Two weeks ago, I met with a client about my first real paying design gig — putting together the program for a local event to be held in late March. They had contacted one of my former professors at UHCL, and he put them in touch with me. When we met, and they found out that I am not simply a student, but that I am working on a design degree and doing the odd job here and there on the side, they seemed a little thrown. But we talked about what they needed, and they gave me all the materials from last year including a sample and four CDs worth of files. They asked how much I charged, and I was honest with them: I told them that I would talk with my professor to come up with a reasonable rate considering what they needed done and my experience level.
We communicated via email over the past two weeks, organizing the project and what needed to be done at what point. The event is in late March, and the printer requires 10 working days. That put our “to-printer” date sometime in the middle of the first week of March. Their deadline to the event participants to get their photos and other materials in was March 1.
That deadline would leave me exactly 3 days to put together an entire program for an event. Three days. Not nearly enough time to do quality work. So I expressed my concern that the timeline was too tight for me to do an acceptable job and asked if the deadline for participant submissions could be moved up to next weekend. They seemed amenable to that, and we were working towards that new date, which would leave me a full week to put together the program.
Last night I finally heard from my professor and sent the client an email with my hourly rate, along with an estimate of how many hours I expected the project to take.
This morning I checked my email before I left for work. The client emailed. They said nothing about my rate, but instead said that they were not going to be able to work with my schedule to get materials in next weekend. “Thanks anyway.”
Am I wrong to be feeling a little put-off here? I spent two weeks talking with them, and while I had not started doing any design work for them, I had started putting significant thought into what I need to get together and what kind of schedule I needed to be on. It seems a little odd that they told me they no longer needed me after I gave them a quote on the cost of the job. Maybe they thought I was too expensive. On the contrary, my rate was reasonable and much cheaper than a professional would be.
Oh well. It’s not a huge deal, and I think I’m mainly disappointed because I was looking forward to getting the experience of working for an actual client and doing some real-world work.
Moving on…
Lots of maybes here. Your rate might have been reasonable, but perhaps they didn’t think it should take as long as you thought it should (i.e., total cost). Or maybe they realized they couldn’t push up the delivery date to match your schedule and so they went with someone else.
Their loss.
No matter the reason in this case, I suggest you consider how much you really need to be paid. These first few design jobs can offer you some great experience like you said, and to make sure you get it you might want to work very cheap or even pro bono.
You should ask your prof if in the future you should ask for some sort of minimum retainer before you really get going – like $50 or $100.
Gavin, interesting suggestion. I did consider doing the job for free, though the client expected to pay for it and asked right off the bat what my rate was. The rate I gave was extremely reasonable for student work (and “student” does not imply lower quality, it simply implies less experience).
However, fundamentally I do believe that people in any profession should not be in the habit of doing significant amounts of work for free — student or not. It’s one thing to design a logo here or a simple website there on a pro bono basis, but this was a significant project that I expected to take a large number of hours. I suspect that’s where the disconnect lies — the client did not think it would take as long as I did.
Becca, another interesting idea. I think a retainer is something I’d consider in the future, but I feel like it’s too much to ask for right now with my low level of experience.
Working for free is a terrible habit and I wasn’t suggesting you make it one.
Another idea: work for a flat amount. They don’t need to know how precisely much time or what your rate is. If they’re happy with the flat amount, fine. If not, fine. And if you find you underestimated the time needed, it doesn’t cost them more.
Having dealt with many professionals lately with the wedding stuff, I’d say a retainer or consultation fee is reasonable to request once you get over an preliminary consultation. Usually you’d then apply this amount towards the work.
However most people give the first hour/ half hour of discussion for free because after this discussion you can give your rate and how much you think the project of this magnitude will take. I’m guessing a lot of your clients may have no idea about how much time it might take you to do something.
I’d also be up front and ask if they are interviewing other designers. That way you will know where you stand.
I work with in-house and freelance designers all the time — and usually one of the first things we discuss is the hourly rate and how many hours I’ve budgeted for design. Meetings, creative briefs, brainstorms, deep thought — all that is billable. Not just the hours you’re in front of your computer.
Perhaps your client was just unsophisticated or inexperienced when it comes to design projects. Bummer.
Happy to share our rates, offline of course, for comparison.