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I once turned down a client when she gave me pasted up artwork. She wanted a mockup for some book covers and she took printed photos of herself that were taken outside at night with a black background (she had blonde hair) and she did a wicked scissors hack job on the photos to simulate how she wanted them clipped, then pasted them onto some construction paper and wanted me to make it look like a professional book - and I quote her here "Like Dr. Phil's books or Oprah's". It would have taken hours and hours of Photoshop work to even make it look somewhat acceptable.
I told her that with what she has given me, I can't create great artwork with the pasted up work she has given me.
I told her that I won't create something that I can't use in my portfolio. That thing would have looked like crap.
Turned it down, and wasn't too disappointed.
I've had clients call me and say that they will pay me $200 for some business cards and letters or a 2 sided brochure or whatever. I say OK, and then give them $200 worth of service of designing a logo, typesetting and printouts. Once my time is getting over the 4-5 hours worth of revisions and such, I let them know that they are getting close to their $200 worth and ask them to start thinking about a final product.
Yeah, I figure that my time estimates are normally shorter than what I spend, but honestly, it's not like it's hard labor. An extra few hundred dollars is cool and I would rather have that and have to spend a little more time than not have the job at all.
I tend to turn down the really small jobs. Take this logo and typeset it into a business card and I'll pay $40. No thanks, not worth my time for that. I tend to only take the $200 to $2000. Any less than $200 is probably not worth my time, any more than $2000 and I probably won't have time to finish it. (I have a little jr. pixel running around at home)
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