When things aren’t working out, and our clients aren’t happy, I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about why. Failure is a great opportunity for deep learning. Read my first post about this failed project.
In this particular case, I do not know exactly why things aren’t working. I could point out to some things he’s doing, like mixed messages and long lulls in communication, but what are we doing wrong on our end?
Read more, let’s think and reflect and learn together!
This client has a seemingly simple request, but he wants a lot of characters in it, not in the traditional cost-effective anime style. We went over several artists, and only few of ours could do realism. Issue is, their rates are higher than the others, because they’re able to do something most artists physically cannot.
That said, my guys aren’t perfect either. Everyone has their quirks. Sometimes your personality and style can be completely opposite to what other people can handle. Identifying what contributes to failed collaboration, where the line goes between your responsibility and theirs, can be difficult to ascertain.
The two artists who participated on his projects are both professionals, who have worked for companies on big projects. Both are top tier digital painters. They have told me, I’m bending over backwards to please him to a ridiculous extent. And I’m almost thinking, the mistake in this case has been just that.
Because I’m bending so much, heavy discounts included, there is no sense of what’s normal. I also communicate much more with this guy than most clients, so you could argue, I’m signaling that my time isn’t valuable. What the value of anything is, is generally based on perception.
Thinking from that angle, it would explain why another commission, where I was similarly trying ultra hard to please the client, heavy discounts included, went into a dispute situation recently. Maybe that’s the lesson? Gotta show ’em some boundaries. Show what they can’t buy for clarity and contrast.
You live and learn!
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