Custom Buttons

[Former_Member]

I wanted to ask everyone's opinion and get a feel for what others are doing.

Frequently people send me images that are not suitable for putting on an image. By this I do not mean obscene, but rather poor quality. ie too small, grainy etc.

Do you charge for your graphic design services? I'm not a graphic designer, but I know my way around Photoshop. I am a perfectionist and find myself spending way too much time correcting peoples images because I do not want the buttons to look bad as I feel it reflects on the quality of my product.

What are your thoughts?

[Former_Member]

For charging on the design, it depends on how many buttons they're ordering. I allow more designs, when ordering so many buttons.
I ask for them to send me a larger file or a better quality image. If they can't then I'll ask if they still want the button, give them a warning, but if they want the button of course, let them have it.
People can be so picky... lol.

Brann :)

[Former_Member]

I find that I am more picky than the client. I say to myself "Really? This is what they want me to print" I end up running it through Topaz lab filters to enhance colors, edit backgrounds out, do all sorts of additional work to make it look right.

Yesterday I asked for a different image because I was having problems with the one they sent. There was inconsistent colors. Turns out the guy took a photo of a photo. There was a corner that had odd exposure, like a flash... Expected me to turn that into a button. I asked for a better quality image and he had the original in pdf. format. Why didn't he send the original?? I suppose I should just ask if there's ever a question about the quality- it should be common sense. I say in my instructions, send me a high quality image, at least 300 dpi in any digital format (.jpg, .png, .psd, .pdf). I was able to use his pdf and make the buttons 100 times better just by asking. Would have saved me a lot of time if he sent the original to begin with...

[Former_Member]

Include it in your listing's info! lol. Have the photo's file or a quality photo be a requirement. I think I'll even add that~ But I'm more of a, designer. Then I make my buttons out of the design I made for so and so. etc. So I've rarely encountered that problem. I'm picky to! But WHOA some people can be piiiiiiicky lol! :)

[Former_Member]

How much work you want to do also depends on how much free time you have, I think. As a student, I don't have the time, or even skills sometimes, to come up with designs for them, or to tweak a low quality version of theirs. Right now I just do pins for friends and student groups at my school and I ask for the final high-quality image for pins. I send them a button template along with instructions. If the art still needs adjustments, I send it back to them and let them know. The only part I play is putting the pins together. This also avoids the possibility of the customer pointing fingers at you claiming that you didn't fix their art "properly".

I think it's great to offer graphic design services for those who don't have access to it though =). You might want to considering establishing an "art set-up fee". Not as a clever way to take their money, but to compensate you for the time you spend adjusting their designs. I've seen silkscreening places do a flat fee, or charge by the hour (eg. $5 art set up fee, or up to $20 in art set up fees based on how much time is spent adjusting the art).

[Former_Member]

I have seen the setup fees charged by other button makers-

I'm proficient enough in photoshop that it's not a big deal for me to quickly design a button. The problem is when someone gives me a poor quality image. I think I just need to give more explicit instructions and say "your buttons are only as good as the image you provide. For the highest quality buttons please provide ... " and state my requirements.