iLove for $500, Alex

OK, ok. I was done waiting. So I went out and got the iPhone instead of just sitting around drooling about it.

I can sum it up best this way. What a freakin' COOL device this is.

Yes, it's got a hefty price tag. But when you think about it, it's a LOT of things wrapped up in one. It's a Palm Pilot/Organizer/SmartPhone/iPod/Handheld computer all wrapped up in one. Do I think it's worth it? I do.

Yeah sure I already have an iPod. And a laptop. And an organizer. But all that STUFF is a lot bigger than this device, which is about the same thickness as my now old phone, the RAZR. My main thing was that after having such a skinny phone I was going to feel like I had a truck in my pocket. But surprisingly, it is not a difference at all. The only big thing was that I have one of those Belkin clear cases, so now I have a clear, thicker clip hanging on the outside of my pants instead of a gray one.

Here's what I love about my iPhone: (Highlights. There's a LOT more than I wish to type!)

It synchs through iTunes. Brilliant. iTunes is easy to use and most people have at least heard of it. There are downsides to this, and Apple gets a point off for not allowing a drag and drop of music or picture files like it does for the iPod. But..still very cool that there was no complicated new software to learn

That's a good segway into the second thing I love. It "matches" my computer. I'm a die-hard Mac person (4 Macs in my house...no WinDOZE thank you) and a lot of the "Oooh ahhh" stuff the iPhone does is already something you've seen an incarnation of in the Mac OS. So within 10 minutes of owning the phone, I was comfortable checking email (which looks just like the Apple Mail) and using the text message feature, which looks and feels just like iChat. Freakin awesome of Apple to take this most excellent way of computing to the next level by putting it out to people who may not have seen it before.

It is so much easier than a handheld computer. That's one tech gadget I never wanted to buy because honestly...I don't have the patience to learn to use it. It's a whole different animal to me.

Internet anywhere. Awesome. And you can switch to WiFi very easily if you need to. My house is a giant wireless network...we can access in any room. So it's nice to use that since it's faster than using the EDGE thing from AT&T because we have fiber optic as our provider.

My bill went up only $20. As an existing AT&T (well actually Cingular) customer it was painless. I went in, got the phone, paid and was out the door in like 15 minutes. Sweet. My bill had gone down about $15 when they switched to AT&T anyway, so it's not even going to be noticed come bill time.

Synching with Address Book. Also very cool. Now I have everything in one place when it comes to contact info

Email - super easy and I have it set up so that I still download the messages to my regular computer too so I don't miss out on anything.

It comes with an ultra cute mini dock (like the one the iPod used to come with but smaller) Aww! Also it comes with a cool wiping cloth that says iPhone on it. You know so you can wipe your nasty face grease off the thing. (The ONE thing I don't like about these cool new sleek phones with larger displays. They ALL have this issue)

And this is petty but that little "Sent from my iPhone" signature is just damn adorable.

Things I don't like:

The whole drag and drop thing. Maybe for future versions they will fix this.

You can't use your existing SIM. That part REALLY sucks. I mean, technically you COULD put your old card in there after you activate the phone, and there are many stories of people on the Net who have done it. But...I just dropped a lot of money for this thing and I'm not about to go tinkering with it like that. So I did it the old fashioned way today which actually was OK because...I needed to clean that address book out!

The touch screen thing takes some getting used to. I have rather large fingers so I am constantly typing the wrong letters. I will hopefully get used to that part soon but my fingers are not likely to get smaller. And you can't use a stylus and cheat. I already tried.

So if you are out there and thinking about getting one...do it. You're gonna love it. =)

This was the week it was...

A week. Seven days. Doesn't seem like a whole lot of time but when you think about it in the grand scheme of things...a lot can happen! (What the heck, a lot can happen in a day!)

This past week I have been on "vacation" from my regular full time job. There was a rhyme and a reason for this vacation...I had a number of things I needed to get accomplished, and truth be told - I needed a break. Things have been very stressful there for the last couple of months and when I came to the realization that I just past my five year mark and had yet to have taken an entire week away from the office...I decided that the time was now. Plus at the end of the week I had planned to have two wisdom teeth removed and knowing myself the way I do, I knew I'd be out of it for a couple of days. In preparation for that, I needed to get my proverbial ducks in a row prior to that or I would never be able to relax enough to get better.

So I planned a week of catching up on loose ends, cleaning up miscellaneous projects, getting my surgery and then maybe relaxing.

Ha. Here it is, Sunday, eve of my return to work tomorrow morning and I'm doing a quick assessment of where I stand.

Stuff that happened this week:

Painted my kitchen red. (Well...I personally didn't do it. But I suffered through the fumes as someone else did)
Wrapped up with 4-5 old projects that were hanging on
Billed out a lot of work and received a lot of payment (YAY!)
Got 3 new LARGE clients that are going to be big money makers. Definitely a case of being at the right place at the right time
Met with a client in the middle of day without having to rush or fight rush hour traffic
Redesigned my website. Part of it is already live. I've been planning to do that for a LONG time!
Redesigned my logo and ordered new business cards. Another thing that needed to be done!
Got those pesky wisdom teeth pulled. Ouch. Those people who said that it doesn't hurt are LIARS.
Watched half a season of X-Files (I forgot how much I enjoyed that show)
Designed 4 logos
Made a very cool 80s playlist on iTunes, for when I'm feeling retro
Thumbed through several old PRINT annuals. Wow. The 90s sure did produce some interesting work
Found 2 books on Amazon I'd been looking for for YEARS, and they were both under $1!
Bought another Art Director's Annual on eBay for under $10, shipped
Had lunch with my significant other at an awesome Chinese buffet that is way overpriced for dinner (but priced ok for lunch)
Watched The Shawshank Redemption in one sitting
Went out in public with an icepack on my face
Cleaned up a little in my home studio, mostly put away stuff I wasn't using
Listened to a LOT of kids' daytime TV from the other room
Designed 3 huge banners with horses on them for a client
Sat in bed, very late at night and wrote bio info for my website
Relaxed for half a day, because damn it, I deserve it

There's more of course, but those are the highlights. It's going to be a tough sell to return to work tomorrow. Not to mention that I'm still sore and in pain from the teeth thing. Huh. Freelancing full time seemed like such a crazy idea before but today, right now...it seems like such an attractive option. And it's even a viable one.

I'll have to think on this...

NOW how much would you pay?

How much do you think you are worth? Seriously! I ask myself this question a lot, not because I'm trying to be philosophical but because I am in a business where I charge a rate for my services. Sometimes I charge more, sometimes less, but always an amount I feel is fair for the work I am doing. Just like I won't take a job designing a 12 page catalog for $25 (Don't laugh...this has happened!), I also won't turn around and charge someone $300 to design a one page flyer that took me an hour to produce. One of the reasons why I end up with customers use me time and time again is that I treat everyone fairly, don't rip people off, and provide them a quality design that they (and I) can be proud of. Or at least that's the goal. Could I make more if I charged more? Maybe. But thus far, I've been very fortunate, and in the year that I have been making a serious, true blue effort to find more freelance clients, I've amassed quite a nice base of "regular" customers and generated a lot of referrals and other work based on word of mouth. I'm always so flattered when someone emails me and says "Hey, my friend so and so says you do nice work, etc and I should call you..." So starting from basically nothing, I would say whatever I am doing must be right.

It's times like these when I think...after almost 10 years of doing graphics and working for other people, making THEM money...why the hell didn't get up off my tookus sooner and get some more of my OWN clients? Hmm. Not sure. Working a full time job in addition to freelancing takes a lot out of you. I should know...I do it every single day. I suppose all that matters now is that I'm doing it...and doing it well.

But I digress. The purpose of this post was actually something different. I read a lot of blogs and message boards every day...some design related, some not. About a week ago, I was reading a message board at a very well known design publication's web site. There was a discussion going on about rates and cheap clients who only want to pay $50 for a logo design. I think everyone pretty much agreed that this is not the kind of client you want, because honestly...that's not a fair price for something that takes as much work and thought as a logo. But someone brought up a very valid point here and they got sort of flamed for it...and I hated to admit it, but I though they were right. The point was this: one person brought up that a fee or rate might depend on the level of experience of the designer doing the work, and did people think it was really fair for someone who is just out of school with no real experience to demand $300 for a logo design and get mad when the client didn't want to pay that. One person chimed in that they felt that YES, that student should get that rate, and several others agreed, one even being sort of nasty to the person who had asked. I didn't comment, just lurked.

I hate to say it...that person who thinks $300 for a student's work is too much...has a valid point. The truth is, when you are first starting out...your lack of experience can put you at a serious disadvantage from someone who has been there, done that and designed a t-shirt for it. I can't tell you how many times I've seen work done for my clients by designers of all kinds or even some big agencies which screams AMATEUR. Sloppy work, work that isn't formatted for printing, complicated "design" elements that interfere with the client's message...I've seen it all.

I'm sorry but if you are just out of school and have never prepped a job for print, I'm willing to bet you are going to make mistakes. I know I certainly made my share. You can be the best student in your class, but there is no degree hanging on the wall that can take the place of real, in the trenches experience. Does this mean you don't deserve to get paid? Of course not. But how large is your ego really that you think you can charge an outrageous amount of money for your work, when you know that's not really what it's worth? You might get the client this time, but you can bet that person won't return to you for future jobs. Nobody wants to feel taken advantage of. Charging unrealistic rates only makes the price of someone with reality check look all the better. And let's face it...I know how long it takes to design a piece of advertising, or a logo, or a brochure. I base my rate on that. If you are slow and it takes you 6 hours to do these, then you need to learn to work faster. Don't punish your client for that. It will only come back to haunt you in the end.

On the flip side of that arguement, I don't think that anybody, student or not, should get paid $50 for a logo design. When you are hiring someone to do a creative job for you (non designers...I'm talking to you) then demand to see a portfolio. Even someone who is a savant can tell you that in simple terms, something looks good or it doesn't. Plain and simple. You can tell if a person is creative or not by looking at their work. Even if you claim to "know nothing about art or advertising" or "Don't know what good design looks like". You do. You just don't realize it yet.

Don't insult someone by offering them what even you know is a bargain basement rate. If you they are charging you what you feel is too much, do a little cost comparison. That ought to give you a guideline on what the service you are looking to have done should cost. Be willing to work with people on the rate - designers this means you too. Employers: most people will negotiate because they would rather have the job for $20 less than planned in contrast to not having the job at all.

See what a simple world this would be if people would just listen to me? :) I'm totally kidding...but somewhere deep inside, overpriced designer who might be reading this...you know I have a point.

OK off the soap box now. Happy 4th of July everybody!

iPhone, You Phone, We...Phone

With apologies to the creators of the fine 80's cult film, Better Off Dead, of course. (If you've seen the film, you know where I borrowed this take off from...if you haven't seen it then darn it, you need to!)

Yes, I am just like every other Mac geek and am desperately in need of an iPhone. I plan on getting one soon, but I flat out refused to stand on a line or camp out at the Apple store. I know that once it's been a couple of weeks since it's been out, the furor will die down and I can walk in a store calmly and purchase one. Another thing I know, being a devout Apple loyalist, is that it will likely go down in price as well, as do all of their new buzz products in time. Not being cheap here folks...I dropped $300 for my last phone and $450 for a phone for my significant other not that long ago. I just look at it the same way as I looked at the iPod. When those first came out back in 2001, I said to myself..."Who in their right mind would pay $500 for a little box you can play a couple hundred songs on???"

Then I got one. Now, on my third iPod (currently using the 20 GB video, black) I don't know how I ever lived without one. If I forget my iPod on the way somewhere, I will more times than not go back for it. Sick huh?

That's the one thing I fear about the iPhone. Even MORE ways to find me, email me, Twitter me, IM me. Great. As if I don't enjoy enough interuptions. :)

I'll still buy one, of course. Because I depend on my electronic leash just as much as everyone else, and who doesn't want to have the nicest leash at the dog park? Of course...you do!

People often laugh when I call my cell phone an electronic leash. Granted I own a super sleek RAZR so it's not obtrusive, but...still a leash nonetheless. Because I'll be damned if everytime I step into the bathroom, my phone is ringing before I'm doing doing my business. It's just the way it always seems to work out. Soon people will interupt me on a cooler device, and after I'm done listening to them gab on, I'll be able to check email and my horoscope, all while in the stall. Marvelous!

The other day my significant other and I were having a conversation and we both wondered....what DID we do before the Internet? iPod? And soon...iPhone???

Remember the good old days, everyone? When you had to hope someone was home in order to call them? When you needed to talk instead of just send a text, IM or email? Or God forbid, actually go to their house to see something instead of GoToMeeting or look on their web cam? When you actually had to use a STAMP and WRITE a letter to someone? Holy hell! How DID we do it?

The times they are a changin'. So sayeth Bob Dylan, anyway.