So a few months ago I had a business in the area call me about some work. They wanted this and that and the other thing, the first being the bottom-level task of designing, producing and delivering some street signs (yard/stake type) to promote a festival they are holding.
Okay, no problem, we meet, I do some initial sketches, they’re okayed, I do some refinement and background work like collecting high-res logo files from a supporting sponsor, and do a final draft. Which has the word DRAFT faintly embedded across it.
Then, and only then, does it turn out that I am supposed to do this ca.-$1,000 job “in trade” - only the showrunner has absolutely nothing of interest to me; the festival is an exercise, health and lifestyle thing that has absolutely no relevance to my business. Without further discussion, I am thanked and excused. Okay, fine; the guy is one of those people who probably can’t buy a #3 at McDonalds without trying to bargain, wheedle and get the best of a deal, with extra fries. I didn’t look forward to dealing with him.
Jump forward a month, and the signs for the event appear… clearly a rework of my design in very inept hands, with many elements identical and others moved around to make room for a plethora of little biffs and bams and boofs and logos and words. It’s your typical amateur signage, almost unreadable even if you’re standing still in front of it; forget taking away any useful info from a drive-by. (Even I wasn’t sure it was my sign under the goop until I drove by it a second time.)
But it takes no expert eye to see that it’s my layout, taken and crapped up a little. I called the one shop I suspected of printing them and my rep confirmed it… and quickly disavowed designing them.
So I billed him for the preliminary design, handsomely, just to give him a shitty day/hour/minute. He can frame it for all I care - and he has no idea how many ways this is going to bounce back on him in the next few years. It’s a small town and I do have a lot of clients who respect my work… and on whom he depends…