Episode 34: Compromising your morals, Pricing Work and Organising your Projects

Show Notes for This Episode:

[1:00] This week we’re back with another round of listener’s questions
[1:30] First question is from calligrapher David @masgrimes and his questions is: do you sacrifice your beliefs to get involved with projects that might promote things that are in conflict with what you believe, for either money or exposure?
[3:00] Lisa strongly believes that you shouldn’t compromise your beliefs as there is a reason why your beliefs are what they are
[3:40] She was in the position where she was asked to do a brochure for canned lion hunting and it was an absolute no from her
[5:20] The hosts strongly agree with Lisa’s decision and say that they would have also refused to work on this project
[5:40] Dustin’s terms on the website specify that the products can’t be used for pornography
[6:00] He was also asked to do something for cigarettes and he asked himself if he want to earn money from something that promotes cigarettes and decided not to do it
[6:30] Ian was asked to do a design for a sex toy shop website and decided that this was something he didn’t want to do
[7:50] There are different levels of what people don’t feel comfortable with
[8:30] While doing freelance work, Tom only accepted projects that inspired him and he was excited to work on
[9:20] The hosts agree and say you shouldn’t compromise your beliefs for working on a project
[9:50] Even if you need the money, don’t do it, as you will look back and later regret your decision
[10:40] Be sure that any company you associate your work with, won’t affect your brand name on the long term
[11:15] Dustin asks the hosts how do they feel about political situations in which the audience is split in half, do you associate yourself with one side
[12:45] Lisa suggestion is not to choose any side, but to do the morally right thing
[13:20] Ian agrees with Lisa and tries not to choose a side to be affiliated with
[15:00] Some might think differently and will have strong political views and this will feel right as they will continue to be true to themselves
[15:40] Your name is not always tied to your work, so if you truly need the money do that and don’t include the work in your portfolio
[16:30] Ian says that he wouldn’t do the work, even if other people won’t find out, as this won’t sit well with him
[17:10] But agrees he will do things that are maybe a bit more girly and would not promote these in his portfolio
[17:50] Dustin says that there is more to this question, but thinks that the general rule is to respect each other’s feelings and freedom to express themselves
[18:40] Second question is from Sierra – she does illustration, calligraphy and lettering and you can see her work @sidesignloft on Instagram. Her question is: how do you price your work competitively without pricing too low?
[20:00] Lisa speaks from her own experience and says she didn’t want to put cheap and work which wasn’t great, but instead went for quality and a bit more expensive designs
[20:30] She admits that this has turned some clients away
[21:00] Lisa’s advice to Sierra is to think where she wants to position herself in the industry
[21:40] Tom’s suggestion is to price yourself competitively
[22:30] When pricing too low you always need to consider that there’s always going to be someone pricing lower than you
[23:00] It’s okay to undercut your competitors if it gets the ball rolling
[23:20] Most important is to think how you can increase the value you give your clients, improve your skill set and make you a more valuable asset to hire
[24:00] Ian recommends The Graphic Artists’ Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines book and says it’s a good resource to explain how you’ve priced yourself
[25:00] He recently had to tweak one of his fonts and found the book useful to know how to price this type of work
[25:50] He sais he would rather price himself higher and do less jobs that are better paid than many smaller jobs
[26:40] A serious client will either have a set budget in mind or they will negotiate with you on price
[27:00] Pricing needs to be fluid and there isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ situation
[27:30] Consider all aspects of dealing with an individual vs. working with a bigger corporation
[28:00] Tom is uncomfortable to reveal his budget as he thinks this puts the designer in control
[29:00] Dustin agrees and he would rather know the cost of the work up front
[30:00] Ian reveals he sometimes uses the available budget option
[30:30] Showing a base price is very helpful for the client as they will know what to expect for their available budget
[31:00] Lisa provides her clients with a price range
[31:40] Pricing shouldn’t be a race to the bottom – you should respect your work and your time and in return respect you client’s money and give them a good service
[32:40] Tom reveals he would like to test some companies who are not transparent on pricing by sending them emails pretending to be a small client vs. a big corporation and find their asking price for each
[33:50] Lisa says she sometimes is willing to drop the price, work with the client’s budget and explain to them that they won’t be getting the full package
[34:30] Dustin reveals he would drop the price for a big corporation if it could potentially bring more customers in the long term
[35:30] There’s more that needs to be considered than just the finances
[36:00] Dustin gives James Altucher’s example on how he did lots of websites for famous movies for a very low price and created a great portfolio for himself
[36:40] Lisa thinks that having big clients names in your portfolio might scare some smaller clients away
[37:00] Tom talks about some campuses initial resistance to Facebook
[38:00] The final question is from Rebekah @bekah_isaiah53design and she asks how to organise her files as a new designer and how to organise each project?
[39:30] Lisa says she even ended up a double of a product as she couldn’t keep track of the files she had
[40:00] She has started a system of tracking old client files by opening a job ticket for each client and attributing a number to the job ticket
[40:50] Ian had a similar way of tracking files at his old job but admits that he is not as good at organising his client’s files now
[41:50] The host admit they’re all guilty of giving their files very generic and similar names and struggling later to find the right one
[42:40] Lisa uses a links file to find her projects
[43:40] When the work is completed and gone to print, Ian will create a final package in Id with all the client’s assets
[44:00] Tom mentions a lot of people use Adobe Bridge to organise their files but the hosts reveal they weren’t so keen on this due the program’s pop-up option
[45:00] There are however many people who are using this software and find it very useful
[45:30] Tom used a folder for Materials, one for Mood Boards, WIP and a final folder with Deliverable for clients
[46:00] Lisa recommends including the job number on the client’s invoice so that when they need something you can find it easier using the tracking number
[47:00] She also used to add the job numbers on the actual project files
[48:00] For storage Tom recommends using a cloud service as he doesn’t like the idea of external drives
[48:40] Dustin says he uses the Dropbox Premium on which he periodically updates his files
[50:00] Dustin mentions DaisyDisk – a software which analyses your disk storage and frees up disk space on your computer
[51:00] The hosts have received a lot of listeners questions so they plan to have a new episode soon to discuss these
[52:00] Thanks you so much for listening to this week’s episode