Ask an artist about his work and he will unravel all the precious moments that he cherish. From brainstorming to getting inspired and to harnessing pieces of thoughts to fruition of the conceived notion; each and every step in the designing process is an exalting and an enriching experience for a designer. All these treasured moments turn into a nightmare and regret, when an artist or a designer does not get what he worth. Indeed, it’s tough being a graphic designer where you put all your effort and energy and don’t get paid for what you deserve.
Araxie Yeretsian, who is a graphic designer at The Dartmouth Company brought to limelight an issue that almost every designer faces. In her question, she enquired about any website or a forum where designers can backlist clients who do not pay because one of her clients vanished after taking up work from her. Yeretsian wrote,
“An interesting situation came up recently in a freelance design role I picked up this past month. I completed the work and counseled this woman on the do’s and don’ts of her business model, did the usual design work revolving around her small business (including brochures, a website and some design assets,) showed her how to edit some of the pdf’s and when the time came to pay the bill, well, she vanished. She’s an older woman who says computer graphics shouldn’t be expensive, "you guys just hit keys and something comes up." This hasn’t been the first time this situation has occurred with an older client, especially given the generation gap, I still have a hard time explaining to people what it is I actually do. I’m sure some designers can relate. Now onto my initial question, this woman without paying me, is hell-bent on finding another designer. I would hate for someone else to come across this situation, I’m unaware of a place/website exists for this type of thing, but where on Earth could you list people to avoid when doing design work?”
Isn’t it an incredible thing to have such a forum where designers can enlist all the deadbeats? But sadly, the reality is far-fetched from it and we lack such forums to protect designers and honor the hard work they put in their work. This question stirred a lot of enthusiasm and passion among fellow designers to empathize with Yerestsian and they also suggested a number of tricks to deal with clients who refuse to pay.
Graphic designer, Darian Shanty put forwarded the idea of keeping upfront money and a whole bunch of people suggested the same idea of taking some amount from clients in advance to keep yourself safe from any sort of swindle.
Darian Shanty wrote:
“50% upfront always! Never give finalized artwork or files until payment has been received. Unfortunately you will learn as you go what works best for you. Everyone on here has a lot of good advice!”
Followed by Shant, Holloway Martin also presented the same idea and wrote:
“I take 50% up front to commence work, send low res PNGs of the work in progress until approval, then 50% balance due if they want the high res, native files.”
Michael Kane, who is a website designer further added:
“Always get a proportion of the fee upfront. I mainly do web design so it’s a flat 33% of the initial estimate. Another 33% is due near end of development but before site launch and submission to search engines. The balance including any additional charges for tasks outside the agreed estimate/ quote is due within 15 days after launch. This provides enough time for snagging.”
Besides these design enthusiasts a number of other professionals also suggested the same tactic to safeguard yourself from fraudulent client. All these comments reflect that taking a percentage of your charges is the norm; however, the ratio and method may vary.
In addition to taking advance payment, Ron Zisman, a communication design specialist mentioned the idea of reaching to claim courts and asserted that:
“Small claims court is cheap and easy and you can represent yourself. If you have a contract, it’s even easier. I’m old school, so I get a third upfront, a third at an agreed upon mid-point and a third on delivery. NO copyright is transferred until bill is paid in full. In over 40 years, I’ve only been to court once. At this point, it’s not worth the anguish and obsessed mind state to go through the regular court system. You’d be better off just moving on and take it as a lesson learned.”
Nick Carter supported this idea and said:
“The most effective blacklist you can use to list bad debtors is the one with the courts. If payment is being withheld but you have fulfilled your obligations on a mutually agreed contract then the best route to resolution is via a court judgment.”
Undoubtedly, going to claim court is one of the legit options that a designer can consider to deal with bed debtors, but this too doesn’t come without any hassles. First, you have to pay a fee to your lawyer and secondly, it also has a certain level of risk of derailing your reputation. As rightly pointed out by Richard Scheid:
“Your best choice would be to hire a lawyer to intervene on your behalf. Depending on the amount owed it could be worth the amount to have a lawyer draw up an official letter.”
In addition to reaching court and taking amount in advance, some people also suggested important resources such as Mass.gov and Rip Off Report that can aid designers to know about the intricate details about the process of approaching coat and filing the report any such mishaps.
In a nutshell, it can be iterated that it’s not only the field of designing where a creator and an artist comes in contact with a fraudulent client, but the cases of similar nature are prevalent in almost every field. Like Araxie, there are countless designers who work hard, create and deliver on time to clients, but they don’t get paid. The advice to reach to a claim court and taking some amount in advance are practical as well as legit. However, it is also imperative to take particular circumstances and consequences into consideration while choosing any of the precautionary modes.
