Misunderstandings between businesses, and their ad agencies, webmasters, or artists often lead to conflicts that interrupt the creative process and work against the mutual needs of the parties. The companies would do best to state the goals as clearly as possible and let the artist or advertising agency do what he, she, or it does best. Trusting the artistic judgement is important to the success of a project (as long as the artist is experienced and knowledgable).

Instead of trust, there are often conflicts about style, details, and costs. These conflicts do a lot of harm to the artists feelings about the project, which may reduce the quality of the work, or the speed with which it is completed.

I have had quite a bit of success on both sides of the fence, so I thought it might be good for all concerned if I shared a few thoughts.

BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE:

Artists! Yeah, we hire them, when we have to. Jeez.... If only they were more hard working... And PUNCTUAL would be nice.... They whip this stuff out in no time, but want me to pay for hours and hours of preparation or finishing time. One guy even bills me for meetings, like a lawyer for crying out loud. He is no lawyer. C'mon. A lawyer spends years learning how to practice his craft. Speaking of which, you should see the contract this artist wants me to sign. Sheesh... I am supposed to get 'Non-exlcusive use', of the work I am paying for!

All I want is some art...

And then, it always needs re-done... It is never quite right. And if we get a chance to make it better next time, add a new idea, we might as well, right? My artist always looks like I am asking for the moon when I want another draft. How hard is this stuff anyway? The computer does all the work, doesn't it?

Then there is my webmaster. My kid can make a web page in minutes, for crying out loud. She must have made a hundred of them... All she does is sit at a computer and tickle the keys for a few hours.... and Viola... Web site!

Why on earth do the professionals have to charge so much for their work?

GLAD YOU ASKED - OR - THE ARTIST'S PERSPECTIVE:

Artists study for years to master their craft. Some joke, "I should have studied law or medicine..." because Doctors get paid even when the patient dies. Lawyers get paid even when they lose a case. Doctors and Lawyers can do stuff that most people cannot do. Artists also study and practice. Artists also do things most people cannot are "Artists are professionals too." they say.

If the business knew how to do this web or advertising stuff, they would not be hiring the artist, webmaster, or ad agency. But once they hire them, they usually spend a lot of time micro-managing, trying to tell the artist what to do and how to do it. The real cherry is when they start thinking of better things to do than they thought of at first. They end up asking for more work than the artist ever envisioned.

The artist gets frustrated because they quoted the art as it was described in the beginning, not all the time spent re-doing things and adding a little something to every draft that was never talked about in the beginning. The artist tries to stick to the amount quoted, because nobody EVER wins that particular argument.... But they cannot do their best work in the time left. And they grow frustrated. The artist ends up pulling an all-nighter to finish on deadline, even though at this point the project is over budget, and they won't get paid extra for the heroic effort. After oversleeping, due to lack of rest the night before, It is a minor miracle when they are only 15 minutes late for the meeting the next day. "What's the problem?" one wonders, "They are going to spend half the meeting patting themselves on the back for the work I did.... "

So they raise their rate next time. Then the client says, your rates are getting too high for us... but if you do a really good job this time, at the old rates, we might call you again... And so it goes.

Most businesses have no idea how much time it takes to create good graphics or copy, or how much of the artists heart and mind go into a piece. They think "Art Is Easy". Easy, until it is required to have the same, positive effect on everybody who sees it, offending none, regardless of cultural background. Easy, until it must clearly communicate the company's goals and purposes to people who may speak different languages. Easy, until it is expected to justify itself by making every viewer want to buy something from the person or company who sent it. Easy, until it is to be done on time, no matter what, even if the client still has not made it clear what the objective is, since they are mostly making it up as they go along. Oh yes, this art must be timeless and communicate the unarticulated objective for years, and years after it is created ; ) It is a bit hard to work in an environment that does not understand what you do, but insists that it be done very, very well, and quickly too. The artist is told they charge too much and should really think about doing an especially good job if they want more work later. The artist can get so frustrated that they cannot possibly do good work.

Art comes from the heart, but business is very much a head game. With this pressure, the artist often retreats to mechanical renditions that lack flair. Making it worse, many businesses establish such high hopes and such a meager budget, that the beginning commercial artist is forced to produce what is essentially unfinished junk - or not work at all.

An image CAN BE worth a thousand words. A great piece of literature can produce tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales. A great concept, logo, and product name can be worth MILLIONS. But if you don't pay the artist for enough time to listen to your thousand words, or even help you find the words in the first place, they cannot capture them in an image!

Businesses often are indecisive about their own plans and budgets. Instead of planning a campaign at the beginning of the year, and preparing the materials at a pace that is conducive to creativity, they wait until 2 weeks before the trade show, or until a competitor announces a seminar, Or until their new yellow pages ad comes out with the web address in it. The address goes to a site that is COMING SOON. Then they rush. Result... one tired, frustrated, underpaid, overworked artist is asked to do yet one more rush job on a tight budget.

Businesses think artists do work that is "EASY". Art may look easy, once the artist starts visibly working. Jackson Pollock was one of America's great artists. During his 'salad days' when there was no fame and no fortune, he produced a lot of paintings. He was regarded as a bit of a genius, but his paintings did not sell especially well. On getting his first BIG commission from a wealthy patron, he sat and stared at a 6' by 40' canvas for DAYS OR EVEN WEEKS before he started painting. He was "seeing" the finished work in his mind's eye, so that when he started painting, each stroke would take him toward the goal. Once he started working, he painted the canvas in only a few hours. The piece launched and defined his career. It took much more than the few hours that he had bush in hand.

A local watercolor artist named Larry Golba was once praised for the paintings that he did in an average of 2 - 4 hours. They are stupendous. How do you do that in a few hours? He replied, That took 20 years, plus 2 hours. Not only does it take time, but it takes money to produce good commercial art. Most artists cannot work on the cheap computers sitting on the average business desk. The disk space, ram, and monitor have to be BIGGER and more powerful than the average computer. A typical print ad for a magazine might be so large that it would take 100 or 200 floppy disks to hold it, or at least 10 zip disks. Computers that can handle this are pretty expensive. Then they need to be replaced every few years, because the software gets fancier and demands more power yet.

Speaking of software, commercial art software is more expensive than business software. Artists have several thousand dollars wrapped up in theirs. Webmasters have a double dose of this software costs issue. Not only do they have to update their photoshop and illustrator packages every year, at $500 a pop or more, but they need to update their html editing programs as well. This stuff gets expensive. Then you have to add flash, and fireworks, and then you have to have office 2000, and maybe office XP as soon as some clown wants you to make a brochure that looks like his word document, only better... and he did it in word XP. Jeez... One artist comments, "I coulda done that with a crayon.... But I had to buy a $500 upgrade to my MS office just to open his disk... AAarrrgh...."

The artist thinks, "Since my art and copy will increase sales when done correctly, whether used in print or online, then my artwork is essentially FREE (having no cost) to the company that hires me. Why, oh why, are they dinking me around about the cost? Why won't they give me the time to do a good job" And why can't they plan ahead enough so that I can do it without rushing?

SO - WHO IS RIGHT ?

Here's the fun part. Everybody is right : )

Most artists need to learn to be more punctual, to temper their emotions with a healthy dose of reality, and to walk away from people who don't want to pay fair wages...

Most businesspersons need to trust the artist more, invest more in the sales increasing activity that the artist or webmaster provides, give them time to do a good job, and get out of the way.

If you want to try working with an firm that understands both sides of the issue, and if you are ready to invest in some sales increasing activity that is essentially free, since you will make more money with us than without us, we are ready to serve : )

What our clients are saying about us? Click Here

copyright 2001, Lonn Dugan, all rights reserved

BIG Design, http://www.bigdesign.net Tel: