"Change it or else I won't buy it."

reina__ · February 2010

Not directed to anyone! I cannot STAND it when I do a graphic for someone and they ask me to change it. I understand if it's my mistake or something, but if they change their mind on something and want me to change it to something better or bigger, I just think that's rude. I want to say, "Look, I took an hour out of my day to sit my butt on this chair, stare at this screen, and use the skills I taught myself in a year's time to give you something for free, when I could have been doing other things much more productive in reality." One time I did a contest on another game and this person specifically messaged me to my inbox telling me that he loved my stuff and wanted me to enter his contest. His description of how he wanted the banner just included size, theme, and a picture of a chihuahua and pomeranian. Nothing else. This was a while ago, but this banner took me like 2 hours, and he right off the bat asked me to change the Chihuahua into one with a better coat. I'm like, seriously? Did you just ask me that? And I quote myself...

Half of the people who make graphics on this game deserve to be paid real cash, because they are taking time out of their life to make something for you, and they don't even know you. Since real cash exchanges are not allowed, you are only paying them virtual money which has absolutely no value for something that has a lot of value. Don't complain about how long it is going to take, or when they are going to be done. They don't owe a thing to you. They are offering their services and retain the right to take them back whenever they want.

I understand that changing and suiting to the clients' needs is part of graphic design, but truth is, every banner and every layout on this game is free in reality. Graphic artists reserve the right to do anything they so desire on their "commission" and do without the need for saying it. *sigh* It just really irks me when people ask for changes because they "changed their mind" or weren't specific enough on their original order post.

SteppingStones · February 2010

*nods* agreed

RoyalRaccoon · February 2010

It just really irks me when people ask for changes because they "changed their mind" or weren't specific enough on their original order post.

This! I couldn't agree more! I've had it happen to me. It's not fair to hold artist to such a high standard; they are interpreters, not psychic copy machines that can mentally pull your vision from your mind. Artists need good descriptions!

Half of the people who make graphics on this game deserve to be paid real cash, because they are taking time out of their life to make something for you, and they don't even know you. Since real cash exchanges are not allowed, you are only paying them virtual money which has absolutely no value for something that has a lot of value. Don't complain about how long it is going to take, or when they are going to be done. They don't owe a thing to you. They are offering their services and retain the right to take them back whenever they want.

 I understand that changing and suiting to the clients' needs is part of graphic design, but truth is, every banner and every layout on this game is free in reality.

Yes, a lot of artists on here definitely do deserve RL cash, and I hope that one day something is worked out so they can offer it on VP. However, I both agree and disagree that virtual cash has no value. Yes, outside of the website is has no real value, but it has some personal value because the customer probably gave up a lot of hours just to make it. I like to look at commissions on VP as exchanges of time; the artist gives up a few hours to make the art, and the customer gives up a few hours to make the play cash. Customers that bother artists about time estimates are probably just concerned about all the time they already put into commissioning the art piece, and I'm sure a lot mean no harm at all.

iluvdogs111 · February 2010

I'm not an artist, but this annoys me too. If it's a simple spelling mistake or something, the buyer has every right to ask for a change, but I hate when people ask "Oh, can you make that word bigger? Can you change the font? Can you put in a different picture? Can you take otu that one picture?" I'm not an artist, like I said, but I still find it frustrating, escpecially when an artist does it for free!

reina__ · February 2010

Yeah, and then they get mad at you for not redoing it. Funny stuff..

NickelbackLuver · February 2010

xD Only time Id ever make a total change is if they want to pay for two instead of the one =P I understand this whole thing though. However, removing things and changing things up a little isn't all that difficult - the artist should save their graphics in layered mode so they can easily change things around until the buyer is totally satisfied. If people make a mess up in their order, and its a tough change - then that's their complete problem. If a word is misspelled, or they realized they needed some more words tossed in - it isnt that big of a deal to open the document, and spend a couple seconds editing text. I like to be nice to my customers, as long as they are to me. They make mistakes, and I will make mistakes as well. It happens in art a lot. =P Now, if it was drawing or something, and they are like "Oh, I want a different color" after someone already finished coloring - that is just annoying and unnecessary. Something like that is what would really irk me. (luckily, I do not draw! & banners are always an easy fix)

reina__ · February 2010

Yeah but when I have about 30 orders at once in several places, I delete the layered product about a day after I complete it because then my folders get way clogged. But yeah. Nickel you are nicer than me.

Hibachi · February 2010

Nickelback__Luver wrote:

xD Only time Id ever make a total change is if they want to pay for two instead of the one =P I understand this whole thing though. However, removing things and changing things up a little isn't all that difficult - the artist should save their graphics in layered mode so they can easily change things around until the buyer is totally satisfied. If people make a mess up in their order, and its a tough change - then that's their complete problem. If a word is misspelled, or they realized they needed some more words tossed in - it isnt that big of a deal to open the document, and spend a couple seconds editing text. I like to be nice to my customers, as long as they are to me. They make mistakes, and I will make mistakes as well. It happens in art a lot. =P Now, if it was drawing or something, and they are like "Oh, I want a different color" after someone already finished coloring - that is just annoying and unnecessary. Something like that is what would really irk me. (luckily, I do not draw! & banners are always an easy fix)

I agree! I say if you have too many orders, close your service until you finish those. Or only have a certain number of slots open at a time so your not over run by orders.

MustangBoy615 · February 2010

I don't think she is saying she can't catch up. I think she is saying that her folders get filled up very easy by having two of every file.

RoyalRaccoon · February 2010

-Mustang- wrote:

I don't think she is saying she can't catch up. I think she is saying that her folders get filled up very easy by having two of every file.

You could always make two separate folders. I always put my PSD files in one, and my finished PNG images in another.

reina__ · February 2010

Simply having to go back and redo a portion is annoying. That is the reason for my post.

Alabama · February 2010

I've found, on jobs that take longer than a day, that if I give the buyer copyrighted works in progress at the end of each day/session, there's less chance of having to change things. And more of a chance of catching things that are wrong either from human error (So yeah, you said orange and I did it red, whoops, I can fix that) or from miscommunication before the work is so far along that fixing it is a headache. I don't know, maybe the buyers find it annoying, but much better to be slightly annoying than to have them pissed off at the end because you misunderstood or they didn't make their wishes known well enough. It's also nice to be able to answer their questions about why I'm doing something and them being able to say "I really don't like that" and doing what makes them happy than to have someone take something from me that they aren't happy with. This may be a bit harder with coding layouts and banners, but having them critique your work at logical stopping points as you work and/or showing them the pictures/fonts/colors you'll be using might make it so fewer misunderstandings occur and everyone is happy with the end product. I stopped ordering banners just for that reason. The end product was never what I expected, though I thought I'd expressed my desires from the beginning. I'm not one to ask for changes because I know the artist (or at least I hope) did their best with the information I provided. I just paid for the work and never used it and stopped ordering. Every layout I've had done I ended up changing things around to what I wanted. Changing the colors, the placement of boxes and box sizes, even the pictures used. I would have been a lot happier if I could have seen what it was going to be ahead of time and helped the person make it closer to what I wanted to begin with.

Howdy, Stranger!

"Change it or else I won't buy it."

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