I’ve been putting this entry off for a few weeks, but my morning mail brought with it a reminder of one of the hardest aspects of the business—losing clients. (It’s worth noting that as I am typing this line I am listening to Okkervil River’s On Tour With Zykos, a great breakup song.)

One of my favorite clients to work with in the past year is the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra. I was fortunate enough to do most of the SBSO’s work for the 2008–2009 season which gave me the opportunity to work closely with several people including Dan McGee (executive director) and the late Patrick Flynn (conductor and music director). Working with Patrick on the creation of the original materials was a hell of a lot of fun, if for no other reason than because I got a chance to hear him tell stories of working with Baryshnakov and his experiences working with advertising agencies. He was a very colorful character and because I was a creative professional, treated me like an equal. It’s not often that you get a chance to collaborate with someone like Patrick and I will always be grateful for the opporunity to do so.

For his part, Dan McGee is a consummate professional. I’ve worked with many non-profits over the years and with each non-profit, you encounter a wide range of people sitting in the ED’s chair. I’d rank Dan up there with any ED I’ve ever worked with for his enthusiasm, professionalism and for just making you feel good when you’re in the same room. Dan always had a warm handshake and a great, big smile for you. And if there was someone nearby didn’t know who I was, he was my biggest advocate and a shameless promoter for 989 Design. That’s the sort of thing that always means a lot to me. When the people who sign the checks feel strongly enough about the work you do to tell other people, it is equal parts flattering and gratifying.

Earlier in the year, Dan asked me to put numbers together for the 2009–2010 contract and offered that it would take a lot for them to move to another studio, but going into review is just something the board requires. I knew that any time a client goes into review, even if it isn’t a reflection on the work you’ve done, there is always going to be the chance that after the review that the client will move on.

I can remember my dad telling me a story about loyalty and that you “leave the dance with you brung ya.” Would that it were always so simple, but in reality there are other forces at work. In the case of the SBSO, a non-profit working very hard to maintain a standard of excellence in the face of tightening budgets, the current economic environment forced them to have to find every opportunity to get the most for their money in marketing and advertising. At the same time, the recession is impacting many other agencies in the area to a point where they are letting people go and discounting their work just to keep work coming in the door.

So there I was caught between the Scylla and Charibdes of tightened marketing budgets and discounted competitive work. I had a bad feeling about it and as it turned out, my instincts were right on. Another agency came in with a great price and the work went to them. Dan told me who the work was going to and they are an agency I have a lot of respect for. They produce some really fine work and I completely understood the reasons the decision was made.

To say that I understood, though, doesn’t mean that it didn’t hurt because it did. I don’t mean financially (although, I guess that is always a part of it), but it felt like I was being dumped. When you say that you lost a client, that isn’t really the case. You didn’t lose them, they lost you.

It’s really hard to describe the feeling of losing a client. Remember in high school when you’re going with a girl and holding hands and kissing one day and you see her the next day and she’s holding hands and kissing somebody else? It’s a lot like that, it really is. You start questioning what you could have done differently/better/etc. It really is a lot like a breakup. Current conditions dictate that it wasn’t the right fit at the right time, so the board made a choice that made the most sense for the SBSO. I genuinely understand and respect the decision. Even more, I respect Dan for taking the time to personally let me know about the change being made and ensuring me that it wasn’t a reflection on my work and my time with the SBSO. He didn’t have to do that and I will always appreciate the fact that he took the time to do so.

So what happened today to spur finally writing this entry? An envelope arrived in the mail with the 2009–2010 season program. To belabor the analogy, it was like receiving an invitation to your ex-girlfriend’s wedding one month after breaking up. For about five seconds, the disappointment and doubt that comes with losing a client swept over me. After the five seconds, though, I was able to really look at the piece for what it is and you know what? My confidence in the other agency was well-founded. They did a fantastic job and produced a really great piece that is both attractive and clearly communicates what the 2009–2010 season is all about. I think that the piece will be very effective for the Orchestra and hope that it brings many new patrons to the Temple Theatre next season.

Because I am a big hockey fan, one of the clients I wanted to work with as soon as I moved back to Michigan was the Saginaw Spirit of the Ontario Hockey League. I’ve been working with the team for almost five years now and still really love the work. We are currently working on the season tickets and season schedules, so you can expect to see some proofs in the near future.

This past weekend, three Spirit players were chosen in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft. Jordan Szwarz was taken 97th overall by the Phoenix Coyotes. Edward Pasquale and Cody Sol were taken 117th and 125th, respectively, by the Atlanta Thrashers. All three players are coming off solid seasons with the Spirit and are expected to be major contributors in Saginaw next season.

When the Spirit advertise themselves as Here Today, NHL Tomorrow, these are the type of players they are talking about.

Congratulations Jordan, Edward and Cody.

One of our newest projects is a website for Frawley’s Fine Herbary, located in Midland, Michigan. Frawley’s is a small, but growing business specializing in a wide variety of herbal mixes, herbal teas and more. You can find them every Wednesday and Saturday at the Midland Farmers’ Market (located near the foot of the Tridge).

When Donna, Sabrina and I first sat down to discuss what they wanted in a site, one of the things they stressed is that because this is their first foray into a web store, they had a tight budget to work within, but they still needed the site to offer all of the features they wanted. They wanted a full-feature store that handled PayPal, they wanted a searchable recipe section, and they wanted the ability to update and make changes themselves. I stressed to them that I think one of the most important things they can do is be sure that there is valuable content on the site for visitors.

We delivered the site they asked for and kept the project on budget, even with a couple of hiccups along the way. We are really pleased with the final results and, according to the client, so are they.

Take the time and click the link to their site and see what Frawley’s Fine Herbary is all about. There are links to articles that Donna has written, a calendar of Donna’s upcoming cooking classes, as well as many free recipes to browse. And if reading those recipes makes your mouth water, stop into the store and pick up an item or two. You can’t beat the price on their all-natural herbal teas and blends.

For everybody reading this who isn’t a designer, the logo at left is for an organization called NO!SPEC (obviously). If you are a designer, you should already be familiar with the logo. If you are a designer who isn’t familiar with the logo at left, shame on you.

NO!SPEC is a group dedicated to informing and educating designers and users of design to the dangers of spec—or unpaid—work. Spec (short for speculative) work is becoming more of a problem in our industry as businesses are creating faux competitions in order to pick and choose among many designs and then paying a deeply discounted rate for one of the many designs in front of them. It’s a perfect world for a business, but it’s terrible for professional designers and it devalues design as a whole.

I’m not suggesting that no designer should ever do work without charging or submit to competitions. Websites like Threadless are genuine competitions…just like with any freelance writer, you make your own creation, submit it and either it is accepted or not. It’s not the same as a company telling you what they need, you doing all of the work (along with 100 other designers), and then having the client choose just one. And as far as Pro-bono work goes, it’s been a part of design and advertising for as long as the fields have existed, often donated to non-profits and charitable organizations.

In the case of Google, though, you hardly have a non-profit organization. Google profits were $1.42 billion in the first quarter of 2009. When you’re on pace to profic nearly $6B, it’s really hard to cry poor. But even with those $6B, Google doesn’t want to pay for design.

Google approached dozens of nationally prominent artists asking them to use their artwork for user-customizable skins their new Chrome browser. In return for the design Google is offering…nothing. The theory being that so many people will use Chrome that they will see your work that you’ll get more work because of it. It’s just like a client telling you that they can’t afford to pay you now, but later when they get huge, you’ll make out.

I’ll admit I bit on a couple of deals like this early in my career, when I was desperate to keep my newborn business afloat. And every single time someone promised me riches down the road? Nothing ever came of it. It was a waste of my time. More often than not, the client went under. And in the few times that they didn’t fail, they found another designer to do cheap/free work rather than deliver the promised payday. These clients are known as assholes.

And that’s just what Google is doing. They obviously recognize the need for design or they wouldn’t have approached the artists in the first place. They want the benefits without it costing them a dime. The whole thing seems half-assed and poorly thought out. Google, whose reputation was pretty stellar, comes out of this looking pretty cheap.

In stark contrast to my post this week about really bad photo manipulation, take a few minutes to check out Webdesigner Depot’s entry about great photo manipulation.

As you go through the entry, really take a close look at some of the work there because some of it is truly spectacular work. And just think, you can get that same quality of work from 989 Design! Okay…that might be exaggerating a bit. We’re pretty masterful with Photoshop, but we aren’t doing photo art like that. Some of the pieces we could do, but a lot of them are outside our area of expertise.