Sometimes when you've got too much, life takes something off your plate.

So, as one might be able to tell, I've been a bit insane with the busy-ness lately. The stuff I've done for the Human Rights Campaign is finally out the door, but now they're calling me for posters in addition to the graphics I sent them, and the program book, and the newspaper ads, and all the other miscellaneous stuff that's been requested of me for this project I'm basically donating to them in exchange for a bit of money to cover production costs and the exposure that will inevitably come of it.

But to add to this, I have the branding/e-commerce site to get moving on (I have a creative brief done and two logo comps in the works; I need to do a bit more sketching and finish three good comps today), and one of my big web-production clients is re-building their entire site, which I'm doing the production for. So it's been pretty insane.

In the middle of this, I get a call from one of my intern's volunteer gigs asking me to donate services for a logo for their annual conference. They have very little budget for this, and I'm of the opinion that a logo isn't really enough to get people in the door for this conference, so I offered, for $500 TOTAL, to design a logo, postcard and poster for the conference, and help them market the conference and get more folks involved. It was twice the budget they had, but still—a great deal. Insane, really, considering my workload. The ED seemed to agree with me, I sent off the contract, and I waited for it to come back.

A week later now, I get an e-mail from the ED stating that they've decided to go with another designer. I haven't figured out why yet—I'm thinking they either found someone who was willing to go cheaper than I was, or they found someone who could turn it around faster. Part of me things I should be upset about this, but strangely, I'm not. It's not that I don't like this client, or care about the cause—it's just that I'm realizing that I can't help everybody. As much as I love doing pro-bono, and bringing a bit of prettyness to the world in the name of good causes, it's hard when you have a reputation of working with non-profits and people seem to associate that with giving away your work for next to nothing.

Somewhere, in the back of my mind, I have an article brewing about the importance of paying the money for a professional designer within non-profit agencies. Many designers, such as myself, are willing to give reasonable discounts to qualified non-profits ("qualified" here meaning "something I believe in that needs the discounts." Sojourner House, a mid-size agency in Providence, RI, deserves the discounts. The United Way, with operating budgets in the multiple millions, does not, in my opinion.) So many non-profits are willing to accept whatever's given to them, without regard to whether the person giving really cares or understands their organization. And too many designers who do the donating cut corners—just throw something together because they aren't being paid for it. It's sad really. Thoughts for later.

But this is what I find really fascinating about this experience. When I agreed to this, I knew I didn't have much time for it. I told the ED I didn't have much time for it. But still, I agreed, and committed myself to finding the time to do it, and even stressed out a bit because I wasn't sure how I was going to fit it in. But then, as if life knew I was doing too much, the gig dropped off my plate. I feel lighter now, like I can actually get everything done now. I should have listened to myself and respectfully declined the gig in the first place—I could have saved myself a bunch of stress.

I guess this experience has taught me, once again, the importance of saying "no" when it's actually warranted, and that every gig, no matter how much I like the cause, isn't something I need to say "yes" to.