"Clients Suck", or "Why I'm Going Back To School To Become A Chef"

[zang]

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

Comments

[thetar]

it happens. of all the agencies i have worked in, i rarely see anybody over 50 designing. and in fact see very few over 50s in design at all. i think most people burn out and go do something else.

[aubuchon]

I think typically designers over 50 have more experience and do freelance - if you have the experience and connections you typically can make over double of any staff designer's salary out there.

[dani_namaste]

yeah, often they're the owners of firms or they decide that they just can't do the agency life and have to move on.

we've all been there

[talazia]

believe me, I understand. I've had a really bad experience with a friend of a friend, whose established brand consisted of some bizarre new age papyrus font logo and at the end of the project was screaming at me about how I didn't understand her brand. I'm really leery about working with one person start ups to this day.

And I too, have been thinking about switching careers as well - my would be into the saner world of teaching children, but I don't know if I'm quite ready to start over.

[liza_bam]

Well, it may sound boring, but why didn't you just sign the contract with all schedules and services you provide and all the rates? And what about the upfront payment from him? Friends and family are the toughest clientelle, I agree.

[zang]

You know, when you get those small clients with a passion for their business? The ones who you think want you to be creative, rather than a trained mouse-monkey? In the past, I've been easier on the paperwork for those types, because I like working with them. No, I LOVE working with them. Those types of clients have brought me great amounts of joy.

One of the most disappointing parts of all this is that I thought HE was one of those clients. He first came across like he knew what he was doing; that I could run off the reigns with this project. In the end, I was wrong.

[liza_bam]

From my experience the paperwork makes both sides happy -- passion on not passion. People tend to be much more serious about their business and about the designer if they see the list of services and pay actual money. Other ways it often goes into "we are all nice guys, why bother to organize myself" routine.

I hat3e paperwork. But is saved my business, actually. And made my clients nice guys instead of barking idiots. Remarkably, some of them are the SAME people :)))

[dani_namaste]

okay, well - I'm really sorry to hear about that experience with the idiot client. It really sounds like there were some red flags there from the start, and in my experience it's really a disaster when you don't pay attention to those

[zang]

Trust me, I've researched the culinary world quite well, and I know it's not free of assholes. But they're a different kind of asshole. There's something about the small graphic design client that just reeks of desperation mixed with arrogance and cheapness.

You will never hear a chef try and make a culinary masterpiece out of spam and spray cheese, and yet clients ask that all the time of graphic designers:

"Here's this 72dpi 3'x3' image, blow it up to poster size, will ya?"

And a chef barking orders at the pass knows exactly what he/she wants from his sous and commis. Another thing that cannot be said of design clients.

Cooking has created more passion in me than art and design did in my teens. It really has become my calling. It's something I should have investigated years ago, but when you've been a lifelong artist, it's hard to picture yourself moving away from that.

[dani_namaste]

all of what you say is true. I will admit. I just hate to see someone lose heart because of a couple of cheap assholes.

Good luck to you!

[zang]

I haven't lost heart per-se. I've just lost the will to work with asshats. I'll have no problem doing work for the good ones, even after I finish culinary school. Art and Design are in my blood and I will continue them in some way or another.

[linderooni]

I think you're brave to go back to school. I submitted my application for grad school two days ago. I love design and type and all of that, but my (professional) heart isn't in it any more.

A man I met recently put it perfectly: "There's nothing wrong with being an artist. The problems start when you add 'graphic' in front of the word."