Comments on: 8 MORE Graphic Design Myths

By: Elin

Elin — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 08:42:19 +0000

I’ve seen the first batch of myths, and as expected your post made me laugh!

By: business continuity

business continuity — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 21:04:33 +0000

Doh! Please delete my previous post. Just wanted to say this is a nice extension on your previous post. I especially like #11, but your solution is a catch 22, because you don’t want to haggle, but you don’t want to lose your creativity either. It’s like well I had this great plan for your site, but for that price you can only have bits and pieces of my big picture. Ughh such a tug-a-war, mind and body!

By: Ferienhaus Ferienwohnung

Ferienhaus Ferienwohnung — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 13:01:36 +0000

Good point of view. You chose great photos

By: Manda

Manda — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 03:58:37 +0000

Hi Anonymous,
I feel for you — as I think all designers do. You were extremely generous, and I’m sorry it wasn’t appreciated. It’s a lesson we ALL learn — and unfortunately, we all learn it the hard way. I’ve experienced this a few times, actually and now I know, the less someone wants to pay, the more they will expect from you. I don’t know why it works that way, it just does. Try not to let it sour you completely. I still do work for not-for-profits and friends, but I’m very honest upfront. I let them know that if they aren’t paying, then my payment comes in the way of a portfolio piece. And, for me to come out of a project with a nice portfolio piece, tI will be making the final design decisions. If they know me, they know they can trust me to make the best decisions for their company and their business — and since they’re not paying me, they’ll just have to let go of their dreams of a powder pink and mauve website

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 22:32:47 +0000

I stumbled upon this site while researching for work. I’m a few months late but I love/can totally relate to this post.

My particular experience was with designing a friend of a friend’s t-shirt for her sorority. I figured I’d do it since I’m a fellow Greek girl and I had the free time. Plus it would be a bonus for my portfolio, although I didn’t super need it.

I sent her FOUR mocks of different designs. She rejected 3 and told me to go off the last one. I should have already raised the flag at this point. Since I’m providing the design for free, I was under the assumption that she just wanted something quick that looked decent (since she needed the shirts the following week). However I obliged and changed the design and re-sent her the fourth one.

She then sent me another email telling me to completely scratch the design and to come up with a new one based on something she thought of. Ok…if you thought of it yourself why didn’t you do it yourself. She then asked me if I could hurry and get it done since the deadline was coming up. I never finished that project for her and I’m glad I didn’t waste my time. I secretly hope that since I never finished the project for her, she had to go with some default, clip-art design.

Bottom line, if you’re getting something for free, take what you can get. I felt pretty generous offering 4 designs and even continuing with editing one but if you’re on a time crunch with no budget, don’t be picky.

Friends of friends aren’t any better than family or direct friends. I know that now.