clientsfromhell:

One of my favorite clients is an advertising agency I do freelance work for.

Client: Our new client has a gruesome logo. Could you try to come up with some other ideas? Just spitball ideas for an hour. If the client likes any of them, we’ll spend more time on this.

Sometimes, an hour is all you need because inspiration strikes. This was not one of those times. I had some decent ideas, but they all needed polish.

Client: Sorry, these won’t work. Thanks for your time.

The agency paid me for my time and we didn’t move forward my sketches – or so I thought.

A month later:

Client: We need additional material for this client.

Me: Sure thing. Could you provide me with the client’s colors and logo?

Client: Don’t you already have all that? Didn’t you design their logo?

Me: What?

I visited their website. The client had gone with one of the sketches. One of the rough sketches. With outlines and no color other than grey. I started to panic. I filled in my contact at the agency and we proceeded to question wildly how this happened.

Me: Oh god. Oh my god. Did they… they didn’t use it on their billboard, did they?

Client: I don’t want to talk about it.

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