be easy.
As I stood waiting for the elevator, what then flashed through my head was waiting months for a court date, hearing his pitiful arguments in front of a judge, and how my fiancée's work life would be worse. And above all else I thought to myself, "I hate people."
Not just clients, but people. It had spread from a small group of idiotic people I've done work for (and trust me, no amount of good clients I've ever had can make up for some of the true asses) to the entire human race.
The last thread holding me in as a graphic designer snapped. I'd not been 100% sure up until that point that my decision to go back to school was a good one. I now I knew. I just knew, that I was right to call it quits.
I walked back in and said "I'll take the settlement." I even agreed to sign something saying I'd accepted it for work done. I really didn't care. I just wanted to be done with him. Done with this garbage.
I will continue to take work from established clients; the good ones. But I will no longer be looking for new work, or take work from people I don't know. Graphic Design will soon no longer be the "thing to pay the bills", as I move to a new phase of my life.
And knowing all this, I couldn't be happier.