AboutSean Trapani Expertise I am a professor of advertising at the nation's largest art and design school. I teach general advertising courses, copywriting and brand theory.
Experience I have 15+ years ad agency experience as a copywriter and creative director. My experience covers general agency work, such as consumer print and broadcast, as well as specialized communications such as directory advertising, recruitment advertising and employee communications. My work has received dozens of awards, including ADDYs, Silver Microphones, Tellys and others.
Question I feel silly asking this question since I have been in this busines for over 20 years, but I've hit a wall with a client. We produced a series of 10 logo designs for a well known kitchen designer who wanted to update her image. She paid us a 50% deposit, we got half way through the process, and now doesn't want to change her logo but won't pay the balance. She doesn't think she should have to pay because she isn't changing the logo. I've tried to explain to her, politely, that the work was produced and the balance is due. It's like her firm producing plans for a kitchen and the client doesn't go forward with the job. She still collects her money for the plans.
I can certainly walk away from the client and call it a day, but this is a small town and I don't want diminish my reputation and let her walk away scott free.
How do you see the situation?
Laurie
Answer Walk away, Laurie.
You might come out on the short end now. But you never want to burn bridges - and bad word of mouth travels faster than good.
Simply tell her that you would love to work with her another time; and to please recommend your services to any of her colleagues.
If you really want to play it safe, you could ask her to sign an agreement that both releases her from further financial obligation, but also states that, since she doesn't want to pay the balance of the fee, the work remains your company's intellectual property. Should she ever want to use any part of your logo work in the future, you would be happy to release the license for the balance of the fee.
If you ever see a new logo for her that matches or is derivative your work, then you may have cause to sue her for breach of contract and theft of intellectual property. (I'm not a lawyer, mind you. But some agencies, like CP+B, work out deals in which the agency retains rights to their creative work.)
