Breaking my Art Apart
I currently have a client who has asked me, in my invoices, to give him a daily - almost hourly - breakdown of exactly what I'm doing for him. Since he pays me by the hour this is completely understandable, but it's never been required of me quite so rigorously before. It's been quite the learning experience.
I've tried of late to understand my creative process better, and improve it, so this client fits that desire well. What I'm increasingly discovering, though, is that while the execution of my art can be broken down into steps (indeed, organization and order are vital to it), its conception is far more nebulous.
For example, Execution:
I'm creating a simulation of some water flowing over glass using particles. I have to create a solid before I can apply the particle effects, and I have to decide on a type of particle before I finalize the vector blur.
Or:
I need to know my client's intended uses for a product before I can recommend an aspect ratio, file format, or delivery method.
Flexible to an extent, but very orderly. On the other hand, Conception:
My client wants a new logo design/reveal sequence. I'm looking out the window and see an odd shaped leaf that suggests a possible transition. A word spoken in another project brings to mind a concept for the logo. While experimenting with the design I have a completely different, but better idea. I try it, but it doesn't look right. I draw on weeks, months, years worth of random ideas and find the few that make this particular sequence work.
But none of the above is in any way consecutive, and much of it happens while I'm engaged in other things.
So the question becomes how do I, for billing purposes, divide up when I did what? How much of the conceptual time do I charge for? Forming good ideas is by far the hardest part of the work, but it doesn't come in nice billable chunks. And if most of the mental work on one part occurs during the technical execution of another, which do I describe in my invoice notes?
For now I'm just taking it day by day, generally favoring the tangible things in the billing documents, but I sure am learning a lot about myself. Hopefully that will lead to good things.
I've tried of late to understand my creative process better, and improve it, so this client fits that desire well. What I'm increasingly discovering, though, is that while the execution of my art can be broken down into steps (indeed, organization and order are vital to it), its conception is far more nebulous.
For example, Execution:
I'm creating a simulation of some water flowing over glass using particles. I have to create a solid before I can apply the particle effects, and I have to decide on a type of particle before I finalize the vector blur.
Or:
I need to know my client's intended uses for a product before I can recommend an aspect ratio, file format, or delivery method.
Flexible to an extent, but very orderly. On the other hand, Conception:
My client wants a new logo design/reveal sequence. I'm looking out the window and see an odd shaped leaf that suggests a possible transition. A word spoken in another project brings to mind a concept for the logo. While experimenting with the design I have a completely different, but better idea. I try it, but it doesn't look right. I draw on weeks, months, years worth of random ideas and find the few that make this particular sequence work.
But none of the above is in any way consecutive, and much of it happens while I'm engaged in other things.
So the question becomes how do I, for billing purposes, divide up when I did what? How much of the conceptual time do I charge for? Forming good ideas is by far the hardest part of the work, but it doesn't come in nice billable chunks. And if most of the mental work on one part occurs during the technical execution of another, which do I describe in my invoice notes?
For now I'm just taking it day by day, generally favoring the tangible things in the billing documents, but I sure am learning a lot about myself. Hopefully that will lead to good things.
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