Advice From An Artist

One thing I take a ton of heat for at work is having a big file on our network drive. What can I say? PSD files take up a lot of space.

Of course those files are only there because I want to humor people who want access to my originals, which I try to keep on my hard drive and then move to the network when they are old.

Why do I do this? Simple; every day I have to hear people audibly get frustrated and grunt and cuss when they accidentally closed a window.

"Why didn't it ask me if I was sure?! It was an accident!"

Well when it comes to one of a kind, editable artwork, I don't want to risk one of those accidents.

You have to remember that your coworkers usually don't understand the complexities of what you do. When they say "Can't you just click on the McDonalds building text, hit backspace, and make it say Burger King? It IS Photoshop. Can't it do these things?" you have to forgive them. That's why you are there. You don't understand some of the things they do (and if you do, work with me here) so forget about it.

But just keep that in mind when someone pressures you for the original to some artwork you made. Give them a COPY of it; not the actual original.

Of course, you could let them delete it and then spend 10 hours recreating it while charging then overtime; but I don't believe in that and just recommend giving them a copy. 

It has been a while since I really had a bad encounter with a printer. Usually it is the same, "no thanks" thing every day. I send them the art, usually being overly nice and never hear from them ever again.

I actually made a game out of it at one point and tried to almost "force" a response out of them; but saving the files in newer versions (CS2) and saying "Hey if this doesn't work, please email me and let me know and I will send you another version!" but nope; nothing. Ever.

But recently something was so incredible that I had to post it on here.

Recently we ordered a product from a printer and you had to upload the files on their site. They had an upload slot for the Front and the Back.

Once you uploaded the files (EPS), they would email you proofs.

Well they said something was wrong with the artwork, and told us to use the appropriate template and make sure it was inside the lines. They told us once we made the adjustments, to "Decline" the proofs on the website and re-upload the artwork. Naturally their EPS and AI templates were broken links, so I used a PSD one and imported the JPG.

So we logged on to their website and there it was:

Front: APPROVE/DECLINE

BACK: APPROVE/DECLINE

When you clicked decline on the front, it let you re-upload the front; for $25 dollars. Same for the back; before they were together, now they were separate, and you were forced to do it twice.

Angrily I complied, but told the co-worker who was in contact with them that we weren't going to pay that, and just deduct it from the invoice. I don't have the authority where I work to make that call; I'm just the artist, but if they want to debate the ethics of it, I'll be glad to, and will happily prove to them that the charge is BS.

They once again had an "issue" with our artwork. This time I had prompted the co-worker to ask them if they have so many problems with EPS artwork, but accept EPS artwork, can't they make changes such as moving text in 20 pixels? They told her they can't. The co-worker asked them "you can't, or you won't?" They confessed that they CAN, but it isn't their policy to edit customer’s artwork.

Let's say I am a house wife who doesn't know anything about what I am doing. These douche bags would continue to milk people’s money for each upload when they could easily move the text or whatever themselves. That is just flat out immoral.

For the record, they "once again" had an issue with our art, I emailed it to them with it hosted on OUR website, and we never did pay the "upload" fine.

We have since ordered some more products from them and have had no problems. But that first time they were dicks.

Flat out: charging per upload and leading people on more and more and more just so you can keep taking the money is wrong. 

Be prepared that if you work in an office; you are open to critique at any moment at any time.

If the receptionist happens to be walking by and sees your screen... "Do you think it would look better blue?"

This of course, could be right as you were reaching for the blue hue with your paint bucket tool, but still. This kind of thing drives me insane. Don't critique my work until it is done.

When my work is ready for your opinion, I will either call everyone in there (I work with about 8 people) and let them see it on the PC or just print it and pass it around.

But standing over my shoulder and telling me to change things is just annoying. Maybe I was just about to do what you were telling me. I don't need this crap.

This is more general and not directed at my co-workers if they read this. However they already know that I notice this, so what the hell...

If there is a big project being worked on, let's say you work for Microsoft and you are redesigning the logo. You work with 5 other people.

No matter how perfect the logo you design is, there will be AT LEAST one asshat that has one change.

Usually it's the same people every time. They feel their mark must be made on every project. It is seriously the most insane thing I have ever seen.

These are the kind of people that would spend 4 hours arguing whether the dash is needed in "X-Box." Well... X Box says what it is... what does the dash do? Maybe some people will say X minus Box? People should know the name of our product. But X Box looks wrong when written down

JUST SHUT UP!

No, I don't think the logo would look better if the blue was shifted -4 saturation points in Photoshop. No, I don't think the kerning in the letters should be 2 pixels smaller. Sometimes, something is good without your opinion; get used to it.

And before people email me; this isn't something like "don't critique my work." I'll touch on that in a bit. This is at the final stage, after everything is done, they come up with this crap.

I'm not talking about laser jet or ink jet here; I'm talking about people who print things. They are a necessary evil; yes, evil.

Oddly enough, I have found that the nicest printers are people from huge corporations. People that are from local mom and pop shops couldn't care less about our business, or the fact that I am helping them.

Seriously; can you even imagine the amount of low-resolution gifs that house wives bring in and want printed? So based on that, when someone emailed me a high-resolution, "camera ready" EPS or AI, text-outlined vector filed, I would be so excited I would probably blow 'em.

But the printers I have encountered (without exaggeration, at least 40 over the last year, and I am low-balling it) don't even take the time to send a "thank you" or "thanks" to the email with the artwork.

If I say "let me know if this works for you; I could only save it in this format"... nothing. No response ever.

I think it is because printers feel they are doing me a favor. Without them; shirts wouldn't have logos. Billboards wouldn't have signs. Cups wouldn't have designs. But it doesn't take much too throw a little professional courtesy out there, especially since I am the one making the artwork.

But you know what; I don't even take that stance. It would be too cocky to brag that artists make the art and printers simply push print.

I used to explain that the difference between a graphic artist and a webmaster was that...

Some people make canvases; and some people paint the pictures. However without the other, beautiful masterpieces wouldn't exist.

The same could be said for printers. However, I am the one trying to be nice... they are the one being dicks. So printers out there; don't be a dick, dick.

Perhaps that is a bad title for this section; but whatever. Here I will talk about real things that happen when you are a graphic artist.

I'm not talking about one of those house-wives, sold one painting, "I'm an artist" experiences. If you want to know the kind of things you will encounter working as an artist every day for a career; you have come to the right place.

I work for a world wide franchising company. Which one doesn't matter; what matters is a franchise has certain requirements; artwork must be approved by us (or made by us), things of that nature.

Working there for over a year is like 10 years of experience. 10 hour days handling a business’ entire graphical needs end up being a lot. Some of it is incredible; some of it sucks. Regardless, it is reality; and I will talk about it here.