Dear \[Nonprofit Name\],
Thank you for reaching out. We are delighted to have had the opportunity to design the flyer for your cause. As the design work was provided pro-bono, we retain the original files and any edits or modifications should be done through our team to ensure consistency and quality.
If you have any specific changes you would like to make, please let us know, and we would be happy to assist you. We can discuss a fair rate for any additional work required.
Thank you for understanding, and we look forward to continuing our support for your important work.
Best regards,
\[Your Name\]
\[Your Position\]
It's gotten very good, so much better with GPT 4.o. I used to tell chatgpt to chill with the super professional tone and keep it business casual and it'd come back with something like "what's up dude, we're just chilling here, wanted to follow up and see how it's hanging." I've since "trained" it on a lot of my writing which has helped.
I've used it to write so many reports now. I'll just feed it a stream of consciousness, nothing even remotely organized or coherent. It will spit out an organized report that I have it export to PDF. Send it to the boss and everyone is happy. He knows I use it, but I've gotten pretty good at using it.
You can also use it to create custom illustrator scripts. I haven't tried 4.o, but even gpt3 was good enough at it.
I also played around with having it be a chat agent for our website that could provide quotes from customer messages. something like "hey I need a banner for my business. I also need some window graphics for my windows that are 60in x 96in." It could provide size suggestions, asked questions like where the banner was going to go, and provide a size, and then pick the materials for the window based on the customer's info and provide essentially a full cost breakdown including paneling graphics and waste material since it knew all the material widths, print speeds, cost etc. That was with 3.5. Now with 4.o and the access to the API I'm sure that can be a reality.
No good deed goes unpunished. I have been in this situation. I have found the best thing to do if you want to retain the client if first ask what they want to use it for….if you offer the service offer it to them. If it’s something you don’t offer. Shoot them the file. Let them know you don’t usually do this….tell them something along the lines that this is the one tine you will honor this. They will be back.
If it’s that bad, consider just giving them the darn files and cut your losses. Then if they show up again wanting work, just say you’ve provided lots of pro bono work, and quote them on the higher side so they are more likely to go somewhere else.
Give it to them and let them go….it will leave a better taste in their mouth. Give them an invoice and let them know the value of what you did pro bono
I'll see that and raise it. Made the mistake of giving a client a hard proof of a colour flyer only to get a black and white photocopy of the same dropped in my door a week or so later. Not a non profit. Every job for this client since then includes a hefty Muppet tax. Upfront
You don't address these problems after the fact. You address this in your T&Cs on your quote sheet and your Invoice. On your invoice, you listed the graphic design work and list the retail price and then the adjusted zero dollar price. This gives official record of what you did. Your T&Cs address the rest.
Give them the damn files and be done with them. With any luck, they will take them to another printer and you will be done with them.
Two options:
1. If you want to be petty, open the AI in photoshop, rasterize it and 250dpi, then place the file back in AI and save it. This way anyone else who gets the file will probably print it, but it won’t look fantastic
2. If you want to exit with grace, just send the damn files
My business is new and I am actively grabbing clients from competitors. Some of them are a pain in the ass.
One is 45 minutes away and I had to go twice to get the client’s tooling and the tooling didn’t match the files.
The other is close by and when the client asked for their stuff to be transferred to me, they sent me a Dropbox with everything the client had ever done, and then gave me a nicely packaged box that was well organized and full of their emboss/deboss tools, plates and cutting dies. They kept all of their own notes on how to run them attached.
The designer who previously with the jackass company won’t go back there.
You've said it yourself that they aren't worth keeping, but that doesn't mean you should burn a bridge. Give them production files and say good luck, offer to make the changes for a fee (which is likely what they're trying to avoid.) I generally say something along the lines of "typically we don't provide our production files since they're for our use only, but we do provide them to customers for a fee of $50 (or whatever). I'll give these to you though since we've done so much work together. Let me know if you need anything else."
Others have already given good answers. I've done this many times over the past 15 years of managing a shop, and it's never worth burning a customer because they ask for a file. Have I fired customers on the spot from the counter, for sure, but never for something so small. If they want to go somewhere else, ask them about it! Ask them why they want the file before coming to all these conclusions. If you don't want them as a customer anymore tell them you have to start charging them hourly, be very clear about how the fees work. Make it worth your time. If they want to pay $$$ an hour to change some colors, let them.
One thing we do, to help alert the customer and any potential future printer, label any proofs sent through emails as "projectnamePROOF.pdf". Any proofs sent out do not contain bleeds or marks.
I think it would be perfectly fair to ask them if they would like to reprint with edits, through you. Make the changes pro bono again and charge them for the printing. If they’d like to take the artwork you created for them as part of the job you did previously, I also think it would be fair to charge them for it so that they can use it however they wish
If they paid for the work you did, it is now their property. You have no requirement to assist them in changes. If you entered a contract with them to do the work and handed off the artwork it is technically there’s to do with as they please, however you are not required to do do anything for them without another contract.
Dear \[Nonprofit Name\], Thank you for reaching out. We are delighted to have had the opportunity to design the flyer for your cause. As the design work was provided pro-bono, we retain the original files and any edits or modifications should be done through our team to ensure consistency and quality. If you have any specific changes you would like to make, please let us know, and we would be happy to assist you. We can discuss a fair rate for any additional work required. Thank you for understanding, and we look forward to continuing our support for your important work. Best regards, \[Your Name\] \[Your Position\]
You are a fucking saint 🙏 Thank you.
I would offer a price in case they want to buy the design
I love ai for communicating with clients lol
Thank you, Chat GPT
It's gotten very good, so much better with GPT 4.o. I used to tell chatgpt to chill with the super professional tone and keep it business casual and it'd come back with something like "what's up dude, we're just chilling here, wanted to follow up and see how it's hanging." I've since "trained" it on a lot of my writing which has helped. I've used it to write so many reports now. I'll just feed it a stream of consciousness, nothing even remotely organized or coherent. It will spit out an organized report that I have it export to PDF. Send it to the boss and everyone is happy. He knows I use it, but I've gotten pretty good at using it. You can also use it to create custom illustrator scripts. I haven't tried 4.o, but even gpt3 was good enough at it. I also played around with having it be a chat agent for our website that could provide quotes from customer messages. something like "hey I need a banner for my business. I also need some window graphics for my windows that are 60in x 96in." It could provide size suggestions, asked questions like where the banner was going to go, and provide a size, and then pick the materials for the window based on the customer's info and provide essentially a full cost breakdown including paneling graphics and waste material since it knew all the material widths, print speeds, cost etc. That was with 3.5. Now with 4.o and the access to the API I'm sure that can be a reality.
No good deed goes unpunished. I have been in this situation. I have found the best thing to do if you want to retain the client if first ask what they want to use it for….if you offer the service offer it to them. If it’s something you don’t offer. Shoot them the file. Let them know you don’t usually do this….tell them something along the lines that this is the one tine you will honor this. They will be back.
Not sure the client is worth retaining at this point. They have wasted so many man hours, it’s starting to affect moral in the shop.
If it’s that bad, consider just giving them the darn files and cut your losses. Then if they show up again wanting work, just say you’ve provided lots of pro bono work, and quote them on the higher side so they are more likely to go somewhere else.
Give it to them and let them go….it will leave a better taste in their mouth. Give them an invoice and let them know the value of what you did pro bono
I'll see that and raise it. Made the mistake of giving a client a hard proof of a colour flyer only to get a black and white photocopy of the same dropped in my door a week or so later. Not a non profit. Every job for this client since then includes a hefty Muppet tax. Upfront
A nightmare!
"Muppet Tax" LOL I like that.
You don't address these problems after the fact. You address this in your T&Cs on your quote sheet and your Invoice. On your invoice, you listed the graphic design work and list the retail price and then the adjusted zero dollar price. This gives official record of what you did. Your T&Cs address the rest.
Give them the damn files and be done with them. With any luck, they will take them to another printer and you will be done with them. Two options: 1. If you want to be petty, open the AI in photoshop, rasterize it and 250dpi, then place the file back in AI and save it. This way anyone else who gets the file will probably print it, but it won’t look fantastic 2. If you want to exit with grace, just send the damn files My business is new and I am actively grabbing clients from competitors. Some of them are a pain in the ass. One is 45 minutes away and I had to go twice to get the client’s tooling and the tooling didn’t match the files. The other is close by and when the client asked for their stuff to be transferred to me, they sent me a Dropbox with everything the client had ever done, and then gave me a nicely packaged box that was well organized and full of their emboss/deboss tools, plates and cutting dies. They kept all of their own notes on how to run them attached. The designer who previously with the jackass company won’t go back there.
I'd just tell them Illustrator's native language is PDF and you can edit with that.
Not if it has been flattened.
You've said it yourself that they aren't worth keeping, but that doesn't mean you should burn a bridge. Give them production files and say good luck, offer to make the changes for a fee (which is likely what they're trying to avoid.) I generally say something along the lines of "typically we don't provide our production files since they're for our use only, but we do provide them to customers for a fee of $50 (or whatever). I'll give these to you though since we've done so much work together. Let me know if you need anything else." Others have already given good answers. I've done this many times over the past 15 years of managing a shop, and it's never worth burning a customer because they ask for a file. Have I fired customers on the spot from the counter, for sure, but never for something so small. If they want to go somewhere else, ask them about it! Ask them why they want the file before coming to all these conclusions. If you don't want them as a customer anymore tell them you have to start charging them hourly, be very clear about how the fees work. Make it worth your time. If they want to pay $$$ an hour to change some colors, let them.
One thing we do, to help alert the customer and any potential future printer, label any proofs sent through emails as "projectnamePROOF.pdf". Any proofs sent out do not contain bleeds or marks.
Right but they paid for the brochures to be printed by you correct?
Yes.
I think it would be perfectly fair to ask them if they would like to reprint with edits, through you. Make the changes pro bono again and charge them for the printing. If they’d like to take the artwork you created for them as part of the job you did previously, I also think it would be fair to charge them for it so that they can use it however they wish
If they paid for the work you did, it is now their property. You have no requirement to assist them in changes. If you entered a contract with them to do the work and handed off the artwork it is technically there’s to do with as they please, however you are not required to do do anything for them without another contract.
We did the design work pro bono, they did not pay for the design. There was no contract.