Freelance Woes!

Freelancing, most of the times, is a tough job. And that too, in India, wherein design is underrated and people compromise when it comes to good design. I try to explain the design to the client and take inputs from him/her. But, it gets difficult if the client is not clear about what he/she wants.

A month back I was commissioned to do a flash presentation for a budding ad agency. Observe that I underlined the word budding in order to highlight the qualities of a budding agency in India. They try to desperately comply with the current standards. At times, they don’t even shy away from aping the famous and established ones in their sector! Appalling. And the experience I had is something of this sort.

I went to the agency (I had a tough time locating their office) and waited for a long time for the agency head to come. Finally, he arrived and showed me some examples on the internet about how he wanted his presentation. I showed him my work so that he could expect what kind of work I could deliver in the end. He seemed to be impressed by my work. He drew a small sketch and asked me to work in similar lines. On my way back home, I thought about the template and I finalized on a design, mentally.

I went home and designed the master slide template and the page templates in Photoshop. They looked like the ones shown below. Click on the images to see their original size.

I thought that I’d design the flowers in red if he doesn’t like pink. Then, he said he’d like something corporate. That’s a good way to make the I-don’t-like-it sentence look otherwise. So, I designed the following templates and gave them a web 2.0 feel so as to make them look corporate.

I thought that he’d like this template. This time, the follow-up mail came with an attachment. It was a power point presentation of a famous ad agency that does similar work as that of this budding agency. I was asked to do something similar to it. I couldn’t understand that. It didn’t contain any graphics and moreover, it is just a Power Point presentation with white background. And I’m totally against copying someone else’s work or imitating them.

So, I decided to go to his office and talk to him face to face. He said he wanted something like the attachment he sent. I thought that he wanted something minimal in design. Apart from that, he wanted me to write copy for each of the sections that their agency deals with. That’s where I got stuck! How could I know about the things that the agency does. I don’t work in his office. I just have no clue about what they do! Then, how could I create copy? I thought I would try! But that was my mistake. Anyway, I designed something very minimal in Flash i.e., the following designs.

I sent him the basic Flash presentation instead of Photoshop designs and he said that it is very good. I didn’t like it much. Then, he again insisted on copy writing. I replied that it would be better if he provides me with some brief as I don’t know much about their agency. He said that he’d need some time. Since then, there came no reply from his side.

Anyway, I didn’t regret about it as I got some experience in freelancing. It’s far better than my first freelance work for a web design where the client was trying to get his work done for a cheaper rate and he was insistent on including design elements that looked terrible. I took myself out of that project as the client was arrogant and unethical (he copied another defunct company’s logo from the internet to make his own logo all by himself and worst of all, he supports his deed! The way he said this thing was really appalling.)

Finally, I used the corporate look template for my portfolio assignment in the college. And you can look at the presentation by clicking here. And that’s how clients would be, at times. You would get confused trying to figure what they really want. I see a lot of bad designs over hoardings, shops etc. I wonder how the designers got the clients’ acceptance for such terrible designs. I realize that in freelancing, good convincing skills are important more than good design. As far as I’m concerned, I try to honestly portray my designs and I don’t play tricks to get bad designs out on display. It’s not only unethical but it leaves a feeling of guilt.

Note: The name of the agency has been changed to keep it confidential.

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~ by Saawan on March 24, 2008.