In the past weeks I have experienced the worst of (potential) clients a graphic designer can have. Most of the people looking to commission (low-budget) graphic design work have a very wrong attitude about it, I’ll explain what I mean but I’ll tell you this story first.

A couple of weeks ago I found a job offer regarding a logo for a certain organization. The offer looked good, a small design job for a low budget, just what I need to build a portfolio. So I contacted the client, and we started discussing what the logo should look like. Unfortunately, after I sent the first proofs, the client didn’t reply to my emails anymore. I figured that he didn’t like it, but I wanted to be sure, so I contacted someone else at the client’s organization. I informed whether they still wanted me to create the logo for them, and the ‘president’ gave me the green light to continue. So, under his direction we continued work and came up with a second set of proofs, and it seemed the client was quite pleased. Unfortunately, again, I lost contact right before we were to proceed with payment and delivering the final files.

Because I actually liked the work that I’d done for them, and I wanted it to be used, I decided to check on their website whether they had said anything about the new logo. I found that they had another logo finished, that was done by another designer they had hired at the same time.

Now there is a couple of things I really don’t understand. First and foremost, why didn’t they contact me about hiring another designer? If it’s because they realize it’s rude to leave someone halfway, I can understand, but I thought that they would also realize that it’s far more rude to let someone do work when you don’t intend to use it or pay for it.

I think the main thing that people fail to realize, is that when you buy graphic design work, you are not buying the final product, you are buying the work that goes into it. What people should do is find a designer that they trust, based on previous work. Then work together with that designer until they have created something that they like. Unfortunately, the way most people think it works, and I have actually read this in a job offer once, is:

you make. i like, i pay

Most people looking for low-budget design jobs seem to think that when you create a logo for them, and they don’t like it, the designer can just keep the files. What am I going to do with logo’s that you don’t want to pay for? Turn them back into free time?