GUIDELINES FOR CLIENTS

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

If you do not have a "start work" or creative input form, create one. It should cover the following points, ideally in a single page:

• What precisely are you asking to have done?
• Who the audience is for the project; include demographic and lifestyle information?
• What specific action are you asking of your audience (i.e. Buy a ticket? Change an opinion? Call for more information? Make a contribution?)
• What is the best strategy to get them to take that action? Focus on the one, primary reason why people should take action--don't ask the creative to try to cover too much.
• What are the budget and timing issue?
• What are the mandatory (logos, credits, legalisms) that must be included?
• What should the tonality of the work be?

After you've prepared your creative brief, have it signed off by every person in your organization that will later have an opportunity to accept or reject the creative work.

DURING THE CREATIVE PHASE

• Obviously, pro-bono work gets less of an agency or design firm's attention because paying the bills must necessarily come first. So, give ample lead time when assigning projects, and build in extra time for the inevitable delays.

3. Line up as many of the pro-bono production services as you can yourself.

• Agencies and design firms are often glad to help you secure low-cost or no-cost production assistance from printers, film production companies, photographers and illustrators, but they often have a limited number of favors they can call in. If at all possible, use the resources of your organization to seek these in-kind donations.

4. Be willing to call or email the designer at your expense.

• Since this is not the typical client/vendor relationship, you should consider taking some extra steps to minimize the time your designer spends on non-creative activities. If possible, meetings should be held at the designers' place of business, take over the preparation and distribution meeting notes, and keep the number and length of meetings to a minimum.

DURING THE APPROVAL PROCESS

• It is more efficient, and certainly more courteous, to allow your designer contributors to present to everyone in your organization who can ultimately shoot down the proposed work. This way, the creative team can present and defend their work more passionately than you could.

6. Be clear and specific if you have objections.

• If there are parts of the solution that aren't on target, speak up. This is far preferable to letting the project progress and then raising your objection later after more effort has been invested. It's also important to distinguish between your personal dislikes and those parts of the job that might make it less successful. Your creative contributors are (rightly) concerned with making the project work against the target audience--of which you may or may not be a member.

7. If you have an irresolvable dispute over the creative proposal, bring in an arbitrator.

• One of the unwritten rules of pro bono work is that the client must be quite flexible when it comes to approving the creative work. Still, there will inevitably be times when you feel the work is not acceptable. If this is the case, and your designer does not agree, bring in a third party to help resolve the issue. Advertising and design educators, freelancers, or creative directors from other firms could be called in.

8. If you ultimately do not accept the creative proposal, give your designer the chance to start over.

• While your confidence in your creative contributors may not be at its highest after rejecting their first proposal, you owe them the chance to take another shot before turning to another creative resource.

AFTER THE PROJECT IS COMPLETED

At the conclusion of a successful pro bono project, your organization may have received work worth thousands of dollars. It's highly appropriate to acknowledge these contributions through personal thank you letters, mentions in organization newsletters, and even appropriately small gifts. This isn't just a matter of courtesy, this display of gratitude will also make it easier for you to secure additional help when you need it in the future.

10. Assist your designer in using the work for their own self-promotion.

If it's appropriate, encourage them to put a credit line somewhere on printed projects. Make sure they have sufficient reprints for their promotional use. And be willing to assist them in public relations efforts by being accessible to the press for quotes and interviews. At all times the work done by the designer is copyright design and may not be altered nor passed off as someone else's work. As long as you own the Free web design there must be only one designer credit for the project. Too many times we have slaved hard and for many hours over design for Pro Bono customers only to have them remove the credit buttons, or to alter the GIFS, images, and design of the artist. It is no more acceptable for you to take credit for creating the Mona Lisa as it is for you to do the same to other artist work. If you do not pay for your design all design and work is under the Legal Copyright of the designer.