Hasta La Ideas

This week, we want to know how you go about charging for your creative work…

Tim Fendley, creative director at AIG, recalled the late Alan Fletcher’s advice on how to charge clients on the CR Blog in 2006:

“Think of the right number and then double it. If the client doesn’t have a sharp intake of breath then you’ve shot too low,” was Fletcher’s inimitable take on it.

So how do you go about the business of making money from your work?

Do you work out a day rate for jobs? Charge per hour? Does the size of the client involved make a difference to your pricing?

How do you ensure you get a good rate of return with each job?

Do you ever take on a client knowing that you might even lose money – but that the long term benefits of doing the job outweigh the initial costs?

What about those jobs you do just for the money? During a debate between Rick Poynor and Pentagram’s Michael Bierut that we featured in CR in 2004, Bierut said:

“Speaking as someone who enthusiastically sold out, every time I’ve done something just for the money, no matter how much they paid, it was never enough.”

Let us know what you think.

Question of the Week is produced in partnership with MajorPlayers

More Questions of the Week

In our forthcoming September issue (out next week) we’ve used a variety of different paper stocks throughout the issue for different sections of the magazine. On the first page of each different section a divider explains what stock is being used – and one of the stocks, a 100% FSC certified recycled paper, was supplied with an ‘environmental benefit statement’ outlining the impact of using such a stock for a project: By printing 5,000 copies of an A4 brochure with a four-page cover and 12 page text on such a stock, designers could be reducing their impact as follows: 1,255 kg of landfill; 31,300 litres of water; 3,126kWh of electricity; 21 full-grown trees.

That’s a big impact for a fairly small print job. Are these figures surprising – or are you, as a designer, constantly questioning the environmental impact of what you do?

Being green is now a necessity for any business that wants to be successful. So how do you go about making sure you’re doing what you can in your day to day work? Is your studio or agency green? Tell us how you monitor your carbon footprint or how you reduce energy consumption. Do all of your clients take an interest in how green you are – as a business – and are they keen to ensure that the projects you work on for them are environmentally friendly?

Question of the Week is produced in association with Major Players

With thousands of new graduates on the scene, demand for placements is at its height. So this week, we’d like to know how you organise them at your studio or agency, what you think of the placement system and what your experiences of placements have been

Do you pay placements? Or do you offer to reimburse expenses? What tasks do you give them to do? What do you get out of the expereince and what do you hope they get out of it?

If someone wants a placement at your studio or agency, what are the do’s and don’t’s? How should they apply and how should they behave when they get there?

What do you think of the whole placement system? Do we need some more formal way of regulating what can be just a way of getting cheap labour? Does the placement system exclude those who cannot afford to work for free, closing off opportunities in the advertising and design businesses for those from disadvantaged backgounds? Should, for example, D&AD or another industry body introduce guidelines? Should all placements be paid at least the minumum wage?

And graduates, and recent placements – what was your experience? Did you find it worthwhile? Were you given interesting work to do or were you stuck in a corner with the kettle and the Spraymount? What do you think should be done to make placements more worthwhile? What advice would you give anyone looking for a placement now?

So many questions, please let us have your answers…

Question of the Week is produced in association with Major Players

Type designer Seb Lester has been taking a break, of late, from producing typefaces to work on a series of playful posters and prints – all of which showcase his interest in typographic illustration. A show of these prints (Lester’s first solo exhibition) opens at Newcastle’s Electrik Sheep Gallery this week…

“Someone who loves cooking doesn’t just want to make fish and chips I guess,” says Lester of his break from creating whole typefaces. “I have extremely broad taste in letterforms,” he continues. “In some respects this show is my reaction to having designed corporate typefaces so much for so long, which are inherently conservative in nature. I love designing robustly modern industrial type, but I also want to indulge my passion for other more expressive and sensual lettering styles. That’s really what this show is all about.”

Here are a few prints that will feature in the show:

The exhibition runs until August 29 at Electrik Sheep Gallery, 22 Pink Lane, Newcastle NE1 5DW

Detail from a Great Charity Poster by Fermín Garbayo, from Pioneers of Spanish Graphic Design

For decades, Franco kept a lid on Spanish design but a new book, Pioneers of Spanish Graphic Design, aims to shed light on some of the country’s most important practitioners. David Crowley, deputy head of design history at the Royal College of Art, takes a look at it…

Read Crowley’s review of Pioneers of Spanish Graphic Design from our July issue, here.

The book is published by Mark Batty Publisher; $58.