ACCOZZAGLIA

my primary client over the last eighteen months broke the news to me today that they were moving to another design team to produce and develop the brand, identity and materials for the company.

it was the first time i’ve endured a client breakup. oddly, it felt not unlike breaking up with somebody. maybe that’s because it had much to do with the working relationship starting out so much as a one-on-one engagement. in autumn 2001, the company had just launched from square one: just some imported merchandise from Asia and some seed money from a small investor.

i came in to not only create an interim brand identity, but to also develop a product naming line for the furniture they were wholesaling, a product inventory numbering system, a product catalogue, a “personality” to the brand (manifested in personable, approachable copy) and all printed collateral. and for a brief time, i was handling the public relations, preparing press releases and marketing kits to be disseminated at trade shows. oh yeah — i also created the environmental design for the company first trade show appearance.

unfortunately, after i moved west, things began to unravel — things which might have been avoidable with better planning in the very beginning. then again, some things were unavoidable.

for one, this entire client-vendor relationship was verbal. there was no contract or terms of service agreement. no non-compete agreements were drafted. because we shared a casual, friendly relationship through a bunch of closely connected people, we felt that, in the naïve spirit of things, that a verbal handshake was all we needed. after all, we really didn’t know whether the company would sail or sink after the first year, especially with the economy being what it was.

second, we both dropped the ball. they admitted on the phone tonight that they really laxed badly on communicating with me any news within the upstart company which would be of relevance to me as their branding and art director. at some point, for instance, they hired a dedicated PR expert to handle public relations tasks, which to me, made perfect sense as the needs for that area expanded. however, i wasn’t illuminated to this change until weeks after it happened.

also, i connected a colleague of mine disciplined in the conception and execution of high design-calibre furniture with my client. the networking was to help bring together a great business plan with a brilliant designer to create a signature line of unique furniture concepts. i’m grateful to say that the efforts in bringing these two resources together is turning out to be a boon for the company.

unfortunately, as with most talent-finding arrangements, there’s usually a contract involved where the middleperson gets either a lump fee or a staggered compensation for making the lucrative engagement possible. that didn’t happen here. that was a big mistake on my behalf. “i only wanted to do the right thing” in business doesn’t mean shit: it means you get left out in the cold unless you cover your own bases.

meanwhile, after coming here, i sank into a severe clinical depression episode which i’m still battling to this day. because the work from my client — basically, what i thought was my breadwinner like it was for a chunk of 2002 — dried up, exacerbating my sense of feeling utterly unneeded and worthless, my burnout for providing graphic design for only professional arrangements worsened further. while i’d get a piecemeal POS sheet to devise here or an instruction sheet to format there, the work wasn’t coming.

and that i was unaware of any quarterly projections of budget and project expectations around which i could plan my time (namely because there were none, even though the company’s phenomenal growth had warranted such advance forecasting by then), i had no idea what to do whilst hanging out on a limb.

so, in my drained, resigned state, i began to let deadlines slip a couple of days. i’d approach my computer, stare at the screen for hours and just start crying. no longer was this account going anywhere in an engaging direction. and because i heard less and less from them, i figured that my work was sub-optimal at best and that i was reaping what i sowed.

anyhow, short story longer, both myself and the client in recent weeks — even months — had been considering a breakup. because they had more leverage to hire and fire versus me, they took the first ginger steps in addressing that on the phone tonight.

and it was a natural breakup, because i was also ready to end the relationship at a time when i knew i did a very decent job at what is the most difficult, most vulnerable time for a business: the fledgling beginning. the marketing materials and image i developed for the product line was what, in the client’s words, was critical in demonstrating the professionalism and appeal they wanted to project to vendors and buyers. and as they told me, it worked.

further, we had a friendship that was forged before and during the business relationship, and neither of us wanted to sabotage or jeopardise that. sure, while i walked away from this far more empty-handed than i could have, had provisions been set down in ink in 2001 (and right now, the tool of money means a ridiculous amount in my impoverished 2003 existence), i nevertheless salvaged a friendship, respect and an unlimited positive professional reference.

i guess it’s the best that i could have hoped for, all things considered. but like all breakups, the inital aftermath is always the most awkward. i feel pretty strange tonight.

is there a bottom line? well, never again will i initiate a business contact without everything in writing first. either i provide my services for compensation or i shouldn’t bother, lest i ruin any love i have left for the gift i’ve shared with clients of present and yore.