Bad experience?

[jonze]

Hello! I hope there hasn't already been a thread for this but I did a search and couldn't find it! If it's already done, I'm sorry!
I'm new to web design. I recently accepted my first job designing a site. I offered to do the job for free because I'm trying to get a few sites built so I can get my portfolio online.

Anyway, this Lady, she wanted to revamp her site so that it was "Diva-licious, with a religious flair" I like my sites to be clean and simple, but I had to make an exception for this one.. I made what I thought was a nice site, it had purple colour scheme with a nice Script font logo, and a bible quote thrown in there. I sent a screenshot of the design and a few variations and she seemed happy with it.

Then I sent her an email and she didn't get back to me. I sent another the next day still no reply.

I went to her site and found that, not only had she got someone else to make her site, this other person had charged her, made a really tacky site, with an especially creepy header, AND the site wasn't even working properly! I was so angry! Not only was my site better (and I'm not being gloaty, I'm very modest and self critical so it would take an exceptional level of crappiness for me to know for sure that I was better) but I was working for free!! I was polite to her, I sent her all my designs for approval, I listened to her ideas (no matter how tacky) and in my opinion, I was doing a good job for my first proper job. (I don't want to post any links because I don't want to get a bad reputation, even though I'm feeling very, very bitter at this woman)

Anyway, I'm still looking for a moral to my story :P I wasted a week and a half of my life and turned down another job.
I was just wondering, is this the kind of stuff I should expect?
Should I compromise everything I've learned about design to meet the customers needs or should I get a bit more aggressive about enforcing good designs? If a client refused to believe that their are certain standards in site design, would you give up the job?

I'd love to hear some other peoples horror stories, or any ridiculous requests.

[Toon]

The moral of the story is 'DON'T WORK FOR FREE' do you think they would have treated you badly if it was going to cost them a few grand?

Free work generally means they can be as demanding and disrespectful as possible and it doesn't cost them a penny, there's other way to get experience. Work for non-profit organizations who will be honored to have somebody help them out for free.

[jonze]

You're right :P I'm way too nice! I've thought about doing some work for charities etc.
There was one I tried to contact, because they represented an issue I believed in and I wanted to help, but found out they don't exist anymore :(

I've posted on a few forums saying I'm willing to work for free until I get my portfolio off the ground, and I thought that would help me, but I've so far only received two offers!

What I really want to know is, does stuff like this happen often? Can clients be assholes often and what are other peoples bad experiences.

Thanks for the advice :D

[Toon]

Again the cheaper the work the cheaper the client, if somebodies willing to spend $2000 on a logo design the first thing you learn is.....

• They are a professional and profitable company who take their image and future very seriously
  
• They understand that to make money you have to spend money
  
• They understand that a quality product costs
  
• They understand that what you do for a living is a skill and going for cheaper option will also cheapen the project as a whole

You find that when people come looking for you to work for them it's a whole different experience as to when you're putting yourself out there desperate for work. Make sure you respect yourself and be sure others do as well otherwise it could end up as low quality clients all the way, start off how you mean to go on.

[paddy]

Succinctly put Toon.

My rule of thumb is do personal, creative work for portfolio building exercises and always try to charge for work you do for others.

[jonze]

I've been trying to get personal work but was even more unsuccessful than offering it free online! Most the people I know don't even own computer's, and definitely don't need websites! I have two finished websites:
The Blanchardstown Centre
The Scanning Bureau | Home
Both are not really good representations of where I am now, in terms of skill/design.
I didn't charge for either, one was a project, the second was for a friends friend friend or something :P
How much do you think I could get away with charging for these? They both took about a week.

Is there any online guides to charging for work? Like general rules, contracts etc.
Any advice anyone has to offer would be very much appreciated.

[paddy]

Originally Posted by jonze

I've been trying to get personal work but was even more unsuccessful than offering it free online!

By personal work I mean self-initiated work that you can get as creative with as you like and take as long as you want over. Brand yourself for fun and make a website about one of your hobbies etc. Just skill building exercises, really.

Doing design for fun landed me a full time position as a designer in an agency, so you don't always need to be working for other people.

[jonze]

I'll give it a try thanks :D

[El Peligroso]

Or just flick through the yellow pages or whatever, pick a company with an interesting name (or not if you want to challenge yourself) then design/re design their site. You can take as long as you need, get it looking the dogs then maybe even send them a link and see what they say...

[jonze]

Thats what I did for my first site!
Original - Blanchardstown Centre
Mine - The Blanchardstown Centre

It sucks pretty bad :P

If I build a portfolio site, do I have to provide links to my sites? I have a few sites on my computer that I made just messing around. Is it ok sometimes to just provide screenshots?