My startup hired AJ Campbell of CoSynergy to design a logo and web page. At no point in the initial…read morestages of the project did she call to talk about what our vision was or to learn as much about what we were trying to accomplish as possible (as most graphic designers do). Instead, I had to request that we talk after realizing we weren't getting anywhere with the first drafts.
As a PR professional, I work with designers all of the time. Most will attempt to get into your head before even starting a project. AJ, on the other hand was clearly looking to rush through the work.
We were in complete shock when the first set of logo designs she sent over looked like something created by a kid on MS Publisher. When I shared feedback (via email because that's how she communicates) she would send over a new version really quickly, not incorporating the feedback. It was clear by her not reading the feedback thoroughly that she was more in a hurry to get the project out of the way than to do a thorough job.
At one point in the process of designing the logo, she suggested we stop and move on to the website since she couldn't deliver what we were looking for with the logo. Insane. Any designer knows how important the logo is to all other branding.
After numerous versions of poor quality logos, she finally provided a design that we "liked." However, it was practically designed by me. Every single part of it, from the colors, font, and layout of the letters. I had to spell out every single detail of what it should look like. She just wasn't capable of coming up with anything unique, creative or quality designs on her own.
Even after agreeing to the final logo design, I had to ask to send over the final version multiple times before we got it.
As for the website, working with her was a complete disaster and nightmare. She was rude, unprofessional and lazy. Our temporary website was on WIx. She admitted upfront that she didn't know much about Wix and had never built a site on it. So, immediately I offered to purchase hosting on Godaddy so that we could work on a platform she was comfortable with. In fact, I offered to do this a number of times. However, she moved forward with trying to build a page on Wix and it was a MESS! When I saw her first mock up I began to gently push the Godaddy hosting thing but it took her multiple tries on Wix to realize she needed to work on a platform she knew.
She was indeed helpful in trying to move the domain from Wix to Godaddy and I expressed my gratitude but she was very rude and unprofessional once she realized that she would need to rebuild the site. She also required us to purchase a website template for her to work from. As if we wanted a template website we couldn't have done it ourselves.
When she realized she had worked on my project longer than she anticipated (because she clearly expected to rush through it) she stopped responding to emails, I guess with hopes that I would disappear. She provided rush, poor quality work and eventually didn't finish it.
She claimed that she had worked on the project way more hours than I paid her for. However, in no way, shape or form did we agree on a set amount of hours of work. We paid for FINISHED, quality work at the rate she quoted. In fact, in the beginning when I asked her how many designs we'd get, she said, "until we're happy."
That did NOT happen. Although she was paid in full, she NEVER finished the work. And when I called her out for being dishonest and unprofessional, she begin to send rude, harassing emails.
My first time having that type of experience with any designer. Although I'm admittedly nitpicky, I have always had enjoyable experiences with artists.
She is truly a nutcase, and also very emotionally unstable. If I could post her final harassing emails, I would. I hired her because I was under the impression she designed the website of a friend's business but only after agreeing to the project did I find out that she had done their prior (outdated) website that they had replaced.
She got paid but we never got a web page, and she was totally OK with handling it that way.
