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Chitin
Apr 29, 2007

It is no sign of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.

Longbaugh01 posted:

This is actually something Scalzi pointed out early on.

Anyway, Random House has decided to modify the contracts for these imprints after all the backlash. Victory I guess...

You're right, though it should be noted that the artist's advance is quickly disappearing for freshman artists in music as well, and is included in the "loan" the record label seeks to recoup.

They're essentially just high-risk loan sharks with good graphic design.

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Kingsbury2
Apr 24, 2013

by angerbot

Disreputable Dog posted:

I don't move a pixel without a contract and a deposit.
and a contract is:

the name of the 2 parties
the scope of work to be covered
the price
the expected delivery time or workback schedule.
signatures and dates.

it can be that simple.


Spoken like a true professional. The artist's best friend is not the pencil, it is the lawyer.

Oh My Science
Dec 29, 2008

Kingsbury2 posted:

The artist's best friend is not the pencil, it is the lawyer.

I'm in the market for a lawyer that understands web development & design contracts, but I'm not really sure where to start looking. Ideally I would like to find someone local (vancouver, CA) but is this even necessary? On that note do I even need a lawyer that explicitly understands web development contracts?

I just want someone I can approach when I write a new contract or am presented with one. I'm at the point now where the money is adding up and one screw up could cost me a lot of money.

Chitin
Apr 29, 2007

It is no sign of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.
OK, I need some portfolio help. I'm employed full-time so this has never been particularly urgent for me, but I'm starting to look at more freelance work and thinking next steps so I suppose I need to get my act together.

I'm a video producer - there don't seem to be a lot of good portfolio templates or services available to those of my ilk, and web design isn't my strong suit. I'm currently hosted on Wordpress.

My only constraint is that whatever my solution is, it needs to stream from YouTube. Most of my work is "for hire" and I don't have permission to re-host. I can pay for a theme/hosting but high monthly fees are out for me right now.

I could also use some help trimming the fat and looking for gaps.

Here it is: http://nickbremerkorb.com

Oh My Science
Dec 29, 2008

A few things stand out to me:

Cons:
  • Your portfolio doesn't scale well to mobile devices, look into a responsive theme. It's important that it be accessible for people viewing your site on a phone or tablet.
  • Your videos are displayed as one playlist, instead of individual clips. Maybe it's just me, but my first impression was that you only had one piece of work per section, possibly a bad thing.
  • Your sections are poorly defined and some videos are repeated. I personally think a tagging system which can be searched or sorted would work better, combined with one page of videos.
  • None of your work describes how you were involved, but this could be ignorance on my end. Maybe you don't need that.

Pros:
  • Nice clean design, doesn't distract me from your work.
  • Your resume looks nice, but someone in media production might think differently.

Chitin
Apr 29, 2007

It is no sign of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.

Oh My Science posted:

A few things stand out to me:

Cons:
  • Your portfolio doesn't scale well to mobile devices, look into a responsive theme. It's important that it be accessible for people viewing your site on a phone or tablet.
  • Your videos are displayed as one playlist, instead of individual clips. Maybe it's just me, but my first impression was that you only had one piece of work per section, possibly a bad thing.
  • Your sections are poorly defined and some videos are repeated. I personally think a tagging system which can be searched or sorted would work better, combined with one page of videos.
  • None of your work describes how you were involved, but this could be ignorance on my end. Maybe you don't need that.

Pros:
  • Nice clean design, doesn't distract me from your work.
  • Your resume looks nice, but someone in media production might think differently.

Thanks! The tagging system idea is brilliant - I'll look into that for sure.

EDIT: OK, I spent a day reorganizing the whole thing, made it much easier to find videos related to specific genres or skills, and chose a responsive theme. The whole thing looks MUCH better now, and I feel more comfortable sharing it. Thanks for the great advice!

If anyone else has anything to add, it's http://nickbremerkorb.com

Chitin fucked around with this message at 02:52 on Apr 28, 2013

Oh My Science
Dec 29, 2008

Chitin posted:

EDIT: OK, I spent a day reorganizing the whole thing, made it much easier to find videos related to specific genres or skills, and chose a responsive theme. The whole thing looks MUCH better now, and I feel more comfortable sharing it. Thanks for the great advice!

Much better!

pipes!
Jul 10, 2001
Nap Ghost
Here's an article I've been meaning to post here for a few days now, but kept forgetting: http://www.erickarjaluoto.com/blog/bill-for-it/

RGBRIOT
Apr 19, 2009

"Beauty, packaged for a digital world."

Chitin posted:

EDIT: OK, I spent a day reorganizing the whole thing, made it much easier to find videos related to specific genres or skills, and chose a responsive theme. The whole thing looks MUCH better now, and I feel more comfortable sharing it. Thanks for the great advice!

If anyone else has anything to add, it's http://nickbremerkorb.com

This looks like a 90's MUD site to me. I don't think that's the sort of look that's going to snag you leads. If you really like it the way it is, I'd recommend cleaning up the alignment and margins so there isn't so much empty space through out the design. Something along these lines:

The linkedin and youtube links probably could find a better home some where else, or I should of aligned them along the same line as the right side of the player and like button. I managed to trim the height of the site down by over a third just by lessening the margins and removing the repetitive footer.

But honestly, I think you'd be best served by saving up $40-$50 and finding a better theme on themeforest or a similar theme site that's offers templates for video portfolios.

Either way, best of luck!

RGBRIOT fucked around with this message at 03:31 on May 4, 2013

Chitin
Apr 29, 2007

It is no sign of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.
Thanks - I need to get off of Wordpress.com and set up my own hosting, probably. I just wish there were good, easy solutions for videographers like there are for photographers because honestly I hate spending time on this stuff even though I know it's super important.

EDIT: Aaaaaand spent a whole weekend moving over to new hosting and completely redoing the site. http://nickbremerkorb.com

Chitin fucked around with this message at 18:28 on May 7, 2013

unemployedartist
Mar 31, 2011
Is there some way to get an appraisal for the value of the things that you sell? I remember seeing some donated work of mine appraise for more than what it would normally sell for. I do functional pottery if that helps find a source.

SaviourX
Sep 30, 2003

The only true Catwoman is Julie Newmar, Lee Meriwether, or Eartha Kitt.

Chitin posted:

EDIT: Aaaaaand spent a whole weekend moving over to new hosting and completely redoing the site. http://nickbremerkorb.com


Pretty slick, man, though the rotating background looks too busy when you're clicking through sections. Personally, I don't like a flash splash page either, but I don't know if a video link embed would be any better.

Chitin
Apr 29, 2007

It is no sign of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.

SaviourX posted:

Pretty slick, man, though the rotating background looks too busy when you're clicking through sections. Personally, I don't like a flash splash page either, but I don't know if a video link embed would be any better.

To its credit it reverts to HTML5 on a tablet; I need to cut together an actual reel rather than relying on existing videos, though.

RGBRIOT
Apr 19, 2009

"Beauty, packaged for a digital world."
I'm on my iPad and it looks pretty good! Much better than the old design (in my opinion). Nice choice, and I hope it works out well for you!

Rydalia
Aug 17, 2004
I didn't call in sick!
I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask, but I got some "fan mail" from someone asking to buy 3 11x17 prints of some posters I made.
It would be easy to do since I have my own printer, but how much should I charge?
I looked around on etsy and $25ish seems to be the average price for that size(the quality of the print doesn't seem to be a factor). I don't want to lowball myself (which I most likely will do) but at the same time I don't want to be smug and ask for too much. Any advice is appreciated.

RGBRIOT
Apr 19, 2009

"Beauty, packaged for a digital world."
Bare minimum, cost of printing* + your time.

Tax and devaluation of the work can be factored in too, but those get a bit more tricky to work out. Not worth it if this is a one off type of thing.


* that includes paper, ink, shipping container, postage, etc.

E: and keep in mind, the places you're price quoting get much better deals on printing cost due to volume of sales. You probably can't match that and come out ahead. But again if its a one time sort of deal then that's not much a real consideration either.

RGBRIOT fucked around with this message at 07:48 on May 10, 2013

GiveUpNed
Dec 25, 2012
Hey guys, I've just been contracted by an ad agency to write copy. I gave them a quote of $50 an hour. Is that too much?

Edit:

I also got this rejection letter from a magazine. Does it mean my pitch was bad, or just not what they were looking for at this time?

quote:

Yours is a very considered and thorough pitch on a subject that would be of particular interest to our many rural readers. Unfortunately, due to the volume of pitches, and a feature article on agriculture and grasslands in our upcoming summer issue, we will have to pass on your pitch this time. Thanks for considering us and best of luck finding an alternate publication for your research and writing.

GiveUpNed fucked around with this message at 23:19 on May 14, 2013

Disreputable Dog
Dec 16, 2010

GiveUpNed posted:

Hey guys, I've just been contracted by an ad agency to write copy. I gave them a quote of $50 an hour. Is that too much?

Edit:

I also got this rejection letter from a magazine. Does it mean my pitch was bad, or just not what they were looking for at this time?

Depends on the size of the agency, the location and/or the accounts they have. But tl;dr on a lot of variables is that it sounds reasonable yeah.

(Edit: It's what I charge as a designer for agencies and I'm a bit on the low side)

GiveUpNed
Dec 25, 2012

Disreputable Dog posted:

Depends on the size of the agency, the location and/or the accounts they have. But tl;dr on a lot of variables is that it sounds reasonable yeah.

(Edit: It's what I charge as a designer for agencies and I'm a bit on the low side)

Well she accepted it and is also asking me to invoice her the deposit. I'm happy everything is on the level as I've heard so many nightmare stories. I'm glad people think my skills are worth something.

GiveUpNed
Dec 25, 2012
Hey guys. She has asked me to send her an invoice for a deposit. They used SignNow to prepare my NDA and Contractor Agreement. How do I go about invoicing her a deposit and how much should it be?

Edit: I invoiced her via Paypal. Everything is kosher.

GiveUpNed fucked around with this message at 21:47 on May 15, 2013

Defenestration
Aug 10, 2006

"It wasn't my fault that my first unconscious thought turned out to be-"
"Jesus, kid, what?"
"That something smelled delicious!"


Grimey Drawer

GiveUpNed posted:

Hey guys. She has asked me to send her an invoice for a deposit. They used SignNow to prepare my NDA and Contractor Agreement. How do I go about invoicing her a deposit and how much should it be?

Edit: I invoiced her via Paypal. Everything is kosher.
Paypal will get the job done, but why give part of your money to a middleman at all, especially a lovely company like paypal?

Invoicing is really simple. It can just be a word document with everyone's name and address, the list of the work done and the payment due. Google up freelance writing invoice and you'll get a ton of easy templates to work from. They should be able to cut you a check and send it to your address.

GiveUpNed
Dec 25, 2012

Defenestration posted:

Paypal will get the job done, but why give part of your money to a middleman at all, especially a lovely company like paypal?

Invoicing is really simple. It can just be a word document with everyone's name and address, the list of the work done and the payment due. Google up freelance writing invoice and you'll get a ton of easy templates to work from. They should be able to cut you a check and send it to your address.

Thanks man. I really got lucky with her. She's a senior art director at a big ad agency and my persistence with her has paid off. She just emailed me to say she likes my work and is excited to work with me. I couldn't be happier. To put my current situation in context, I just graduated with a BA in Philosophy. I have two years of journalism experience, but you know how that industry is going... I'm just very happy things have worked out well for me. With the money I just received, I'll be able to pay for living expenses for a while.

I'm on the other side of the country from her. Will she have to mail the cheque to me, or can it be a wire transfer, or somehow electronically done?

No. 9
Feb 8, 2005

by R. Guyovich
What other options between using PayPal do people use? I offer Google Wallet, Square, and AlertPay in addition. Anything good for eChecks? I'm interested in popular options for Europeans (my client base over there is growing) and just want to have my bases covered.

Defenestration
Aug 10, 2006

"It wasn't my fault that my first unconscious thought turned out to be-"
"Jesus, kid, what?"
"That something smelled delicious!"


Grimey Drawer

GiveUpNed posted:

I'm on the other side of the country from her. Will she have to mail the cheque to me, or can it be a wire transfer, or somehow electronically done?
Do you live in antarctica or somalia? :confused: Does mail not go from one side of your country to another?

Wire transfers are a thing that people do but speaking from experience they are nasty to set up for the person sending them, and also cost money. Just ask her what your options are.

GiveUpNed
Dec 25, 2012

Defenestration posted:

Do you live in antarctica or somalia? :confused: Does mail not go from one side of your country to another?

Wire transfers are a thing that people do but speaking from experience they are nasty to set up for the person sending them, and also cost money. Just ask her what your options are.

I charge 30%-50% of the project cost upfront as a deposit. Most of the work is time dependent and I don't have the luxury to wait a week for mail to arrive (I live in Canada).

Authentic You
Mar 4, 2007

Listen now this is your
captain calling:
Your captain is dead.

GiveUpNed posted:

I'm on the other side of the country from her. Will she have to mail the cheque to me, or can it be a wire transfer, or somehow electronically done?

Is a regular electronic bank-to-bank transfer not an option? I just include my account number and the appropriate codes or whatever for my bank/branch on my invoices. And then all of a sudden there's more money in my bank account. For the client, it's a matter of logging in to their online banking and copypasting the numbers into the transfer money option thing.

I have it in my head that wiring money is a different thing from electronic transfers done via online banking, so correct me if I'm wrong.

SaviourX
Sep 30, 2003

The only true Catwoman is Julie Newmar, Lee Meriwether, or Eartha Kitt.

Wire transfers predate the internet as a way to get money across long distances, but not so useful now if you're in-country.

But yeah, if you really need your cheques dude (or don't trust a firm to pay out), shell out the $14 or whatever overnight delivery is for a letter.

Grem
Mar 29, 2004

It's how her species communicates

Guess I posted this in the wrong thread, graphic design resume question:

So, moral question, I guess, according to my wife's adviser anyways; she's making a resume and is using these old vintage flowers she "bought" off Etsy on it. Like, apparently bought the rights to use the flowers. Her adviser says it's not moral to use them because she didn't design them. She's a graphic design student, by the way. Is it morally wrong to use a drawing you didn't make on your resume, or something? Her argument for using them is that graphic designers do not draw, they pull different elements together to make a design (or in this case, a resume).

pipes!
Jul 10, 2001
Nap Ghost
Designers using stock is an age-old practice. As long as the rights are what they should be for usage, she shouldn't feel bad at all. In fact, the ability to incorporate other people's elements seamlessly into a greater whole is, like, nearly a baseline requirement for the profession.

midnightclimax
Dec 3, 2011

by XyloJW
If I write songs or poems that are based on a recent work of fiction, what legal implications should I be aware of? What problems will I face when I try to publish/sell a song that involves story and or characters from said work of fiction?

GiveUpNed
Dec 25, 2012

GiveUpNed posted:

I charge 30%-50% of the project cost upfront as a deposit. Most of the work is time dependent and I don't have the luxury to wait a week for mail to arrive (I live in Canada).

Welp he sent me the money via Paypal.

Nessa
Dec 15, 2008

So I'm colouring an independent comic book and the writer hasn't responded to my email from a few days ago. Usually, he's been pretty prompt to respond, so I'm getting concerned. I was asking about the status of the last page of issue 2. Pg 21 has been up for a few weeks now, but no sign of pg 22, and I have to wait for page 22 to get paid for the issue. I'm hoping that nothing has happened to the artist. He's a bit slow, but not 3 weeks slow.

It's possible that my writer is just on vacation or something, but I'm wondering how long I should wait before emailing him again.

Also, I'm in the process of putting together a resume and cover letters to send out to a handful of comic companies. The cover letters are difficult for me, because I'm not terribly familiar with the properties of these companies besides Dark Horse.

GreatJob
Jul 6, 2008

You did a Great Job™!
Say a job falls through because the client keeps trying to extend the scope of the project while only willing to pay 1/3rd of the original quote. The client berserks into a lot of personal attacks after I walk away as politely as I can from the unsigned contract (citing how unfair it would be for the clients of mine who pay full price). In terms of this specific deal, no work and no money was exchanged. The contract was never finalized or signed.

The one thing I'm worried about is that this is a client who commissions work from a toy designer at a well-known company on a regular basis. How badly can a fired client disparage me? I mean, we had discussed being professional connections at first, but then the client began throwing their connections around as a reason to work for them, and that they'd ONLY introduce me if I did this underpaid work for them, and it didn't seem worthy to me. If the client starts ranting to someone about how I didn't want to work for them, or exaggerates some part of the failed business conversation, could that give me a bad reputation at the well-known company? I'm not using the client as a reference, either.

kedo
Nov 27, 2007

Potentially, but probably not.

In my experience if you have a client like the one you described, you're probably not alone in thinking their a jerk. My studio had a very similar situation a few years ago where we terminated a relationship with a client and they proceeded to go around town telling everyone how lovely we were. We actually got some clients out of it, and each of them basically said, "Man [client] said all sorts of crap about you, but she's insane. I checked out your work and you seem good, lets do business."

So it's not always terrible. If you're dealing with someone who's attacking you on a personal level because of business dealings they're probably not the most stable person, and the people they know and work with probably realize that.

e: However you should be prepared to talk about it. Have some sort of pre-formulated reply if people ask you "Why did [client] say such mean things about you?" that doesn't disparage the client, but also makes it clear it was out of your control.

GreatJob
Jul 6, 2008

You did a Great Job™!
Yeah, it sucked enough that I think I'd rather get better at programming and get out of doing artwork for hire. Unless I can find some kind of studio to illustrate for, I'm gonna pick up some new skill and wash my hands of this. I am not able to deal with people losing their poo poo that badly in a business negotiation, just because they want my art but don't respect ME.

If anyone asks, though, I guess I can say that not every client clicks with me and I can't figure out why that particular client went on the warpath, or something noncommittal like that.

kedo
Nov 27, 2007

Bad clients are everywhere, sadly. However after awhile they become easier and easier to identify and you'll become pretty adept at avoiding them. But having more skills is never bad! You should hit up the web design and development megathread in COBOL if that's the sort of programming you're interested in. There are a ton of great resources there.

Also if someone does ask about it, here's my favorite line: "We ran into contractual problems and unfortunately I had to terminate my business relationship with the client." It is one of the most satisfying sentences you can utter. Don't put the blame on yourself ("not every client clicks with me" says "I am hard to work with"), put the blame on the lovely client but do it very subtly. "ran into contractual problems" is universal code for "dick didn't pay his bills."

GreatJob
Jul 6, 2008

You did a Great Job™!
Yeah, that's a much better way of putting it, thanks kedo. :)

I'll lurk around the coding thread. I'm interested in learning Javascript as my first language, and UI/UX on mobile devices. UI/UX seems like something where I might be able to break in and start establishing relationships with creative coworkers more easily. I can't do meaningful freelance illustration work without knowing more people who've worked with me a lot and could present me to new clients.

SVU Fan
Mar 5, 2008

I'm gay for Christopher Meloni
Hi guys, I'm in sort of a bind. I'm a digital artist (3d mostly) and have been doing studio work for some time now. Just recently, I broke out and started to do freelance work nearly fulltime, which has been great. Like an idiot, though, during one of my first freelance jobs, I did not ask for any sort of deposit, and gave a decently high quality jpeg before getting my payment.

They are a company in a different part of the world than me (me US, them UK. Though they are a smaller studio, have done a lot of high profile work for major release films, so I felt a bit of naive security there. I finished the work for them in July, and still have not gotten paid. Since the work has been done, I sent them an invoice, they took down my bank info for a wire transfer, but never went through with it. Eventually we agreed that they would just pay me through paypal since it was instant and easy, but they still have not, and that was nearly a month ago. I asked if there was any trouble, to which they replied "Just forgot, sorry, it will go in first thing tomorrow), which was 3 weeks ago. I sent another email last week asking them to please call me if there is a trouble with the payment, so we can figure out a solution, and as of yet they have not replied to me. They were very prompt about replying to me almost daily with ideas/critiques while the wok was in progress, but come pay time, it's becoming very difficult to get a hold of him.

I feel that I am being jerked around, and at this point it has nearly been 4 months. For reference, there is a signed contract stating that I should be payed ($900 flat right) upon completing the work. What should I be doing to get my money? I have definitely learned and have been getting %50 deposits on every commission I've done since them, however $900 isn't chump change I can just chalk up to a loss.

Oh My Science
Dec 29, 2008
You need to call a lawyer and have him write a mean letter or at least threaten to do so. Are attorney fees in your contract? They should be.

Also, can you prove that they have used your finished work without payment? That's a pretty big mistake on their end and could cost them more than $900, something you might want to mention if you have a good contract.

Oh My Science fucked around with this message at 02:40 on Oct 25, 2013

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SVU Fan
Mar 5, 2008

I'm gay for Christopher Meloni

Oh My Science posted:

You need to call a lawyer and have him write a mean letter or at least threaten to do so. Are attorney fees in your contract? They should be.

Also, can you prove that they have used your finished work without payment? That's a pretty big mistake on their end and could cost them more than $900, something you might want to mention if you have a good contract.

I'll have to double check if attorney fees are part of the contract. It's one that they wrote up, that was quite simple and laid out the important info. What's good, is that there were clauses in there that covered me as far as naming the exact amount they are to pay, and the work they would be paying me for.

I checked up on their site tonight and haven't seen them use it anywhere, since I was doing character design work that is quite early in the production process. Unfortunately, it is something going to be used for a TV spot that could take months, if not years to actually air, so due to NDA agreements, I would have no idea if anything was up until way later.

I talked to a relative of mine that does a lot of big business work, and he told me to write a more direct email detailing "needing the payment within 24 business hours, or I'll be forced to take further action" etc etc. I do not want to cut ties with the company because I really enjoyed the work, however maybe I'll just have to get over it and accept that they're not somebody to be working for.

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