The project that I got has turned into almost a full-fledged job and ya'll won't hear me complaining about it. I love doing graphic design. Working in Photo Shop is my therapy. It's like an electronic coloring/sticker book for me. I concentrate so intently on what I'm doing, even if it's just erasing backgrounds, that I don't have time to think of the mountains of laundry or the pile of dishes that beckon none so seductively at me. Nope, submerge me into .jpgs, brushes, layers and styles and I'm immune to most anything. How immune, you ask? So damn immune that at times I've ignored the warning signs my body has given me regarding crucial bodily functions -- such as eating, sleeping and peeing.
Yeah, not good.
So annnnyway - this particular client has not only ordered up e-cards from me, he has also asked me to redo his main logo for his site, as well as create a banner/header for a site he is building for a friend of his, which he is paying me very well to do. That's a good thing because here were his instructions. "Bisa, make the image 700px by 125px and don't make it very cluttered." I mean, he doesn't even have a clue as to what colors he's going to use for the site, other than to say the background will be white.
*blink*
Yeah ... so that leaves me a lot of latitude, which I normally love, but dayum, it also leaves vast amounts of space for going totally off in the wrong direction, but then again it affords me the freedom to "work the magic" as he puts it. I'm very thankful for that. It blows my mind when someone sees my work and goes on and on about how much they love my style and the way that I put things together, then ask me to create something for them and give me a friggen laundry list of things that it must have, totally blowing my creativity out of the water. Sheesh people, if you want it that detailed, do it yourself.
So far I've done 6 sample banners for him. He liked the first one, but said something was missing. The second one he hated. The third one (a version of the first with something added) he liked better. He has yet to see samples 4, 5 and 6. Numbers 4 & 5 are almost identical, just slight variations of each other. Number 6 is totally different and actually my favorite one.
He's apparently going to build the site around the banner. No pressure there, huh?
Amazingly I'm sick of looking at asses, which is something I thought this dyed in the wool ass-fetishist would never say. On the up-side, I'm getting excellent at erasing zits and scars from pics. Hey, maybe I should apply for a job with Playboy, seeing as how my airbrushing skills are improving rapidly. :)
After getting this current banner done, I'll be doing two more for his site, with him wanting a new banner each month after that, along with the e-cards. He's also going to get me started on redesigning and doing the layouts for his DVD and VHS movie covers. I've got to sit down and figure out how much to charge him for those. He asked me how much I'd charge him when I redid his logo and I drew a blank. Geeze, I've never charged anyone for any of my work and I had no clue. I popped off an amount, which amazingly coincides with what the lower end of the payscale for graphic artists is. I figure that's fair, seeing as how it's not like I have any formal education in this stuff. Besides, I'm happy with the amount because it leaves me room to go up in my rates, as well as keeps me marketable. For the banners I will be paid a flat fee, which is one that we both agreed on and is fair for both of us. :)
Here's the thing I couldn't figure out though when he asked me how much he owed me for the logo. I did 6 samples of the logo, with different variations. He sent me the main graphic and wanted me to "make it pop, but don't alter the graphic itself." It was a cartoon image that he had drawn and he uses it on every section of his site, so once the basic revision was done, it was just a matter of changing the wording under the image. With Photo Shop that's a piece of cake, taking only as long to change it as it takes me to highlight the text and type the new text in it's place. It took me two hours to do all 6 samples. That ONE took me all of 15 minutes to do. So I was stumped when it came time to "bill" him. I was like "Hmm do I bill for the time it took to create the ONE that he actually bought, or do I bill for the time it took to come up with the whole presentation?" My business side said "the whole two hours, ya gooberhead!", because even though the actual creation of it only took 15 minutes, it did take the whole 2 hours to get to that one, so it was a process. I also spent time thinking and planning, not just doing the actual work on it. Kinda like how a lawyer works, no? lol
So I told him "S, it took two hours to come up with that logo." and he was like "Great! I'll get the money right out to you."
*blink blink*
Damn, that was easy.
On the advice of a friend I set up a paypal account to make the transfer of money easier. I know he uses paypal to collect membership fees, so it shouldn't be a problem with him just paying my paypal out of his paypal, but that's something that I need to talk to him about when he finally decides on this banner.
Also, having the paypal account will help with future clients. :)
~~~~~~~~~~
The kids are gone this weekend, which gives me the freedom to work on the graphics. Kinda hard to get into a raunchy creative groove when you have to minimize the screen every 15 minutes to answer questions, kiss boo-boos or referee fights, yanno?
The comments section will be back up shortly. I got the confirmation for it and it's just a matter of pasting the coding back into the template. But first I need to go grab something to eat. It's 3:00 pm and I've yet to have breakfast.
See ... told ya I forget the important stuff.
Until next time~
Words and Images � bisa-pet