People asking for logos...I'm getting irritated

[jochwat]

Stacy, your a nice person, just send it. I would recommend sending it to the original customer and letting them deal with whoever they want to send it to.

We don't charge for artwork redraws, but we do keep all the original artwork the customer sends us.
If they send us a 72dpi jpeg and if someone else would request the logo, that is what we would send to the person who requested it.
It's the same file the customer sent us, and I would tell them that's what the original customer sent us.

In my opinion you are wasting your time dealing with people who are not your customer.
Always refer them back to your customer and the customer has to make the request from you.
They're the only one who ever employed you or gave you money.

I know this sounds preachy, but lying never works. Like Old Abe said:
"If you always tell the truth, you never have to remember what you said"

People-the toughest business in the world. But interesting all the same.

Hmmmmm... yes.... this appears to be a wonderful solution, and the most fair, considering someone is stepping in and taking a lil' work away from someone while at the same time, expects to take a shortcut by requesting already modified artwork, fixed to be print-ready. This sounds great!

Cricut Mom: "Hi, I need the high school's logo for a banner I'm making."

Shop Owner: "Sure! I'll send over artwork the school sent me. It's a 12 dpi screen grab from the first ever version of their website."

Cricut Mom: "Errrrm... Well, whatever a DEE PEE EYE is, that doesn't matter, just send me the one you use to print."

Shop Owner: "Ohhhhh, the one I spent 90 minutes recreating from scratch, researching what Pantone color that works best, and redrew with my Adobe Creative Cloud subscription that I pay for every month/year? The one I made because the horrible artwork they provided would print like a pile of blurry bricks? Fat chance. I set this up for my equipment, for a specific job, from a specific customer. You can do the same since I'm sure you're skilled enough. Aren't you?" [then you realize that everything after "Ohhhhh" was said quietly to yourself, and Cricut Mom has been hollering "HELLO? HELLOO???!!" the entire time].

Shop Owner: "Oops, sorry. No, I'll send you what the school sent me. It's what's best. Then just think, after you do a bang-up job on the logo, you'll still have it for next time and won't have to bug the sh!t out of me. Byyyyee-yyyyeee!"

Cricut Mom: "But wai---" [CLICK! (if it was a landline conversation)]

Yeah. This is the solution going forward. Good job, Garyroy.

 

[bcxprint420]

If they paid you to create the art then it belongs to them. All the bad quality, etc. etc. etc. solutions will work, but if you were paid already the best you can legitimately do is charge a file retrieval/conveyance fee.

Totally incorrect. Check copyright law before you comment on something you obviously know nothing about.

 

[FireSprint.com]

In my opinion you are wasting your time dealing with people who are not your customer.
Always refer them back to your customer and the customer has to make the request from you.
They're the only one who ever employed you or gave you money.

I agree with this. Sending artwork to another shop directly doesn't make sense to me. Have the customer reach back out to you directly. When they do, ask if there is anything you can help with. Might win them back at this point.

Taking this kind of stuff personally just fills your head with crap that doesn't make you any money, and tarnishes your reputation. Try to remember it's all business. Add value for your customers in a way they understand and they will keep coming back.

 

[Patentagosse]

In my +33 years in business, I've been asked countless time to supply their logo to a third party (newspaper, embroidery guy, charity event, sponsoring...) even after I designed their logo and gave 'em on a hard copy (CD/DVD). They always lose 'em or don't wanna spend time digging it...

Now I charge 30$ to find the file in my database and return 'em by email (to the original owner, the one who pay for it) with the note: "for God sake, save it somewhere you'll remember and make a copy somewhere else". So by returning it to the client itself, he won't accuse me to charge for nothing as he also gets the file he will forward himself to his guy.

As for providing the file directly to another shop... well I have no time to waste removing nodes, shrink it or converting it in a format unusable... I simply send in .FS (FlexiSign format) so if they don't use Flexi they're screwed.

Once I've had an argument with a long time customer and he has decided to continue with another shop of my neighborhood but as he "flushed" me to wrong way, when he asked me to transfer ALL HIS FILES to his new guy, I simply replied: "you just treat me like shit and now you want me to take half a day transfering all the jobs I made in the last 30 years, are you fu****g out of your mind? It will never happens sir..." and as he kept on arguing that he paid for it, I simply replied: "yes sure, I will give him the lastest job's file but don't even expect the outputs to come close of what I always did colorwise".

I sent a flatten file of the job that has 22 layers (I was able to move things around when it's a new vehicle to avoid all hinges, windows, door handles...) so the guy contacted me saying he cannot do anything with my file, he needed "master" file with layers and fonts. "Over my dead body" I politely replied. Now I see poor quality, lowres, cheap design jobs with pinkish reds, purplesh blues graphics on my ex-clients' vehicles and many employees have left since and owner has sold the business.

 

[Stacey K]

So, I was at booster club meeting tonight talking about some other signage. This other lady who has a legit shirt business was there. Funny -- this exact thing was discussed about this exact banner and this exact "cricket lady". I happen to just casually mention that she and her "customers" are asking me for logos for this Dance banner - that is being made without permission of the school (lots of drama behind the donations soliciting for this banner). Anyway, the room went silent and the eyes were darting back and forth between the others and the other legit shirt lady became mad and NOBODY was happy about this lady moonlighting. Apparently, she's more of a problem than I was aware of.

I have to say, I feel much better now knowing that I'm not the only legitimate business in town who is getting irritated with this cricket lady. Thing is she's a teacher so she tries to "Save the school money" by undercutting the rest of us. I made it clear I wasn't happy. The shirt lady wasn't either. Perhaps it will be the beginning of the end.

 

[Boudica]

Excellent that you followed up. In the back of my mind... I was thinking this might be the case.
Full disclosure... I was once a PTO president. I'm a mom who knows... Lol

 

[GAC05]

The plot thickens. The next logical step would be to buy a burner phone and call in a tip to DHS about a suspected terrorist cell at her place of business.

 

[Modern Ink Signs]

Small town where everyone knows everyone. There's that ONE lady in town who makes shirts out of her house for her students and random things here and there and she's a teacher at school. Well now she must be making banners too. I had 3 phone calls asking for logos for a dance team banner. I'm hesitant to be rude about it and not send them. The customers all paid for their artwork but if I'm not making the banner then why should I be supplying the art for it. The problem is if I say no then she goes back and tells the customer and they get mad a ME since they paid for the artwork. The other hand is that's what sucks about doing sponsor banners is you don't have all the logos and if the customer doesn't give them to you then you have to vector them or reset them - like the rest of us have to do. GRRR...maybe I'm just being crabby about it...mostly the woman thinks her crap doesn't stink so I have an attitude against her already.

You said the client paid for the artwork. Was that charge for the design of their logo or design as part of their project? Unless you specifically charged them for logo creation and they paid you for that service, you own that logo not them. Once they pay you for that it is 100% theirs.

When we create logos for some one there is a completely spectate transaction of that. They receive their logo in various formats. If they need the file again we will send it to them. We do not out ANY of our designs. I have a whole thing I send someone asking for something like this.

Now if you decide to be nice and give them up that is your choice.

We are in business to make money after all right?

Business is business and personal is personal (friendship). You HAVE to separate the two.

 

[Bobby H]

I sent a flatten file of the job that has 22 layers (I was able to move things around when it's a new vehicle to avoid all hinges, windows, door handles...) so the guy contacted me saying he cannot do anything with my file, he needed "master" file with layers and fonts. "Over my dead body" I politely replied.

I've given many customers art files of their logo, even in a variety of vector and pixel formats. But I do not give them copies of work files (sign layouts, vehicle wrap layouts, etc). If they're going to take their assets to a rival sign company to get work done the rival sign company can start from scratch like we did. Except they won't have the extra chore of creating the logo or converting an existing one from pixel to vector.

We absolutely never send fonts to customers. Any artwork we send has any lettering converted to outlines anyway, so the font files are irrelevant. If someone at another sign shop, print shop or whatever is wanting to use that typeface in a project I'll tell them where they can buy it. If it happens to be a freely available typeface from a source like Google Fonts I'll them to go download it there.

Font files are software. Customers have zero rights to your fonts. They have about as much right to getting copies of your fonts as they do getting the serial numbers and logins for all your applications.

 

[d fleming]

When people send me a jpeg of their logo because they can't find the vector, I usually send them back the vector and tell them to hold onto it. I'm confident in my service and quality, if someone doesn't appreciate my efforts then they are welcome to go somewhere else. There's always another to take their spot. Layouts are a different story.

I do the same most of the time plus I tell them this is the gold standard for your logo for all purposes. Do not lose it, copy it to several devices. If you lose it and come back to me for it again I will have to charge you for the time it takes to convert it again and save it for you. I get quite a few calls here and there from customers who start the conversation with "I know it will cost me but can you send me my file again?" :Lunch on them.

 

[binki]

So if I understand you right you have customers that paid you for artwork for projects. You now have someone who wants a bunch of those to sell to someone else. You are also worried about losing business if you refuse.

If that is a correct understanding the answer is NO! Simple as that. If you are good at your craft then you will still get business.

 

[Boudica]

So if I understand you right you have customers that paid you for artwork for projects. You now have someone who wants a bunch of those to sell to someone else. You are also worried about losing business if you refuse.

If that is a correct understanding the answer is NO! Simple as that. If you are good at your craft then you will still get business.

Not sure who you're talking too, but check out post #14. Then read post #47

 

[Scotchbrite]

Not sure who you're talking too, but check out post #14. Then read post #47

If you're creating thread indexes, I would appreciate a full copy. Thanks!

 

[BigNate]

I originally got into this field as a founding partner in a small advertising agency, mostly graphic based. We had 2 full time artists and contracted out most printing for everything. Unless things have changed, the artist maintains all the copyrights to artwork created UNLESS the rights are specifically sold to the client (unusual at our level...) When someone would pay us for a logo, we would sell it to them for very specific reasons. A corporate identity package would include rights to freely reproduce said artwork on letterhead, business cards and envelopes. We would sell the rights for digital (but really the internet was just getting started, so not a big deal back then). If a customer wanted to put an advertisement with their logo in a magazine, we would sell the rights outright, or by the instance.... same thing for video, only much higher.

 

[Traffic_Control]

Just start giving them prices that match the demand...

They'll start to back off, hehehehe...

And if they still want to go forward then $$$$$$$.

 

[ADVANCED DISPLAY]

I send low-res images to non-customers like this. I'd be talking to the lady thought finding out how she produces these banners and maybe you can get them done for her at a wholesaler's price. Not knowing your capabilities I know at least for me I can always tell the customer confidently "MY banners are going to last at least as long if not longer than whatever you're getting now."

 

[Bobby H]

Yeah, I'm not too keen on sending art files directly to some "t-shirt company" that's moving into selling banners (and then maybe selling more and more sign products). It's one thing to send a vector logo to a specific customer, particularly one that has an on-going relationship with your sign company. It's another thing entirely to give a bunch of assets directly to a new rival. I've done enough event banners featuring sponsor logos; most of them have required re-building multiple logos because the assets that were provided totally sucked. Some newbie decides they wanna get rich getting into the sign business? Let 'em "pay their dues" dealing with logo re-creation drudgery like the rest of us have had to do. Some of these sponsor banners aren't even worth the trouble of doing any logo re-creation work. Just print whatever JPEG "logo" you can grab from the local business' Facebook page. I like the bigger companies because it's usually not difficult at all to find one or more PDFs online containing vector logos that can be snagged. Some companies have online brand portals that are open to the public.

 

[Terry01]

Just send it to them as a CDL Tell them they will need to purchase Signlab if they are having a problem opening the file

 

[ADVANCED DISPLAY]

Just send it to them as a CDL Tell them they will need to purchase Signlab if they are having a problem opening the file

Wouldn’t it be better to do it as a AI file to make them get a SUBSCRIPTION? god I hate Adobe lmfao

 

[Stacey K]

Funny this came up again with a race car guy. He gets his wraps designed by some guy who really does a nice job. He has them printed by some lady that does it for $3.00sq foot. But he comes to me for all his apparel. He spends a good amount of money each year, this year he bought a bunch of baseball caps and cornhole decals. Anyway, his wrap guy needed a bakery logo that also does business with me. I sent it over. I don't really want to lose two customers over a $15 fee. Being in a small town word spreads VERY fast if you're a jerk on purpose.