An agency in Spain contacted me through Instagram as they were looking for a freelance to help them out in one of their projects. I thanked them for getting in touch and offered a phone call, but they decided to keep the conversation in the private message system of Instagram.
There were several contradictions in their speech that made me suspect they wanted the cheapest choice and that they didn't really know what they were looking for or doing.
They explained that they are a small growing agency. They are 3 in the office plus 3 freelances mostly dedicated to IT and web design. The first comment that stroke me is that they said how important is publicity and design for them, but even it's even more important the communication, concept, idea. This stroke me for two reasons: the first one is that they are looking for someone who merely does design and they are lacking of the vocabulary to articulate themselves. What I think they meant is that strategy is what drives their practice and the design is a result from it.
They explained that now they have two big clients: one with more than 800 employees and another one is a digital magazine from the USA. They said they were looking for a freelance to help them with both projects, which contradicts what they said in the first place. They only needed a freelance for one project. Now, this is not a big deal, but it made me think they don't have very clear what they want.
I told them that it was all right, that I can help. That I would like to know more. But since I was sensing that something was dodgy, I asked if they had a budget in mind for a freelance. They said that of course, but, in their own words, what they are doing with me now they are doing the same with other designers that can fit in their agency to know them better, because their intention is to see who can stay with them as a full-timer. That's why they don't speak about money yet, because they don't know who are hiring. This made no sense. Their budget is static and whatever the range is of what they want to pay to a freelancer is the only thing that varies from designer to designer. In my experience, if an employer doesn't talk about money openly and they want you to engage more or to go to a series of stages just to find out how much you are going to get paid, it's probably going to be the bare minimum. And when an employer has that attitude, I don't think I will be a good fit because I don't think my work is going to be valued and all this selection process (which is more to see who engages more with them for less) is going to be a great waste of time for everyone.
I answered that I understand, that it seems they are very busy and dealing with a lot of work. I know what that's like, and the last thing I wanted to do is to make them waste time and that's why I'm asking straight forward. They thanked me and said that I could submit them an estimate of how much it would be to design 150 pages, 80 of them images. This was the definite proof that they had no idea what they were on about. As an agency, they should know that the physical aspects of design is not what gives value to a piece of design. I told them that I don't have any problem in submitting an estimate, but I didn't have the information I required. I don't know the client, and I can't charge the same quantity to Nike or to the school of my neighbourhood for a magazine. But still, I wasn't the one charging the client. I said that I'm sure they have an agreement with that client and I imagine they know how much they have in mind to spend on hiring a designer to help them out. I also told them that agencies normally hire freelances on an hourly rate basis, as they seemed completely lost to me.
They said that they understand and that they needed to study everything to see how much they can offer (which is what they should have done in the first place). They thanked me for my time and told me that they will keep my contact at hand, to which I thanked them.
I posted this conversation on The Designers League and they told me I did the right thing. That they seemed too new in the game or that they wanted something else. I tend to think it's the first case.
Over the course of this conversation it might seem that I was over suspicious and being condescending. It's difficult to translate exactly word by word and the intentions that were felt in every line, but I tried to make myself perceived in a professional way instead of saying yes to anything they had in mind for me to do. The dangling carrot of "you might get a job if you are the right fit" was not a good start from them, but I just pretended I didn't read that. They don't need to give me that kind of information if it's true, because it feels that they are trying to convince me to work with them, and that shouldn't be the case. They should be presenting themselves as an interesting agency to work with.
Also, when I visited their website, there's only a couple of paragraphs of text and one of them is only Loren Ipsum. They were making really hard for me to be open to whatever they had to offer. If they don't care about how their website looks, I don't think they'd care too much about a freelancer.
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