A short presentation about some best practices of freelance and commission work for art students.

1. Professor Keith Ellis
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2. How to Find the Job 2

3. Where NOT to find work
• Family and Close Friends
• Stock and Template Sites
• Spec Work/Contests
• Crowdsourcing Sites like 99Designs or Crowdspring
• Anyone who says it will be “good for your portfolio”
3

4. Much better options
• Art Events like openings, festivals and fairs
• Bars/Coffeehouses/Music Venues
• Other Artists (i.e. subcontracting)
• Business Meetups
• Finding a Gap in a client’s needs and filling it
• General Self-Promotion (websites, any sort of public 4
exposure)

5. What to say
• Be social!
• Just be excited about what you do. Talk about your last
project and be positive.
• Never ever ask if they need anything from you. Let them
ask if you are available.
• Get contact information and follow up with a breezy email
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6. You’ve Got the Job, Now What? 6

7. Negotiation
• Have a long talk with the client about what they want and
what they need, which are two different things!
• Get a feel of what resources you have available for both
your own work and the client (physical space, hosting,
research).
• You need to make sure you have the skills necessary to
complete the job, or access to those you can bring in to
supplement your skills if necessary.
• Feel out their budget. Is it realistic? Don’t ask point blank 7
as this can be construed as money grubbing.

8. Pricing
• Always provide a quote after negotiation. Only give a
ballpark if you must at negotiation, but commit to nothing.
Have the client sign off on the quote. Spell out your general
responsibilities in the quote.
• Figuring out a price is always the hardest part and it IS
flexible depending on your experience, relationship to the
client and location.
• To get an idea of your rate, use professional organizations
like AIGA or SAP. They often survey salaries in order to get
an average. 8

9. Pricing-continued
• Once you settle on an hourly rate, you need to figure out
how much time it will take you to produce. This only comes
with experience. Don’t forget time for ideation, meetings,
collecting materials. Any time spent towards the project
counts.
• Personally I find it is better to give a flat rate than to show
the client your hourly. Many will balk at that number and
micromanage your time.
• Make sure you add in expenses for pricey materials if it is
relevant. You may mark it up 10% – 20% to cover 9
eventualities (underestimating amounts, mistakes, etc.)

10. Pricing-continued
• Some clients might want you to manage bigger monetary
issues like printing, hosting, framing or shipping. Charge
your time for managing but do not be responsible for the
cost.
• There are two payment plans I recommend
• Half up front, half on delivery. This is good for having upfront
money for materials, but requires the trust of the client.
• Starting out a third up front, a third on approval, and a third on
delivery. This requires less startup money on the client’s part,
but means you have to ask for money more often.
• Assume any client that does not want to pay some money
up front is planning on screwing you. 10

11. Contracts
• For very small jobs, a signed quote can be sufficient.
• Anything bigger, you should have a contract with your client. This
should spell out what is your responsibility and what is the
client’s.
• There are some generic contracts for free on sites like
docracy.com.
• Rights to the work and a timeline for work and for payment are
other important parts of the document.
• If the job is big enough ($3k or more), it is in your interest to get
a lawyer to draft the document tailored to the job. 11

12. Rights
• There are three types of rights situations to consider.
• The default rights is the artists own their work. If it is not
explicitly stated, this is the case, but it’s the artist’s burden
to prove it. Keep your emails and other documentation.
• Licensing: Your are selling the rights for a limited time or
limited use. This can be exclusive or not, but ultimately the
rights revert to the artist if the licensing expires.
• Work for hire: This is the most common. You are
transferring the rights to your work to the client. You don’t
own the work anymore. Make sure in your contract, you 12
have some language allowing for self promotion.

13. Other considerations
• Make sure you have a solid understanding of copyright on
any materials you use.
• If other people are involved in your work (models and/or
actors), you need to have a model release for each .
• If there are any special considerations to your work, such as
maintenance, cleaning, repair, etc, these should be spelled
out in the contract as well.
13

14. During and After the Job 14

15. Meetings
• Plan for certain meetings. You should have one meeting for
direction, one for approval and one for tweaks at least.
• When you show the client, it’s good to have two or three
options. Have one that is exactly what they asked for and
one that is your direction. Do NOT show everything.
• Always meet in person, if possible. It is far easier to read a
client’s reaction and respond to it in real life rather than via
email. Sometimes it is unavoidable.
• Never give the client your files until final payment. If you
have to send them work, send it in PDF format, at a low 15
resolution and/or watermarked.

16. Finalization
• Make sure the final design is signed off by someone with
authority before it goes into production. You do not want to have
to reprint or reconstruct your work.
• Make sure you leave everything your client would need (files for a
variety of situations, spare parts, etc.). Give them files in two
formats. I prefer disc and Dropbox these days.
• Make sure there is documentation for use and/or maintenance
and they are written in layman’s terms.
• Get your final check before you hand off anything final!
• Taxes (duh, duh duh). If you make under $1000, you don’t need to
report unless you get a W9, otherwise if you make more you
should report regardless. 16

17. The Next Job
• Even if the job did not go ideally, always try to leave it on a
professional note.
• Do not bad mouth the client as you never know who they
know, especially in a small town like Marquette!
• You often can get multiple jobs from a former client, either
directly or through their friends or associates.
• Make sure the client doesn’t take advantage of you with
constant after-the-fact changes that were not in the
quote/contract. 17

18. Questions? 18