Chewing Pencils

This is the second part of a series tracking a cartoon project from the intial query through to delivery of the finished image to the client. Part one can be read here. So far the communication has been about requirements for the piece and negotiations on price and rights. The client has little experience in the illustration industry so I am doing my best to explain everything as simply (and helpfully) as possible to not only win the job, but built a good working relationship with the client with the hope of some future work.

Fortunately the client was keen and friendly, and the next email in our correspondence read as follows:

Hi Matt,

Hope you had a great weekend. Just wanted to make contact and ask what you need from me before you can start on my project.

Thanks, Steve.

This was a great email to receive as it opened the way to easliy introduce the need to pay a 50% deposit before I started. This deposit is non-refundable and acts as a ‘kill fee’. I replied:

G’day Stephen!

Yes, a great weekend at this end. Hope yours was the same.

If you can deposit 50% (ie $50) of the intial fee into the following:

Bank: *********
Account Name: *********
BSB: *******
Account Number: *********

That will get the ball rolling. The rest is payable on completion. I’ll email a draft to you asap - when you see it, I’ll need you to be honest about what you want changed and then hopefully we can push through to the final version.

Make sense?

Matt

Stephen was agreeable to these terms and promptly sent through the money to my account and sent the following email:

Hi Matt,

I have transferred $50 into your account.

I thought I would just quickly mention again what I was after (I can’t remember what I explained in my initial email!) The illustration will be used to advertise a health assessment service where patients are provided with their “FitAge”, a theoretical age that represents how old they are on “the inside”. I thought that a picture of a young adult looking into a mirror with a reflection of an older version of the same person would illustrate the point that they can have this assessment to get a true “reflection” of their health. I was thinking of having the word “FitAge” on the top or frame of the mirror to illustrate that the reflection is their “FitAge”. (The name “FitAge” is a work in progress. This may change down the track!) All of this is just my thoughts.

I am very much guided by what you think will look best.

I can’t wait to see your work.

Thanks again for your help,

Steve.  

With the money in hand, it was time to get down and do some drawing!