My first rejection(s).

So last week I got two calls about different jobs. One of them was for a logo for a car wash business (you can see the sketch I did here), and the other was a much larger job.

My contact for the car wash job was a graphic designer who the client hired and was outsourcing the illustration. She seemed pretty happy with me and wanted to move forward. We were just waiting on confirmation from the client. Apparently he found someone himself, making redundant the money he was paying his graphic designer, but whatever. I wasn't too upset about losing the job. It wasn't really that exciting and the pay wasn't huge. I was actually kinda glad that the first job I'd been rejected on wasn't anything big.

The other job was somewhat more interesting and a lot more higher paid. My contact was a Marketing Director for the client. She had found me via my portfolio on the Illustrator's Australia website, and she'd also checked out the work on my site before she called me. We talked for a bit on the phone about the job and then back and forthed via e-mail. I spent some time giving her a pretty detailed quote and she told me there was another illustrator she was looking at for the job. She'd let me know if I got the job the following week. Long story short, I found out this morning that I didn't get the job. I was pretty bummed out.

I'm all about learning from my mistakes. Thankfully, my contact was kind enough to tell me why I didn't get the job. Here's the e-mail she sent:

Hi Joe, I have decided to give the job to another illustrator, my decision was mainly based on the fact that she had done a lot of children's illustrations that were close to what I need, she also sent me through some visuals, making it easier for me to get an understanding of the style she would apply to the job.

If it doesn't work out I will be in touch with you in the future. Good luck and thank you for your prompt follow up.

So what can I learn from this? I thought that being prompt, clear and concise with my responses was enough to set to me ahead of other illustrators. Clearly this other illustrator went an extra mile by sending through some visuals, something I'd assumed was unnecessary because the client had seen the work on my site.

I've learnt that it's not enough to make the client feel comfortable with me as a worker, they also need to feel comfortable with my work.

I'm going to double my efforts next time, and triple them if I know I'm up against other illustrators.

C'est la freakin' vie, I guess.