Wow, we had a really poor experience with Greg Brown at Abalone Design. Greg is a graphic designer working for himself out of his house, and we found him on Craigslist when we were looking for someone to build a couple of flash animation storyboards for our refrigeration equipment.
On December 3, 2008, we signed an engagement letter for a pair of simple Flash animations, which according to the engagement letter, "were planned to be completed by the end of December". We negotiated a flat fee of "$1000 maximum for both animations" with Abalone Design. It is now March 5, 2009, four months after the engagement letter was signed, and we still haven't received either animation.
The engagement letter stated that we would provide "script, copy and a storyboard or description of the desired visuals to be created." So, a week after signing the letter, we submitted a detailed storyboard, outline and sketches; we provided images and graphics; and over the past 4 months, we spent hours on the phone answering questions, and even sat with Greg for several hours at his house in front of his computer.
Today, Greg tried to increase his fee by claiming the scope of the project has increased. In fact, the storyboard has not changed by a single word since it was given to Greg in mid December. The truth is that, since January, Greg has been complaining about his fee with increasing frequency, and told us on several occasions that our job needed to wait because we weren't paying full fees. (There is no mention of prioritization, or lack thereof, for our project in the engagement letter.) We felt badly for Greg because he was struggling, so we offered to accept just one animation for the original contract price of $1000. We also offered to cancel the job if he prefers, but he is interested only in squeezing us for additional money. We told him to take a hike.
If a graphic designer is good at his craft but he's a bad guy, maybe you can get over the hump. If he's a great guy but a so-so graphic designer, maybe you can get over the hump. In this case, he's neither a good guy nor a good designer.
Caveat emptor. read more