Why Is It?

[mrlich]

 Why is it that every time someone asks me to do illustration work for them they feel the need to insist "It should be something easy for you." or "I'm sure you can whip that out in no time."

If it's so easy, then why aren't you doing it yourself and saving the money?

Because it's not. That's why you're hiring me.

I'm envisioning people greeting their surgeon with "Oh - it shouldn't be any big deal for you - you've done all that schooling, worked hard, and got some experience under your belt. You should be able to rip out my appendix in seconds! So let's say you give me a discount huh?"

/end grumbleBitchMoan

Comments

[boutell.livejournal.com]

Ayup. I know very well what the time of designers and illustrators is worth. Anyone who doubts that design is worth the money should try looking at something designed and illustrated by (shudder) me.

[mrlich.livejournal.com]

Heh. And here I find myself thinking: "Yeah, but at least Tom puts his heart into it!"

[mrlich.livejournal.com]

Thanks chica.

Yeah - I imagine it's a fairly universal pain. Just fucking annoying when I'm looking through eLance stuff and people are offering what amounts to minimum wage (or less) and using phrases like "should be a quick job" or "it'll be easy for you to knock out..."

[trotsky-nj.livejournal.com]

First of all, you didn't have a grumblebitchmoan tag at the beginning of the rant, so it totally doesn't display right. (And I tried it on Safari, Firefox, Chrome, IE, Opera and an Etch-a-sketch.)

Second - dude. I feel your pain. People, for whatever reason, don't think of art as work. No matter how many times you point them to The Agony and the Ecstasy, all they can say is "Well, it's not like you're doing the Sistine Chapel for me, right?"

Third - they think it's easy because you're talented. More so than they. And for them, the concept of "more talented" hasn't advanced past the idea of a faster kid beating them in the 50 yard dash in gym class. They equate talent with efficiency, which is pretty effing stupid when you examine it for a moment.

Anyway, buck up camper. These are your benefactors, your clients, so you put up with them. So long as the money (or the project) makes it worthwhile.
Happy New Year!

[mrlich.livejournal.com]

All too true.

I will say that I'm currently fortunate enough to not have any of these clients at this very moment. I did the post based on jobs I was reading on eLance.

On the plus side, you may have inspired me just now to create a very specific video. I'll post it if I make it. :)

[trotsky-nj.livejournal.com]

I'm so happy to be your inspiration. :-)

[ms-violet.livejournal.com]

This is such a catch-22.

I've had experiences where I've been told exactly that; you can do this quickly and easily like ripping off a band-aid. I then see myself presented with two choices:

1)Do it quickly and easily like ripping off a band-aid, risking my professional reputation i.e., "she sent me the shittiest, terse e-mail, why should I bother seeing this show she's talking about?"

2)Put in the time and have the respondent say, "That was such a nice e-mail she sent."

If I wore glasses I would wish I could put a little meter in the bottom right hand corner of my eyeglass frames so I could pretend it's me racking up karma points.

[lexica510.livejournal.com]

Non-recommended response: "Do I come to your work and ask you to give me fries for free?"

I think my mother's reply was along the lines of, "I do this for a living; I don't give it away. I'm willing to negotiate for something other than cash in exchange if my rate is more than you can afford, but I don't give it away."

[mrlich.livejournal.com]

"Do I come to your work and ask you to give me fries for free?"

It's not as though I didn't know this already, but I just feel the need to point out that you rock.

I'm going to have to say that at some point. I don't know who, and I don't know when, but at some point...

[glamour-junkie.livejournal.com]

Its really amazing to me just how many people out there think that what we do (illustration/design) "must be fun all the time!" and therefore we don't really need to get paid more than minimum wage for it.
I signed up to Guru.com and EVERY.SINGLE.design job that gets emailed to me is like "look I can't afford a lot this is like 30 images to photoshop I can pay you $50 its really simple you should be able to do it rally fast" (typos included).
It fills me with rage. I know exactly what you mean.
I have no advice you couldn't reason up on your own. I just sympathize. :)

[mrlich.livejournal.com]

Yeah. The problem is that it's a supply and demand kinda world. The supply of really good clients is painfully small, so the demand for them is painfully high. The clients who think we 'can do it rally fast!!11ONE'? Well, you know.

[matrushkaka.livejournal.com]

WORD.

[mrlich.livejournal.com]

...to your Mom?

[spiritualmonkey.livejournal.com]

...I came to spread balms,
I got more rhymes than hair on my palms
And just like the bong-hittin' ape, I've returned
Rippin' and passin' it after my turn
'Cause I got toe-shoes and hella like 'em
I'm up and climbin' trees when not out bikin'

[mrlich.livejournal.com]

To hell with tending bar. Sounds like you need to turn that mercenary nature towards showmanship. ;)

[762nato.livejournal.com]

I have to drop off barbeque next time I make some. Oh okay. I will tell you where to meet the rest of my group when the zombie apocalypse arrives.