I love design. Design is my life. But sometimes, I really hate what I am doing.
This industry is so frustrating, whether I am working for someone, or now, I am running my own business. I just don't get why the effort being put in is NEVER respected or justified by peers or clients.
Trying to get a contract is not easy at all. It requires a lot of patience, a lot of luck, a lot of wine and dine, and pro-bonos just to have a chance on bidding on one, and at the end of the day, you STILL have to bend over backwards, cut your fees, add MORE free stuff on the scope, in order for someone to sign you. It's like you are begging for a job, or even if you are doing it at cost, or have a high chance of losing money, they still think giving you the job is doing you a huge favor. The worst? Once they sign, they expect you to devote every single ounce of energy to their project, and had to make sure you get them done yesterday. The irony is, you do all of the above, you and your crew pull massive O.T., you get shit done because you just do; and when you ask them to pay for your work, they delay it 90, 120 days, and they expect that to be ok, as long as they pay you at the end. Oh wait, some of them don't even pay you! I don't understand why design work needs to be justified and to be proven to be actual quantitative work in order to get paid. It's worst than selling a hot dog on the street. People never short the hot dog dude. You get hot dog, you pay your 3.50. Design? You spent two weeks working 60 hours week to generate a 75 page drawings to meet their tight time line, you hand over the drawings, and your invoice. And you get fucked in the ass, because client don't think they need to pay you right away. Oh these guys can wait. They are just designers, they have other projects to keep them afloat. Let's just stall them as long as we can. Oh wait, how about, let's just wait till the place open, make some money and then see if they still chase after us. If we don’t make money, let’s just fuck the designer and not pay them.
Why do we have to beg people to pay for our work? No I DO mean beg. Because if we don't beg and guilt trip the shit out of them or threaten to stop work, they just won't pay. Period. Design client, 9 out of 10, just don't like paying for design! Period. Excuse me, no we don't have millions of dollars to keep us afloat. We NEED you to pay us so we can pay our bills. No seriously. Why the hell would you not pay us?
Fundamentally, I think people don't think design is actual, physical work. They think design is just thinking. It's just ideation, it's brainwork. Why do I have to pay so much for someone to THINK of something. Anybody could have thought of that, given time. I get you guys are creative, so why don't we just pay for your ideas, like what, you spend 2 hours to think of that, so here you go, 2 hours paid. What do you mean I need to pay for drawings? Come on guys its just black and white lines, it's just a sketch. It's for the contractor, I don't benefit from it, so why am I paying for it? Huh? Why are you coming after me?
Client also don't like to pay for changes either. If they change their mind and decide to do something else, they just want you to change it, no charge. Hey I just change the shape of the bar, it's one change, it's no big deal. What do you mean you have to change the seating around it, and the lighting above the bar, or the millwork detail drawings? But I just made one small change?? No I am not paying for it. Mr. I-just-made-a-small-change, it's call chain-reaction! You change the shape of the bar, guess what, the dude who drill a hole on the ground to drain water now has to re-drill the hole base on you shifting the sink. Guess what, the dude wants to know exactly this new hole is. And where does that information come from? Yes, you guessed it. It comes from the changes you made, which triggers a revision to the drawing which shows the exactly location of where the new hole is. But you don't want to pay for the changes, and the dude drills the wrong hole, and now the sink is not draining water and flooded the space. So now it's our fault, because you have told us about the changes and it's our responsibility to coordinate everything after that. But, you didn't want to pay for the changes. No it doesn't matter, I've told you, and you fucked up, you are a bad firm, all you care is money and I will bad mouth you to death, and we are terminating the contracts which means we are not paying any outstanding invoices because we are not happy with your service anymore and you don't deserve to get paid. Well FUCK YOU!
W.T.F. It's a very real scenario, I didn't make this shit up. As a design studio business owner, this is something I have to deal with every single fucking day. It's draining, disappointing, frustrating, demeaning, and really really fucked up. I really hate what I am doing.
On days like this, I just want to give everything up and travel like millennials down California coast in an air streamer and Instagram my life and be famous.