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This week's deal is on photo-realistic mock-ups that show your designs on clothing!

> Seriously, it looks like you had a shirt made already!

It's been said that an entrepreneur's first business is a t-shirt company. That's because this ubiquitous piece of clothing is easy to print, customize and sell! Whether you're designing a new fashion line, polo shirts for a corporate retreat, or just showing how versatile your logo design really is, this mock-up pack will let you show your clients exactly how good your designs look on actual clothing. These mock-ups even show how your design would bend and wrinkle with the fabric! Seeing is believing, and it's way easier to sell your concepts to a client when they can see how they would actually look when printed!

Normally these templates would sell for $350 altogether, or you could buy one at a time every time you tried to sell a shirt - but for the next week you can get all 170+ templates and cover your bases forever for only $17! That's 95% off!

> Check out the deal here.

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I worked on a logo for over a month with an out-of-state client. After I provided many different logo options and proofs for them, they still had no idea what they wanted.

Client: Yeah these are good I guess, but I think maybe something that represents our brand more, and what we do less.

Me: I’m not entirely sure what you mean. I’ve given you more than enough ideas to work with, each designed to your requests for them at the time. Can you give me some other specific examples of what you would like your logo to look like?

Client: We just don’t really know. We were hoping you could be creative and go crazy and see what you can come up with that makes our brand look sexy!

Me: (Staring at the email chain) I have given you some of my original ideas already, and without any clear direction on where I should take it, I’m at a loss for what to do for you at this point.

Client: We like #2, but can you add some “shimmer” to it?

They sent me metallic gradient examples of what they wanted it to look like.

Me: I can do the gradients, but a metallic texture that is that detailed would be difficult to reproduce as a vector image. There is lots of complex shading and lines that may not turn out correctly if I try to convert this to a vector image. And it may end up looking cluttered and unattractive; remember, when we started you said you wanted this logo to look "clean." 

Client: Yeah we like the gradients, but can you make it shimmer like the colors that are on it? We like the look of the colors and how they fade into each other, but if you can’t do that then we can just do a gradient.

Me: …

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Client: (excitedly) The company is expanding so quickly I’m running out of room to put your desks, by the time my new employee, Jahamal, gets here well have to hang him from the rafters!

She pointed to the ceiling while she said it.

Me: (internally) I really hope Jamahal isn’t African American.

He was.

Think about what you’re saying.

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I work for a sign shop in the center of a major city. Our shop’s profits come from the printing, production, and installation of signs. Designs move signs, so it’s in our best interest to deliver effective designs with first-time approvals so they’re printed and produced as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, some customers want hundreds of dollars worth of design time for free. To combat this, I have a strict four-proof policy, adding a $15 charge for each additional proof. One particular customer, having used their last complimentary proof, got creative and gave me a call.

Client: Before we move forward, I was wondering if you tell me the sizing of some of the words.

Me: Alright no problem, I can do that.

Client: What’s the sizing of [company name]?

Me: That comes out to X by Y

Client: Awesome, awesome, umm, what size does it come out to if we reduce the tagline to this size and increase  [company name]’s Y to this size?

Me: After shrinking your tagline and increasing [company name]’s X to this size, the Y is this size.

Client: Alright, that doesn’t sound too bad, uhhh, let’s try…

She proceeds to drown me in different graphic sizing variations. At this point, I realized what she was doing: Having me make live changes. It was good, pretty clever, and it had me going, but, I can’t waste my time figuring out what a customer doesn’t want.

Me: Those are all very doable changes, but, I’m going to need you to send me the different variations you’d like to see to our company email, so I can have a point of reference for your next proof.

Client: W-what? Can you just make the changes over the phone? We don’t need to see another proof, we can hash this out now.

Me: I apologize ma'am, but, it’s company policy to only receive changes via email, and you have quite a few changes.

It’s not really company policy, but, it’s my policy, it’s outlined in every proof email and my boss supports it.

Client: Uhhh, okaaaaay, I’ll get going on that email.

Me: Thank you, we’ll keep an eye out for the email.

Later on, the client tried to circumvent the proofing policy by trying to talk to the other designer, and by contacting a different CSR to try to create another order so the proof count would “reset.” Sadly, the designer was eager to prove themselves the “superior” designer and the CSR was commission-hungry.

The simple and small sign’s design process was dragged out over four days, the designer and CSR lost more time than money, and I revelled in every minute of it.

Morals of the story: 1) A client that knows what they want is a client that knows what they don’t want. If a client doesn’t know what they want, they also don’t know what they don’t want. 2) There’s always someone who’ll put in more time for less money

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Client: I need you to design me a banner for this event.

Me: Ok. What do you want it to look like and say?

Client: Whatever you like. I trust you. Now hop to it.

Me: (Sigh) I need more info to work from. If you’re vague and non-descriptive it’ll end up like [previous bad commision]. You haven’t even told me where the banner is going so I have no clue what the size or dimensions you’ll need are.

Client: It doesn’t matter to me. Just make sure it’s high resolution and a square rectangle.

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A long time ago I did some work for a bakery that had been on the market for a few years.

They wanted to change the appearance of the labels they stuck on the packaged goods - cookies, crackers, pound cakes and the like. New laws required that a lot more information about the product be featured on the label. Unfortunately, the size of the stickers themselves remained the same but the bakery still wanted to keep the images that didn't convey any information. That was understandable, but it posed a real challenge because I had to fit in a lot of new text in such a way that the whole thing didn't look cramped or tacky.

I did a bunch of brainstorming and ended up with four very different looks to make sure the management would like at least one of them. I was proud of how efficiently I was able to display the information while keeping it looking good. 

I took the proofs to the client, and he went from being impressed to angry and panicked. 

Client: WHERE are my barcodes?

Note one: There was never a mention about any barcodes while we had been discussing the job.

Note two: Having barcodes on labels at that time was still only optional.

Note three: they didn't already have barcodes, and seemed to expect us to design them... in Photoshop. 

Note four: The customer was my dad. 

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Client: Your writing feels a bit fragmented. It needs to be more passionate and go deep into the subject. 

Me: Awesome. Could you tell me what parts are fragmented and show me examples of what you're looking for? 

Client: I'd rather you feel it out. Have fun! 

Confused, I went back and tried to give it more of a personality.

Client: This is too casual. I'm looking for something professional. 

Me: This is what happens when you give no direction.

Client: I know. My apologies. I wanted to see what you would do with no direction.

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I run a successful writing business and have for the past 7 years. My client base has grown through personal social media advertisement and referrals from previous clients who often return themselves. Out of the blue, with no requests/advertisement on my end, a previous client of mine texted me with a “writing job.” They do not personally know me, I don’t even know their name, they texted me directly, and they know nothing about the details of my business and client base  

Client: Hey, Happy New Year! Are you still writing?

Me: Thanks, you too. And yes, I am.

Client: Great, can I call you about an assignment?

Me: I don’t have time to speak on the phone right now and any requests have to be submitted ______ as usual. I’ll be glad to take a look at it when I receive it and if we need to discuss further, we can set a time.

Client: It’s actually more of a writing job offer but it sounds like you don’t want it.

Me: I get these requests daily, if you’d like to submit/email it to me, like I said I’ll be glad to take a look.

Client: Look, I think you’re a great writer but your business is missing an entire market. I’m offering to be a salesperson or middle man. You guarantee me a set price of $10 per page, and I refer people to you. I’d set my own price with them, discuss with them, handle the exchange, and then send you your cut.

 

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Break the Creative's Curse with Todd Brison!

What's keeping YOU from being creative? Discipline? Scheduling? Good old fashioned "writer's block"?

Todd Brison has made a name for himself by tackling these problems head-on and discovering how to make the most of your muse. In his extremely popular posts on Medium and his two amazing books The Unstoppable Creative and The Creative's Curse, he breaks down strategies for doing creative work whenever you need!

This episode is like one of the best creative coaching sessions you'll ever get. Tune in!

Today's links: 

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Order a custom infographic from Easel.ly! Use this link (https://www.easel.ly/infographicdesign/) for a great price! 

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Download here!

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I work as a freelance prepress tech for a print broker. An old client of theirs, a CPA, had split off from their firm to go solo and needed newly branded collateral. They sent us a low-res, pixelated logo, with the words "Tax & Accounting Solutions" under it, hoping we could make use of it. The broker quoted them for my time to recreate the logo in vector, which they agreed to.

A few days later, after some back and forth on their design, the client requested some additional text on a second line under their logo. They emailed us another file showing what they wanted... which was a clean vector PDF of the logo I had just recreated.

My contact at the broker said, "Oh well, I'm charging them anyway."

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