Awal tahun ini saya mengirim karya ke perlombaan desain di US. Karya itu, karya yang saya pikir terbaik, dibuat dengan sepenuh hati tanpa terlalu memusingkan budget. Karena cukup yakin dengan kualitasnya, saya ikutkan karya itu dengan pemikiran 'nothing to loose'. Kalo kalah, paling biaya lomba & ongkos pengiriman yang terbang. Tapi kalau menang, tentunya baik buat perusahaan dan buat kebanggaan diri.
Tapi saya kalah...
Pemenangnya sudah diumumkan, dan saya tidak ada di dalamnya. Walaupun awalnya saya tidak mengharapkan untuk menang bahkan sempat lupa kalau saya ikut lomba, toh saya sedih juga. Ada yang menggores kepercayaan diri saya karena ternyata karya saya tidak cukup bagus untuk masuk untuk finalis sekalipun.
Dulu sewaktu di perusahaan lama, beberapa karya saya masuk sebagai pemenang. Padahal karya-karya tersebut kalau saya lihat sekarang, biasa aja... Masih bagusan karya saya yang sekarang ini (yang tidak menang lomba).
Saya jadi berpikir (masih sambil sedih), yang turun kualitas karya atau taste saya yah?
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
A Client, D Client
What my husband and me have learnt so much about building our own company is how to deal with clients. The relationship with clients is always be a love and 'hate' relationship. We love them, of course, for believing in us by giving us projects to do. We recognize it as a handsome appreciation of what we've done. But we sometimes 'hate' them for giving us a very tight deadline that torture us or paying us lower that it should be. But anyway anyhow, it's business after all. No pain, no gain. Clients that take but give is a reasonable client.
But we have a rare kind of clients, both in a positive way and negative way.
We just get a new client, a photographer who put his trust in us to build his own brand. We do his branding collateral and photo album design. He never negotiates our price, but easily accepts the number and then starts the project right away. Beside that, he also has a good taste that makes us keep enthusiastic in developing his project. So far, he's our best client, both in money and aesthetic term. For all his 'good attitude', he's an 'A' Client.
In the other hand, we also have a bad bad client, who takes more that it should be. She's a prominent decorator in this metropolitan city. Her fee in decorating is nine digits number. Her clients are rich people who appear in many publications. Judged only by her name, she should be an 'A' Client.
But she's not.
Actually, she's one of our first clients. At the start of our relationship, we do really thankful for her trust in us. She's the type of sweet talker who has generous appreciations and encouragements. That's why we're soft to her, gave her more than she's expected.
But after a long way relationship, we're not as happy as before, in serving her. Projects with her were lame. The price is quite pathetic and often cancelled without further explanation and payment. The payment is also always late, sometimes she just like pretends to forget it. But she's not the type who's hesitant to ask for help. We did some free of charge layouts for her print ad in magazine. When she asked for helps, she's almost never mentioned about the price, as if it's an obligatory to help her.
The most recent proof is she asked us to print some name card we've designed for her without mention about the prices. We decide to get bold by asking her right away.
Well, she had once made us a free of charge wedding bouquet. But we have 'paid' it with one sweet seventeen invitation and one print ad. One wedding bouquet isn't a whole life debt, isn't it?
We have decided, we don't want to collaborate anything with her anymore.
For her bad attitude, she's a 'D' Client.
But we have a rare kind of clients, both in a positive way and negative way.
We just get a new client, a photographer who put his trust in us to build his own brand. We do his branding collateral and photo album design. He never negotiates our price, but easily accepts the number and then starts the project right away. Beside that, he also has a good taste that makes us keep enthusiastic in developing his project. So far, he's our best client, both in money and aesthetic term. For all his 'good attitude', he's an 'A' Client.
In the other hand, we also have a bad bad client, who takes more that it should be. She's a prominent decorator in this metropolitan city. Her fee in decorating is nine digits number. Her clients are rich people who appear in many publications. Judged only by her name, she should be an 'A' Client.
But she's not.
Actually, she's one of our first clients. At the start of our relationship, we do really thankful for her trust in us. She's the type of sweet talker who has generous appreciations and encouragements. That's why we're soft to her, gave her more than she's expected.
But after a long way relationship, we're not as happy as before, in serving her. Projects with her were lame. The price is quite pathetic and often cancelled without further explanation and payment. The payment is also always late, sometimes she just like pretends to forget it. But she's not the type who's hesitant to ask for help. We did some free of charge layouts for her print ad in magazine. When she asked for helps, she's almost never mentioned about the price, as if it's an obligatory to help her.
The most recent proof is she asked us to print some name card we've designed for her without mention about the prices. We decide to get bold by asking her right away.
Well, she had once made us a free of charge wedding bouquet. But we have 'paid' it with one sweet seventeen invitation and one print ad. One wedding bouquet isn't a whole life debt, isn't it?
We have decided, we don't want to collaborate anything with her anymore.
For her bad attitude, she's a 'D' Client.
