client is asking for copies of their art files

[kirkage]

I would charge twice the cost of the original art fee. Then they can own the design/art forever.

[sweetts]

My thoughts, if they are a pain or not, you were not clear about the art to them and they paid you. Do what's right pita or not. Like mooseman said send a good JPEG at minimum


Roger
RT screen designs
Www.rtscreendesigns. Com

[ABuffington]

I had this happen with Disney of all companies.  We produced designs on our own as an approved vendor and submitted them for orders.  Quite often the relationship was great, we converted 3 of 5 designs to large production runs.  Then one day their sourcing and art managers walked in and told us this was a great day, they were going to start producing in Asia and needed the art files.  Great for them but a real headache for us who had presses dedicated to their production.  We were lucky in that we never charged them for the art and refused to give them the art bags.  Had we charged them for art however, they would have been able to take the mechanicals out of the shop.  We honored their copyright and never reprinted them, but our relationship with them went south in an instant.  I respect their outsourcing decision, but most customers don't get the concept that we do extra work on art to get the print business as well.  I too have sent the films down the oven for less than stellar clients when they demand the films!

Good ideas here though to protect your investment in time and effort.  However if the customer is a pain, sending film down the oven, or giving them 72dpi images seems appropriate!  Better to lose a customer than to have a customer that consumes time with no knowledge of what is best for his art or product.

As far as screens go, we listed it as a pre-press charge with the disclaimer that all images (not screens) are reclaimed within 6 months if not reordered.

Al

[inkman996]

Its seems pretty simple to me. We charge for art services, not Artwork! If they supply us a crappy jpeg then we charge for the time and resources to convert into something our business can use. We do not charge them for artwork that they can have, they already supplied us with their art we just worked it so we could use it.

Now with all that said if it is a good dusty then i have no problem helping them out with their art for whatever reasons they need it, if they are a PITA then they get the sorry but we only charged you for the labor we had to put into making their crappy art wok.

[mk162]

my view is if somebody is leaving they are probably not that happy anyway, so no need to pour salt int he wound.

That being said, I don't give away seps, especially sim process seps.  I will send the art file we created them from, but it's up to the new shop to figure out how we did it.

[Inkworks]

If you bills them for art they own it in my opinion.  If you did not.....then I would not send it.

I agree with the ownership bit. I try to live by the mantra that you can't keep customers by holding their art ransom. In fact I often quote that when they try to come to me and only get a low res. version of their artwork from the competitors they are leaving. I usually re-do the artwork, for free if we can, and go from there. digitized emb. logos cost us $10, so that usually a cost we can eat. Sim-process seps for screening are another matter, but we usually find a middle ground for price of re-doing them and move forward witha now-loyal customer who will never go back to the company that would let them have their own logos in a usable format.

[GraphicDisorder]

Customer is leaving because they feel the grass is greener somewhere else basically right.  If they find out the grass isn't greener do you want them to come back or not?  If you hold their files ransom they may not think of you when they decide the other person isn't better. 

Again this is all in the context that you have charged them for artwork.  If you haven't I wouldn't give up files either.  Of course bending over backwards over 24pcs jobs this guy brought you is pointless as well. 

[ericheartsu]

We ddef. do not want to keep this client, they made our life a hell for three weeks while doing their order. I don't mind giving clients their files, but I've always felt that any art we did, was ours, and the client was paying for our labour on setting the file correctly

[GraphicDisorder]

If you dont want them back this is sorta easy then.  Piss them off by not giving it to them they wont be back.  Well except every year when they re-ask you for their files.  LOL.

[jsheridan]

This topic came up the other year and the way you word the line item on your invoice and how it's worded in your terms of service dictate how the fee is applied.

If you don't have terms of service or something in the way to describe what happens when a custy wants to purchase the 'art'.. then you had better get busy making them.

[Croft]

I charge an "art preparation fee" ,  so repairing bad jpeg files ,ideas cleaned up, text added  art resized etc. are charged art prep. and that is only to make it screen printable and for no other use and no ownership for them implied. Has worked for me.
   If they ask for there art back I will send back whatever they sent me not what it became when cleaned up.
I only send jpegs for proofing so that the art can't be sent elsewhere and reproduced easily.  This has worked for me so far.

[Boldline]

Chances are, if they are asking for the vectors, they're never coming back! I agree with what most posted...that you should charge them a fee that would at least cover the next job or two they would have done to compensate for the loss of exclusivity of the vectors.

[Dottonedan]

I wouldn't say "never" coming back.  It's common to have a portion of customers jump around looking for that next lower price. Other printers offer a lower price, people have conversations and the next thing ya know, your customer is sending another printer a job...that you might not be aware of that your missing out on. Then, if it works out, they come back to you and ask for their art files for other jobs.  It's a never ending revolving door business I think (for a portion) of the customers. There will always be those who you just can't please that feel "you" ripped them off or something. It's like seps,  someone stops using me because I charge too much or take too long and they go off to another cheaper, faster guy/gal. Some time goes by, a few months, a year and one day, they start sending me art jobs to sep again. It's part of the business.

[stitches4815]

Give them a low res jpg and tell them to have a nice day.

[kingscreen]

Client was a NIGHTMARE to work with.

You already answered your own question.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAuSTQUa3tM