Common Graphic Designer Mistakes

Virtually every freelance graphic designer has a story of the client who got away, or the partner who stole their ideas, or the project that cost them more than it paid. Of course, many of them won't admit to making these mistakes! Here are some common errors you can avoid:

• Doing work for nothing — if you work for free, let it be for something you believe in, with rewards in the form of testimonials and publicity.
• Showing mockups to clients before a contract is signed (so they can "adapt" your ideas and pay you nothing)
• Showing the client too many ideas (so they wonder why they're paying you since they have to do the work of sifting through them)
• Showing the client only one idea (makes it easy for them to reject you along with the idea)
• Doing presentations over the Internet (people don't take you seriously and aren't as willing to sign contracts)
• Working without a contract
• Taking stock in the client's company instead of cash fees (if the company dies, your stock is worthless)
• Not proofreading your work

Tags: advice, contracts, freelancers

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 5th, 2009 at 10:22 am and is filed under Design Resources. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.