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As designers, one of our main goals—aside from creating the best designs we can—is to acquire clients worthy of our works and worthy of us both as designers and as individuals. Without clients and the perks they bring (money, fame, raving fans, all-access-pass to the Playboy mansion, and additional exposure), we are just operating in a vacuum, creating projects for a fun hobby and remaining mostly unrecognized and under-appreciated.
My artistic ability manifested itself at an early age. I spent most of my childhood and my twenties cultivating my skills and creating various pieces of art, mostly just for the fun of it. In general, I didn’t look for or try to establish any clients. Despite my lack of efforts in this regard, I ended up with a handful of official clients who sought me out after seeing my various creations.
A few stand out in my memory:
- Way back in seventh grade, one of my friends paid me a very hard-earned twenty dollars to pencil a portrait of a girl he had a crush on. This girl broke his heart several weeks after I finished the piece by laughing in his face when he asked her to one of the school dances. I think soon after he tore up the portrait in frustration… but at least he had already paid me.
- Another friend in my early navy days had me design a logo for his infant electronics small business. His business was called Black Dog Electronics, a pretty common name these days for a wide variety of services. The logo was one of my earliest forays into graphic design for branding, featuring a bulldog head with electronic circuitry on its cheek and a grungy hand-crafted font based on Ariel Black. The entire logo was very old school; it was hand-drawn and inked on a large sheet of heavy Bristol paper.
- Another one of my friends wanted a unique birthday gift for his sister, back in 1982, I think. His sister, a year behind us in school, was an original geek: she loved reading, Star Wars, role-playing games, and was above all things an avid Doctor Who fan. She completely adored Tom Baker, the 4th Doctor. Being a fan of that curly hair bohemian myself, I came up with a very unique idea. I hand crafted a 1/8th scale K-9 figure out of cardboard, some old model parts, some electronics (I actually was able to make its eyes light up), and craft paint. (The previous year, I had received a Doctor Who technical manual, which had some engineering dimensions of that mechanical pooch, so I had it about as accurate as possible… And if I do say so myself, it came out great.) I talked to her a couple of years ago (almost 30 years later) and it still occupies a place of honor in her office with severa
l other rare collectables. - In 12th grade, I was hired by one of my older co-workers to design the retrospective collectible book for his 30th high school reunion (he was in charge of setting up the whole reunion). This was one of my earliest “high paying” one-shot jobs. I think I made somewhere around $120 for about 30 hours of work, which wasn’t too bad for a 17-year-old (or at least I thought at the time). This one was well before affordable digital design programs, so it was all done by hand. I drew the logos and the cover design. I laid out the text and photos of his classmates with traditional cut outs and glue/tape. The book came in somewhere around 40-50 pages, which he then had professionally copied and bound. It was a huge hit at the reunion, receiving multiple compliments. Based on that work alone, I went on to do several other projects for him up until I joined the navy 2 years later, when we lost touch.
Though I had these initial successes in using my talents to earn some money, along with increasing the visibility on my talents, more often than not I created for the sheer joy if it. I would often do portraits, create sculptures, or design other creative projects for myself and as gifts for friends and family. If asked why I wasn’t doing my design work as a business, or for money, I naively—and a little arrogantly if truth be told; the young are often arrogant in their assertions—proclaimed that I was in it for the pure art and satisfaction.
Which at the time was true.
My jobs in that period were school and the navy, jobs that I excelled at, and which by extension didn’t often need excessive amounts of my time. At times, each required me to put up my art for a time so I could concentrate on short-term critical necessities, but on the whole I had a ton of free time to fill. As I moved into the civilian world, and invariably into more and more prominent positions, I continued to pursue my art, though more sporadically.
I continued to get more and more requests for design work, to the point where I finally decided to take my passion seriously. I started to really create art with a purpose: namely to find and satisfy as many clients needs as I could.
Throughout the years, I’ve had a lot of fantastic clients… and quite a few who turned out to be not so fantastic.
With each experience, a picture began to solidify in my mind, that of the Ideal Design Client.
Those of you who have clients know what I am talking about. There are some clients who are a complete joy to work with, some who you wish had never contacted you in the first place, and everyone else in between. For many of us, the qualities that separate each type of client are nebulous and difficult to pin down.
For many years, I had a difficult time figuring out what separated fantastic from the good, the bad, and the average.
However, over the last couple years, it’s become clear as to what characteristics define the Ideal Client for me.
A Bird Of A Feather
One of the key characteristics that makes a great client is the commonality of vision. By vision, first I’m talking about compatible artistic vision. There are multiple aspects to this. One is the style of the artwork and creative output. A client who prefers manga style art may not be satisfied by an artist who specializes in golden age comic style art, whereas a client who loves realism in their art would potentially love an artist who specializes in photorealistic compositions. No content creator can be everything to every client. Some of us specialize in a narrow band of styles and mediums, while others have a more expansive set of skills. While you may love to experiment in different genres and styles, the time to do that is not when you are lining up a potential client or offering to do a project for them. Most clients don’t appreciate being a guinea pig for your artistic creation. Save your exploration of your creativity to your spare time; only offer your clients that which will best represent you and your abilities.
Along the vein of commonality is the compatibility of passion and vision. This is where the purpose and desired output of the client’s project and your belief and support in the project hit the pavement either in phase or are diametrically opposed. For you to effectively work with a client, and vice versa, there has to be a mutual passion and belief in the project goals, vision, and overall scope. I’m not telling you that you have to adhere to and follow the political, religious, cultural, or philosophical of the client and the project. Rather, I’m telling you that you do need to be able to support the message of the project even if you don’t believe in it yourself.
Your mutual passion and vision directly translates into your level of effort, creativity, and attention to detail. If you don’t have it, then your own passion about your art and the quality of the art itself will suffer. Every project you do should be one that you’d be proud of including in your portfolio… or at least in the portfolio of the genre you are working in.
Finally, in the realm of commonality, is the overall compatibility of personality. Now, I’m not talking about you becoming best friends with your clients, though in many cases a strong bond of friendship will form out of your collaboration or you many start your collaboration on the basis of a pre-existing friendship. In most cases, what I’m saying is that your relationship with your ideal client must be built upon a solid foundation of trust, mutual respect, and common or mutually beneficial goals. While the working situation may be challenging and stressful at times, the interaction should ultimately be positive with both parties seeing a true benefit in the collaboration, whether it’s on a one-shot project or over the course of a long relationship.
Without these elements, this merger of interests will ultimately turn out to be negative, lopsided, stressful, toxic, or just downright confusing.
Without naming names, I had a client a while ago who started out as an ideal personality match but who degenerated into a nightmare of a client. At first, this client approached me after hearing good things about me and seeing some of my work. After an initial back and forth to establish priorities and goals, we agreed to begin working on a project together. Over the course of the project, the client began to be more and more irascible, increasing demands beyond the point of reason, and requiring change after change beyond the scope of the original agreed upon project.
At first, I was very accommodating and receptive, but as the project scope progressed beyond twice and was approaching three times the agreed level of effort, it began to be obvious that we were heading down the path of personality conflict. The breaking point came when a third complete restart of the original design was demanded and the client indicated I was being extremely unreasonable in not wanting to cater to the request. After a few awkward and almost terse emails—along with hurt feelings on both parts—we eventually agreed that the collaboration was not going to work out and we terminated the contract.
This comes to a key point. Go ahead and repeat after me: “It is okay to terminate a working relationship with a client who is incompatible in some way.”
GASP! NO WAY!
Yes, it is true!
Regardless of the area of contention, if you don’t feel the client is someone you can continue to work with, then it is not only okay to break off the collaboration, it is often downright necessary. Not only for you and your clients, but for your reputations and ultimate piece of mind.
Always remember that there are other clients out there. Never forget that. So long as you yourself are not the cause of client issues—a possibility that you must be willing to consider and do some honest self-evaluation to determine—then it is better to just yank off that band-aid in one swift painful yank.
At that point, it becomes a question of WHEN do you break off the relationship, not IF. In some cases, you can finish up the project and then go your separate ways amicably. However, in others, like in my situation, it’s best to cut ties sooner than later so that neither of you waste any more time and efforts than is necessary.
What’s it Worth to You?
One of the most common client expectations is great designs for cheap money. This is not entirely unreasonable… we all want value for minimal expenditure. For some reason, many folks will equate your passion for your art to you being willing to create something for free. Friends, family, acquaintances, and even strangers, everyone seems to think your art should be given for free or for what equates to pocket change.
I’ve never understood this mentality.
And yet I don’t know how many times this has happened to me.
When I was an artist just doing what I do for fun, it didn’t bother me; I loved creating just for the heck of it and if someone wanted something I was happy to accommodate. But as a freelance designer and small business owner, the perspective changed. When you are using your skills to supplement your income or as your sole source of income, it becomes about placing the proper value on your time. When you are relying on your artistic skills for even a portion of your income, every free project that your spend time on takes away from potential money you could be earning with a paid client. So while you may be creating great free designs, you may also be sacrificing more than you realize.
Let’s face it: being a starving struggling artist is great for those with martyr complexes, but for most of us it just plain sucks.
Going hand in hand with your paid versus free creations is the actual value you place on your time. Most beginning artists and designers I know undervalue their time and abilities, effectively working for a couple of dollars an hour. Some of this comes from inexperience and not knowing how long a project would actually take them.
But some actually believe their time and efforts and skills aren’t worth that much.
Take my reunion book example above. On the surface, getting paid $120 for a project is pretty cool, especially for a 17-year-old. At first glance, it seems like a lot. But let’s actually evaluate it. I spent 30 hours or more on that project. That means at best I earned $4 an hour. Sure, I was young and inexperienced when it came to business sense. But even at that time I was making over $6 an hour doing a regular menial labor job. In my unskilled job, a job anyone who could lift and place 5 pound blocks of sand could do, I was making 50% more than I made doing a project that required a large amount of specialist skills that very few people actually had.
Looking back, I was unsure of the actual value of my skills and I thought I’d be crazy to charge more.
Seems a little off-balance in hindsight.
For whatever service you provide, you need to determine what your fair market value is for your time and skills. Below are some examples of typical pay ranges for various creative skills (based on the 10% and 90% percentile of pay range):
- Graphic Designer: $12.6 to $37.2 per hour
- Editor: $14.1 to $50.3 per hour
- Writer/Author: $13.3 to $56.6 per hour
- Photographer: $8.4 to $32.2 per hour
- Fine Artists (painters, sculptors, illustrators): $9.3 to $44.7 per hour
- Multimedia Artists and Animators: $16.7 to $54.5 per hour
- General Artist Services: $12 to $48.3 per hour
- Craft Artists (welding, weaving, pottery, needle craft, etc.): $8.5 to $30.4 per hour
- Website Developer: $16.1 to $50.5 per hour
- Musicians/Singers: $8.8 to $65.2 per hour
- Desktop Publisher (page layout): $9.5 to $29.0 per hour
- Audio Voice Talent: $8.3 to $37.8 per hour
As you can see, there is a huge variation in pay ranges for each of the specialty services above. Where you fall into a price point obviously depends on a variety of factors.
- How much actual experience do you have compared to your competition?
- How skilled are you compared to your competition? Do you offer more services or have more abilities in adjacent creative processes than the other creatives in your arena?
- How in demand are you compared to your competition by your existing clients?
- What is your local economic conditions, your personal living expenses, and your overall cost of living?
- What are the economic and budget situation of your average client?
- How much exposure do you have and how many new clients are you connecting with?
The more experienced, in demand, and skilled you are, the more you can charge. In fact, those with higher skills, experience, and a proven track record can even expect potential ranges in salary above those listed above. Your personal market sets your baseline price point.
Conversely, if you are relatively unskilled, are providing services within a large competition pool, or are serving clients with limited funds, you may have to take a lower average hourly rate. In some cases your own economic situation may make being a designer an untenable option.
Based on all of these factors, your ideal clients are the ones who can pay your baseline project wage. While you may accept and give breaks to clients who cannot pay your going rate, these tend to rapidly fall out of your ideal client range. In many cases, if your prospective clients can’t pay you what you are actually worth, then they are not your Ideal Client.
Like in most things, however, there are exceptions to every rule.
For myself, I may charge less than my going rate if the client is new and it’s their first project (I sometimes offer an introductory rate). This greatly depends on whether or not I think they would likely become a long-term client, or if they are more likely to be a one-shot wonder.
Also, you may opt to charge lower rates or even do pro-bona work in order to build up your portfolio. This practice is a double-edged blade; on the one hand, you will often build a repeat client base and improve your portfolio in your given medium rapidly, but at the same token, these clients will come to expect the lower rates unless you are very specific about your pricing strategy. I personally have done this in certain creative projects to build my own experience and to shore up weak portions of my portfolio. It’s an option that has worked for me in the past.
Lastly, you may offer reduced rates to your repeat clients and charge higher rates to your one-shot clients. This obviously is a strategy to keep and garner trust in your repeat clients and to ensure long-term continued business. By charging them lower rates than what you advertise as your going rates, you make them feel special and they know that they are valued and their business is appreciated.
The bottom line on this is to establish your price range based on your actual value. Trust in yourself and your abilities. If you provide different price points to different clients, that’s ok. Your ideal clients will pay you based on what you are worth and more importantly what you ideally believe you are worth.
If any client is not willing or able to pay your price, even after you apply your targeted pricing exceptions, discounts, and special deals, then YOU PROBABLY DO NOT WANT THAT CLIENT.
The Art of Communications and Follow-Through
There are only a few things that really piss me off.
One is willful and proud ignorance and laziness in spite of having access to improvement options.
Another is the color burnt umber (long story, don’t ask).
But key among my list of hanging offense items are folks who do not follow through or who don’t do what they say they are going to do or who are unclear in their communications. If there is one golden rule about finding your ideal client, this is the one in my book.
“Do what you say you are going to do, do it when you say you are going to do it, and speak with clarity and purpose.”
There are several aspects to this characteristic.
First is in regards to payment. When you establish your price point and develop your project contract with your client, one of the things you as a designer must do is establish your payment scheme. This not only includes the actual cost of project, but even more importantly WHEN you will be paid. It might be the entire sum up front or some percentage before and at the completion of the project. It may be a payment plan of some sort. Regardless of what kind of payment scheme you agree to, you and your clients must agree on dates. The ideal client will pay you when they agreed to; the incompatible client will make excuses and will have delays. Constantly. For this, there is no grey for me, it is only black and white. Either they pay you on time and the agreed amount or they don’t.
Keep the ones who pay you what and when they agreed to and kick the others to the curb if the excuses are not acceptable.
Next is in regards to communication propriety.
This one is very simple for me. I have a basic rule when working with clients, one that I try to follow myself—and mostly succeed—and that I expect of my clients in return. In a nutshell, I try to respond to any and all communications within 48 hours of receiving it.
Given how busy we all can be, I normally don’t expect anyone to be able to respond within 24 hours. However, given how connected we all are in this digital age, not responding within 2 days of getting a piece of correspondence, especially with someone you are working with, is downright rude. At worst, a response should be sent letting the person know that you received their message and that you will respond by such and such date. This is not too much to expect.
It’s understandable if occasionally a message is delayed. I get it. Life and the demands on us are ridiculous some days. Heck, this happens to me as well; life is crazy busy and occasionally I slip on getting right back to my established clients (who are also busy as heck and who in turn don’t always get back to me in a short time). But routinely not responding with some sort of message within a reasonable amount of time is not only rude, but it shows a complete lack of respect for a person or of their valuable time.
Bluntly, any client who routinely does this to you is not worth your efforts and time, no matter how compatible they are with you on all other aspects. On the flip side, clients: any designer who does this to you does not want your business and does not have your best interests in mind; you are better off finding someone who will make time and effort for you.
Finally, the last characteristic that is on my ideal client list is clarity of communication. This one extends into multiple arenas.
First is in communicating the scope, intent, and requirements of the project. They say the devil is in the details. I say that’s crap. For me, the success is in the details. By clearly conveying the project details, the client will ensure that their vision can be properly translated by the creative.
Going hand in hand with this is communicating any preconceived vision, look, or detail that should be in the design. There is nothing more frustrating than taking the details initially given by a client and working with them for several hours or days to get an initial concept approved and then beginning work on the actual deliverable, only to have them tell you that they had a different idea in mind from the beginning and that you should start over with their idea.
“So why didn’t you tell me about this idea that you were already enamored with at the beginning?”
“Well, I wanted to see what ideas you could come up with without my idea coloring your process. Your ideas are really good but I really like my idea, so let’s go with that instead of yours.”
“You realize that if you had told me your idea from the get-go I could have incorporated your concept into my design recommendations and not wasted 12 hours of work, right?
“Well, maybe…”
There are very few things worse to a creative than time wasted because they didn’t have all the details. Clients who routinely withhold key information or their own initial concepts need to be educated and modified. Again, if they cannot be made to see the light, then they most likely are not your ideal match… unless you like to have your efforts wasted.
Last but not least is the fishing client. Here’s the scenario: a potential client sends you a message describing a potential project, some of the details, and asks if you could tackle it and what your going rates would be. You take the time to craft up a response listing them know of a few high level ideas, the approximately time it would take, and your estimated rates based on what you know at this point. You are feeling pretty good about it all because 1) you know your designs would beat out any of the other potential competition and 2) based on a true evaluation of your skills and their value, you are finally starting to give solid cost estimates. You conclude by saying that if the potential has any question, to let you know. So you send it and wait in eager anticipation for the green light on this new cool project.
And you wait. And wait.
And the potential client, who contacted you in the first place, never contacts you again.
The sensitive designer then starts to build stories in their head. Maybe I’m charging too much? Maybe I’m not a good designer? Maybe I’m not good enough to run a business?
All I can say to that is stop it. You are not the issue unless you actually do a self-evaluation and uncover a faux pas. In this case, the client themselves are notable ideal client. For the first point, they didn’t even bother to send a reply thanking you for your time. Secondly, even though they most likely contacted you after seeing examples of your work, they weren’t expecting to actually pay for the value you provide. Both of these are huge red flags, pointing to one obvious truth: this is not a client you want to even bother with. Nothing to see here: move along, move along…
Summary
In the end, you have to determine what characteristics and requirements make up your own ideal client. The same can be said to clients when determining who their ideal designer could be. While you can work with someone who is not ideal or who is in reality downright incompatible, the ideal characteristics can easily turn a job or project into a pleasure.
Your own list of what makes an an Ideal Client may be similar… or vastly different from what I’ve detailed.
What are the things that you are looking for in an ideal client or designer? Feel free to share them in the comments below. I’d love to hear your thoughts.