Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. - Thomas Edison
Quote from: 244 on January 03, 2012, 09:53:17 AMMy best one is "It's just like an M&R only cheaper"!Becareful you are sounding like a screen printing fascist!......
My best one is "It's just like an M&R only cheaper"!
How about when someone sends you vector artwork...And it looks just fine until you click on it and learn that it is a "Group of 49,567 objects"...
I always laugh when these customer-bringing-artwork-that-isn't-really-artwork stories come up. They never fail to deliver the funny.But consider this... these people off the street aren't supposed to know raster from vector or Powerpoint from Corel Draw. That's your job. The general public doesn't deal with this stuff daily like us. They are bringing their stuff to you so that you can solve their problems.Every napkin logo and web banner jpeg is an opportunity. You should welcome them. Most of you have art departments, right? Don't miss chances to make some extra money on art charges."Well the customer doesn't want to pay for art. Well, if I bid too high the customer will take the order elsewhere." Bullsheet. Guess what, your customer doesn't want to pay for screens, setup or the shirts themselves, either. What other business gives skilled labor away for free? Try getting free artwork from an offset printer sometime. No, if they won't pay, let them take their order to the sucker who gives away their time and skill.Explain the extra charges up front and bill them for it. Educate these people on how printing works so they know why it's just as expensive to print 2 shirts as it is to print 2 dozen, even if it means showing them around your shop. If you lose the order, so what? Let your competitors deal with them.
@ Froggy Frog: If you would use it daily, that right there justifies the expense. $500-1800 is PEANUTS to pay for software that does what the Adobe CS does. Animators, architects and engineers pay TENS of thousands for their software apps. Besides, I'm sure many of these self-appointed "experts and artists" are using bootleg or stolen software anyway.
@ Ripcord: Yes, it often doesn't make sense to charge for art when the order seems to go more smoothly without that extra line item... but the customer won't value what he doesn't have to pay for. Basically, you're teaching people that what I do for a living isn't worth anything. If I were the uppity type, I'd be offended.
This discussion makes me think that, aside from the convenience decent software gives those of us with the background to use it intelligently and skillfully, there's something to be said about the illustration and graphic design business in the pre-personal computer era, where when someone brought you crappy, unusable art or mechanicals with pasted text that looked like ransom notes, they had a tougher time arguing that it was, in fact, "camera-ready" . . .Now everyone's a "pro" with the ability to crank out the most god-awful stuff in programs costing hundreds if not thousands . . . . Likewise, just because I've managed to learn enough about Excel to cobble up spreadsheets for my own use doesn't make me an accountant.
Pierre, you are a patient man, I'd tell those fools to start paying up or go get an artist.
I say just gimme what you got and I'll do what I need to to get the job printed. Also, now that I alone possess the vector artwork it makes it more difficult for them to shop around when it's time for a reprint.