Payment for freelancers: it needs to evolve. It really, really does.

I got quite upset the other day when I got the call to collect a repaired car. 

It was my sister’s; I’d organised the repair in her absence, and I told the garage she’d settle the bill when she was back from her holiday. But of course, the garage, quite correctly, reminded me it couldn’t release the car without payment. So I paid.

Then it hit me. In that moment, as I settled the bill, I wondered why is it that I am expected to release ready-to-use artwork and then wait weeks or months for payment, often long after the work’s actually been deployed by the client?

I was staggered to grasp in that moment that in almost 30 years of working as a full time freelance illustrator running a limited company, the payment system hasn’t evolved. Every time I ask for a deposit, I’m looked at askance. Historically, too, suggesting it to an agent has them running scared — fearing that if their agency charges a deposit and the next one doesn’t, the client will simply go to that next one instead. There’s been the occasional downpayment, but in hundreds and hundreds of jobs, I can probably count those on my fingers.

It takes boldness to bring about change and I’ve felt like a lone voice for years, but I was overwhelmed that day by how different my financial machinations could look if work was paid for on delivery of artwork.

I can’t believe I’m still having this discussion, actually.

There’s hope. One client recently offered what they called their ‘new-style’ contract, nervous I wouldn’t like it — but it offered a third on signing the contract, a third on delivery of artwork, and the final third when the work was published. Now THAT sounded…evolved. Still not perfect, but thoughtful. And I couldn’t sign quick enough.

I’ve three decades of managing a business with a traditionally difficult and unpredictable cashflow; I’m good at it. But I’d rather not have had to get good at managing a wildly fluctuating income, based not on a variable stream of work but on the unknowable due date of the payment for that work. I spend a lot of business hours managing money, and always have — hours that could be spent doing other things. And seriously; in all that time, despite the increases in speed at which work can be generated and sent, the immediacy of modern bank transfers, the myriad options for quick online payments, technological marvels and invoice management, the system for ‘talent-makes-work > bills client > client uses work > sits on payment’ hasn’t changed.

And it really, really needs to.

Wobbily Painted Stones: Ethics.

I've been asked lots of times about whether there is anyone I wouldn't work for.

Well, there is, in theory. There are jobs I've declined - they include one for KFC (as a vegan this was unpalatable to me), one advertising cigarettes to a 'pre-choice' audience (in other words, directing underage as-yet-potential smokers toward their eventual brand choice), and one for a supermarket clothing company launching a range of padded bras to pre-teens. With those jobs, it's pretty clear why I chose not to do them.

But it isn't that simple. I've found that it's impossible to have a black-and-white rule. So we have a set of criteria and a process instead. This is our system, As something that's evolved over the years, I thought it would be helpful to share it.

1) Ask how strongly you feel about the client. For example, for me, McDonalds would be a no, under any circumstances and regardless of any fee. An organic butchers however I'd not have an issue with.
However, should McDonald's one day announce they were sourcing ALL of their meat products globally from 100% organic sources - that might be a campaign I'd jump on.

2) Then look at what they're asking you to do. If it is an ad campaign, promoting products which you yourself would never buy, and you feel that they are ethically and/or morally unsound for whatever reason, then your answer is likely to be no. If it's a repeat pattern for the staff's new uniforms, does that change how you feel about it?

3) Someone will get paid to do the job, whether it's you or someone else. If you take the job, how likely are you to take that money and feed it into 'healthy' or ethically/environmentally/morally sound and positive organisations or systems? For example, we are vegan and largely organic - thus we might consider that the fee money is 'laundered' because it will be spent on organic foods from tiny independant stores, and to our friends' little organic farm down the road, supporting and feeding their businesses. You may feel differently.

4) Are you happy for your creations to be associated with the brand? Things live for a long time on the web!

5) Finally, can you take the work you've done and use it to gain more work? If you do, are you likely to attract similar clients, thus creating potential for similar dilemmas? Is it something you would rather keep quiet afterwards? And if so, are you ready to make similar compromises in future?

The main rule we follow is that there can be no blanket rule - assess every job on its own merits, and you'll always come to the right decision.