The price of 'free': Is unpaid work worth it?

So I’ve had two graphic design jobs where I worked for free. This time around I offered my services to someone my boyfriend met on the train. They hit it off and were talking about her business; he got client X’s phone number and business Instagram and when he got back home, he showed me. It was a mess, I don’t mean to be rude but it was clear it was “managed” haphazardly and incredibly inconsistent.

I want you to imagine giving a woman that is in her second half of life; uploads Instagram posts straight from her photos app, didn’t know how to crop; so zoomed in and took a screenshot. That is exactly who I was going to work with.

I sent client X a message saying that I would like to create some Instagram templates for free. I genuinely wanted to help her and give her page a breath of fresh air that I believed it needed, and in the process gain some hands on experience. We had a two and a half hour phone call going through a questionnaire answering pages and pages of questions.

Immediately after I drew up plans of what I might do, made a list of things I wanted to include; ranging from Instagram templates, typography, profile picture to colour palette.

She told me she really liked layering and Helena Bonham Carter's free and wild style. I had a vision of an almost patch work but with no stitching layered fabric, with a word mark over the top - profile picture. I set out to a fabric shop off of Bond Street to get some fabric cutting and scraps. I sifted through bags of fabric samples and it all felt like it was coming together. I saw my vision actualising. I couldn’t wait to have a finished draft to show my client.

I spent 10 days, hours here and there, cutting tiny squares of fabric, piecing them together, taking a photo, putting it into an editing software, and overlaying text. Three mood boards, eight font options, one hundred and four pictures, and 7 profile picture options later; I texted her to set up a meeting.

I got my deck ready, arranged the call, did my hair, makeup and sat at the desk with zoom. I shared my screen - and went through my work. Client X liked the mood boards. What about the profile picture that I spent hours and hours on perfecting? Apparently “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. Client X followed by asking if her current profile picture was of her dog with glasses on. Which it was not.

She asked me to prepare some more mood boards for her with stock images so that she could post them.

I said ok and we hung up. I left that call feeling crushed, not only feeling terrible that I didn’t produce something that worked for her but also that hours of work will ultimately not be used.

After some time I realised that this woman never asked for an Instagram refresh. She never asked for me to disrupt what she currently had going on. Client X was probably curious, here I was offering free work and Client X has absolutely nothing invested and therefore no financial loss.

I think my take away from this is, some work that I’m really proud of but also if someone has not asked for help, then they do not want a change. A lesson that I had learnt in my personal life that I was now relearning in business.

Typically a client will like an agencies style of work or be referred and will know roughly what kind of style to expect. The client will expect to love the work and as they are already in admiration of the designers. I mean why else would they want to work with those designers? Client X had never seen any of my work.

Ultimately she didn’t love what I produced; and that’s ok.

At the end of the day I am happy I tried, I gained useful experience and really do love what my work; whilst client X might not - someone else will.

Signing off after some tears and hugs but a big lesson learnt. Free work is not necessarily work that will be used but its great experience.