Sunday Mailbag: Which Jobs to Take?

Q: How do you determine which job solicitation is worth pursuing? I’ve inquired about jobs to a few artists I liked, only to be told they didn’t accept any freelance jobs or they were too busy, etc… never getting to a price. How do you know which job is worthy? Is it the initial approach of the potential client?

A: Sounds to me like you might be a little frustrated that you cannot find an artist to take on whatever project you are looking to have done. I can understand that. I don’t know the specifics of what you are looking for but I can see how not even getting any ballpark pricing would be disappointing and aggravating. I’m sorry if you are feeling like that.

I can tell you that I personally do not approach any offer of paid work as “worthy” or “not worthy” of my time. I do, however, prioritize offered jobs based on the following criteria, in their order of importance:

• Current Workload/Available Time
• Amount of Payment
• Potential of Client
• “Coolness” Factor

Current Workload/Available Time– Of the above list, this probably comprises 90% of the reason I accept or do not accept a job. If I have time to do a job, I’ll usually accept it so long as the none of the other criteria listed are out of whack. Actually it might be more accurate to say 90% of the time I turn down a job is because I don’t have the time to do it due to being busy with other jobs, and none of the other criteria much come into play. Usually if this is the case I’ll just tell the inquirer I am too booked up, apologize, and won’t go through the process of working up a price for them. I’m sure other artists do the same, which might explain why you aren’t getting any pricing info.

This is especially true of jobs offered by people I have never worked with before as opposed to past clients. That’s because I have an established relationship with repeat clients and keeping that relationship healthy might be more important than me getting enough sleep or going to see a show I had tickets for. That said, I sometimes have to turn down work even from established clients just because I don’t have the physical time to do it. As a freelancer doing this causes almost physical pain. However I’ve been known to take on too much work and either almost drop from exhaustion to get it all done or, almost worse, compromise the work by banging it out. I’ve gotten better at judging what I can and can’t do in my old age. Just last week I had to turn down two jobs from a past publication client because I am too busy with other projects.

Amount of Payment– Getting a good rate for the work is the next most important criteria. This is often where personal commission jobs get derailed. I have a bit of a problem charging professional level rates for a caricature of someone’s mom for her birthday, as I feel bad asking regular people to pay what I’d charge a publisher or company to pay. I need to remember that I HAVE to charge those kinds of rates because doing that personal job takes time away from doing other jobs that DO pay those kinds of rates. I feel like a heel asking for that kind of pay sometimes, but that’s just what I have to charge.

On the other side of that, when I do quote a professional rate for a personal commission job I will sometimes (maybe a bit more than sometimes) get a “that’s WAY more than I expected… this costs $20 at the State Fair!” response. That may be why you are having trouble even getting a quote for your job. After a while getting those kinds of responses gets a little tiresome, and any artist would be a little more hesitant to bother to quote a job coming from a private individual as opposed to an art director or established company. Of course not everyone responds like that. Many people expect when they contact someone with a lot of professional credits under their belt, they will be quoted correspondingly.

Even professional jobs can sometimes be too lowball to consider. I am very seldom asked to submit a quote on a job these days. Usually I am contacted by an art director and they offer me an assignment and tell me what they are paying upfront. I either agree to do it, or I don’t. There have been some jobs I have turned down because frankly they are not paying a professional rate, even if I had the time to take it on.

Potential of Client- Here is a factor where I’m afraid the personal commission type job can end up taking a back seat. Those types of job, even if they pay pretty well, are usually one time things. If the job is for an established publisher, advertising firm, or corporation, the potential for repeat work is far higher. This might cause me to sacrifice sleep and stress levels to take on a job I might have turned down for lack of time for some other client. It isn’t that the smaller client isn’t “worthy”, it’s that the potential of the bigger client to become a regular client is far greater and might supercede the “really busy” factor.

I also have to prioritize most publication/media over personal commissions just because of the potential audience. Doing a publication job means it gets seen by a wide audience, including other art directors, which often leads to more publication/media jobs. I’ve got nothing against personal commissions, but they have a lot less potential to lead to other professional work.

“Coolness” Factor- I’ll admit to taking on some jobs over others just because the job itself is something I really want to do or is for a very cool or high profile purpose. This does come down to a form of snobbery I guess, but really it only comes into play if I don’t have the available time and would need to make some major sacrifices to squeeze the job in. My recent job for CNN’s “History of the Sitcom” is a case in point. When I was called for that job (which had a tight deadline) not only was I way behind on CLAPTRAP, my daughter was getting surgery to remove a malignant tumor and I was headed down to Florida to help take care of her. I would have probably turned many other jobs down considering what I had on my plate at the time, but this CNN job was going to be all over the media for weeks and seen by millions of people. For that reason (and it also paid pretty good) I took it on and had a lot of sleepless nights squeezing it in. I literally finished it on the kitchen table in my daughter’s Orlando area apartment in between spending the days in her hospital room post surgery. Admittedly I would not do that for a commission of a couple and their dog for their 10th anniversary.

Again, I do not consider any job “unworthy” in the sense that I think my work is above it for some reason. However, I do have a number of criteria that need to be met in order to take on any job.

Thanks to Diane Wentzel for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about  cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here!