Enrico Salvini’s Top 10 Lies My Client Told Me

This was posted in an artshare group I follow, and has spawned about a week’s worth of rants. I thought it might be worth posting here as well, see what you all think. SOme of this might be familiar to some of you. It applies largely to commercial paid projects.

I should mention though, I have had virtually all positive experiences myself in terms of commission art, with the few glaring exceptions being wrong from day one anyway. These don’t apply to my personal experiences so much as an illustrator, than as an architect.

:::

Graphic Artist’s Guild Handbook Pricing and Ethical Guidelines

1-”Do this one cheap (or free) and we’ll make it up on the next one.”

No reputable business person would first give away their work and time or

merchandise on the hope of making it up later. Can you imagine what a

plumber would say if you said “come in, provide and install the sink for

free and next time we’ll make it up when we need a sink.” You would be

laughed at! Also the likelyhood is that if something important came along,

they wouldn’t use you.

WR: sadly, this is all too common in architecture. But architects are notoriously bad businesspeople. Too much emotion and insecurity, I suspect.

2-”We never pay a cent until we see the final product.”

This is a croc, unless the person is leaving the door open to cheat you out

of your pay. Virtually every profession requres a deposit or incremental

payment during anything but the smallest project. Once you have a working

relationship, you may work out another arrangement with a client. But a new

client should not ask you to go beyond an initial meeting and, perhaps some

preliminary sketches without pay on the job!

WR: I actually prefer to not take payment on commission work until after a rough is approved, but I know many artists want payment in advance.

3-”Do this for us and you’ll get great exposure! The jobs will just pour in!”

Baloney. Tell a plumber “Install this sink and my friend will see and

you’ll get lots of business!” Our plumber friend would say “You mean even

if I do a good job I have to give my work away to get noticed? Then it

isn’t worth the notice.” Also the guy would likely brag to everyone he

knows about how this would normally cost (X) dollars, but brilliant

businessman that he is he got if for free! If anyone calls, they’ll expect

the same or better deal.

4- On looking at sketches or concepts: “Well, we aren’t sure if we want to

use you yet, but leave your material here so I can talk to my

partner/investor/wife/clergy.”

You can be sure that 15 minutes after you leave he will be on the phone to

other designers, now with concepts in hand, asking for price quotes. When

you call back you will be informed that your prices were too high and Joe

Blow Design/Illustration will be doing the job. Why shouldn’t they be

cheaper? You just gave them hours of free consulting work! Until you have a deal, LEAVE NOTHING CREATIVE at the clients office.

5- “Well, the job isn’t CANCELLED, just delayed. Keep the account open and

we’ll continue in a month or two.”

Ummm, probably not. If something is hot, then not, it could be dead. It

would be a mistake to *not* bill for work performed at this point and then

let the chips fall where they may! Call in two months and someone else may

be in that job. And guess what? They don’t know you at all…..

6- “Contract? We don’t need no stinking contact! Aren’t we friends?”

Yes, we are, until something goes wrong or is misunderstood, then you are

the jerk in the suit and I am that idiot designer, then the contract is

essential. That is, unless one doesn’t care about being paid. Any reputable

business uses paperwork to define relationships and you should too.

WR: Yes, I couldn’t agree more. Why risk the friendship over misunderstandings?

7- “Send me a bill after the work goes to press.”

Why wait for an irrelevant deadline to send an invoice? You stand behind

your work, right? You are honest, right? Why would you feel bound to this

deadline? Once you deliver the work and it is accepted, BILL IT. This point

may just be a delaying tactic so the job goes through the printer prior to

any question of your being paid. If the guy waits for the job to be

printed, and you do changes as necessary, then he can stiff you and not

take a chance that he’ll have to pay someone else for changes.

8- “The last guy did it for XXX dollars.”

That is irrelevant. If the last guy was so good they wouldn’t be talking to

you, now would they? And what that guy charged means nothing to you,

really. People who charge too little for their time go out of business (or

self-destruct financially, or change occupations) and then someone else has

to step in. Set a fair price and stick to it.

9- “Our budget is XXX dollars, firm.”

Amazing, isn’t it? This guy goes out to buy a car, and what, knows exactly

what he is going to spend before even looking or researching? Not likely. A

certain amount of work costs a certain amount of money. If they have less

money (and you *can*) do less work and still take the job. But make sure

they understand that you are doing less work if you take less money that

you originally estimated. Give fewer comps, simplify, let them go elsewhere

for services (like films) etc.

10- “We are having financial problems. Give us the work, we’ll make some

money and we’ll pay you. Simple.”

Yeah, except when the money comes, you can expect that you will be pretty

low on the list to be paid. If someone reaches the point where they admit

that the company is in trouble, then they are probably much worse off than

they are admitting to. Even then, are you a bank? Are you qualified to

check out their financials? If the company is strapped to the point where

credit is a problem through credit agencies, banks etc. what business would

you have extending credit to them. You have exactly ZERO pull once they

have the work. Noble intentions or not, this is probably a losing bet. But

if you are going to roll the dice, AT LEAST you should be getting

additional money for waiting. The bank gets interest and so should you.

That is probably why the person is approaching you; to get six months worth

of free interest instead of paying bank rates for credit and then paying

you with that money. Don’t give away money.

:::

To the other artists on this board, have you had bad experience with shades of some of these? I know a few of you have. If you have advice for other artists here on how not to get ripped off, let it be known!

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

No related posts.