Earlier tonight, I was asked what separated the "A list" decorators from the "talented novices." While I don't feel I'm the best person to answer that, it did bring up the idea of commissioning as a way to get your name out there as a decorator. A few months ago, I summed up my feelings about commissions in a blog post. I posted a link to the blog on Facebook, and it spawned an interesting conversation. Of course, Facebook isn't really meant for long conversations, but the Facebook chat did cause me to wonder how other people feel about commissions. Now that we have a brand new message board, I figured this might be a good time to finally ask the question that I've been curious about since the conversation on Facebook. It seemed like a good time to get the decorating community talking about it. Do you do housing commissions? Why or why not? And please keep in mind that each person's opinion is their opinion. It's not right or wrong. It's how they feel. So keep it respectful as you present your reasons or respond to someone else's!
Hmm. For the A list vs talented novices my answer would be that it is a matter of personal opinion, because we all like different things! And I don't think it's necessary to even go much into it. We're all decorators and each good in our own way. I've never really thought about whether or not to take commissions--until I get too packed to do them. In the beginning I didn't really do commissions. For me, it started with guildies asking for houses and they'd pay me. I actually refused to get paid by people in the beginning. I was learning with every house and I hated asking for money in any form... Taking commissions, doing free houses (if you have the plat to do it..) and word of mouth are probably the best ways to get known. Posting houses, of course, here on the Homeshow gets you known to and now we have the leaderboards! I did commissions for about 4 years and I ended up with a waiting list of nearly 6 months and absolutely no time to decorate my own homes. There was always some conflict with the waiting list. I wouldn't have time between school and work or theyw ould have moved on. I did warn people that it could be awhile until I got to them. I have had a few problems with commissions. I had to drop someone off my list because they refused to pay me for them. And then they took trustee access away, said nothing to me even when I sent tells and mail and everything. And then they left the game, leaving two fully decorated homes.. Partly my own fault because I never asked for cash up front. Bad mistake, but it had never been a problem for 4 years until this guy. The only commission I have now is RP taverns as they need it and ask for it. Soulfire I have done for a few years now and I have never charged them anything at all. The owner has literally had to forced me to take plat sometimes. I stopped taking commissions and even had to drop some that really wanted them, around April of this year. I would have kept taking commissions. My list was fairly small for once! But I got rather sick and I'm still going through a lot right now, so I'm not taking commissions for a long long while. It gives me time to work on the billion houses I own which sit empty right now. I probably have more to say, but I can't think of it and besides its 1 AM!
To clarify, I don't believe there is a such thing as an A list decorator, either. Decorating is a form of art, and what works for one person may not work for someone else. That was just the conversation that reminded me of the blog post and the Facebook chat.
Alist - I don't care .. and neither should anyone else. If you are making stuff that makes you happy, that is all that matters (unless you are doing a commission, then the customer needs to be happy) Personally I tell people I don't do commission work. I have a few people who keep asking everyone month or two to see if I will change my mind ... I have only done it once and that was a weird situation. The person had an idea and had attempted it on her own. I originally was going to build a quick shell and just let her take it from there, but I ended up liking the design and wanting to finish it so I kinda got pulled in by my own kindness .. I did end up making good plat off the project, but that wasnt why I did it. I have a few issues with commissions that prevent me from doing them - I am far from a dedicated decorator. Overall it is a very small part of what I do in EQ2. Most people don't understand the amount of time it can take to do the houses in the style that I do. Because of the time it takes, the cost of decorating is very high for me. If I spend 20hrs on a house how do I charge for that time. Even at 100p an hour (not unheard of for Power Leveling rates) that would be at least 2000p. Even that isn't including mental design time coming up with ideas and how I might pull them off. Plus I don't actually need the plat. I do my best work when I am excited about it. I will not always want to do something that a customer is asking for. This doesn't mean I wont do it. it just means I wont enjoy it (and this is still a game after all). I don't like finishing houses. Anyone looking at my houses will eventually notice they are fairly bare compared to most other people's houses. This is because I find the interior design part kinda boring. If I ever do another commission I have actually thought it would be a good idea to subcontract another decorator just for this part Every time I decorate I end up tweaking the Layout Editor to fix some bug or inefficiency I run into.
I've never done a commission. I've helped guildies with aspects of their homes, and I've done homes for my sister. husband, and nephew, but I've never actually taken on a commission. That being said, I would probably take one, but, it would have to be someone that already likes my design style. I would have no fun doing a house for someone in a style that I'm not comfortable with. Also, I don't consider myself an A-list decorator...
I do not do commissions. I do not having my creativity under the gun and have a date and time the project needs to be completed. My creativity comes in spurts, either it is there or it isn't, and I have a tendency to go through dry spells. So instead, I do gifts for friends.
I haven't accepted any comission offers in the past mostly because of the stress I think would come along with it. Fear - what if I do something the person doesn't like? I tend to get emotionally attached to projects and not sure how I'd feel about someone having me rip something apart and re-do it, even if it is their house lol I think some people might have set expectations as to what they think I might be capable of and the thought that I'd fall short of those expectations worries me. Time Committments - I'm logged in game a ton, but afk a lot of it with family, chores and then working some nights and weekends too. So, the actual amount of 'game time' to sit and focus really isn't much. I don't want someone to wait that long on a finished product, but I also don't want to dedicate all of my leisure time as 'working' for someone else. Payment - I'm soooo uncomfortable with that entire topic and would just rather avoid comissions all together than to deal with the topic of it. I've been asked how much I "charge" to do a house and I just don't have an answer. I guess I'd be more ok with someone just covering fuel costs and then if they wanted to tip me something they could. I know there are some raiders with tons of plat, but there are other casual people who may only have a couple hundred plat at best to their name. Someone sent me a mail last month and mentioned she was 'saving up' to ask me to help decorate something. I can't even begin to say how that hit me! I felt so unworthy of someone spending their gametime specifically to save for me. Needless to say, I'm happy to help her after these hectic holidays are over and don't want a single plat. It's probablly the only comission request I will accept though and only because it touched me so much hehe I love the thought of selling finished layouts though. And the ability to sellf finished houses on a market would be amazing! That way, people would only be buying what allready done and only need small ajustments from there. As a side note too, I don't think there are A-list decorators because people have very different styles and tastes. What people prefer sort of depicts how they preceive someone else's work at times, but in no way makes it better or worse in comparison to other's places. I'm constantly blown away by so many things I've seen people do. A lot of times it's on people's 'first house' too!
I do do commisions on occasion but i only charge what i have to buy (things i cant make) and then when its all done they pay me according to their satisfaction in the project. that way if they dont like it i can fix it then they pay me what they want if they like it ok or really like it. noone gets hurt that way lol first thing i ask is what they want ex. good or bad, dark and scary or bright and friendly ect. then i go from there.
I've done commissioned work in the past and decided it just wasn't for me. I prefer to decorate because I want to, not because I'm being paid to. Now the only decorating "jobs" I take are those for my boyfriend, and yes he tips well (/wink). When I am working on those jobs though I have fun because I can make up stories about his characters and decorate accordingly (ie a twitchy Ratonga with a thing for tinkering, etc). Like others have stated, I prefer decorating over other aspects of the game. I like to become immersed in the project I am working on, seeing the vision I have in my head unfold before me. Although, most of the time it doesn't turn out exactly as I first imagined, but that's fine because art is funny that way.
I used to take commissions, but a couple bad experiences had me really stressing. I thought it'd be fun getting paid to do something I loved anyway, and in some cases it was, at least early on. But after a few really stressful jobs I realized that non-decorators didn't always understand what is/was possible. People thought because I knew how to edit that I could do things that can't be done. I couldn't make a red item blue, I couldn't make things smaller or bigger with the editor than they could shrink or grow that item with their own mouse wheel. I couldn't make houses not eat furniture that's "anchor" was sunk into the floor, wall, or ceiling. After some very, very stressful commission jobs I realized a few things. I wasn't usually getting paid very well, or even at all sometimes. I had no time to decorate my own empty homes that I really wanted to start on. And decorating just wasn't fun anymore after dealing with with those few very stressful jobs. It wasn't long after I decided to stop taking commissions that I had some real life issues come up that kept me out of the game for awhile. It still does take me out of the game for what might be a day or a week or even longer. I also have to be afk quite often for long periods of time and with no warning when I am logged in, too. So as it turns out I couldn't take commissions now even if I wanted to. I am really excited about the SOE Live announcement that was made about creating house deeds that get unpacked by the buyer. I don't have much time to decorate it seems - and it's harder to get really involved in a project knowing I may have to stop at any time - but at least when/if I have a finished place I could sell it if I wanted to. Packaging up an entire finished house and putting it on the virtual real estate market where it can be viewed by prospective buyers seems like a much better alternative (for me) than trying to put together what someone likes in a limited amount of time.
Looks like a lot of people here don't like charging people or fear for asking for to much. I was the same when I first started. How much do you charge? Will it cover full cost and time spent? At some point the answer was simply no. Even when telling people to just tip me what they thought was right -- It's not worth it to get a tip less than what you spent on it. After I started selling people basic wall covering layouts, I came up with a decent system to charge. At least decent imo. I charge depending on the item count. A house with a 200 item count costs less than a house with 700 item count. I charge for the base without expanders. They put expanders on, I knock something off the price as long as I don't have to buy the expanders. (I won't ever buy a SC expender for someone I do commission) To me, the prices are a good range for both decorator and owner. They're not too high and not too low so I'm not hurting for plat afterward, though I have stopped taking plat for any commission I might take on. Plat is currently useless for me right now and not from decorating or raiding. Cogs are wonderful to sell on the broker during Tinkerfest! One of the best ways to charge for a commissions... A house for a house! Have them gift you a SC house. Oh I know... we all have a billion of them, but hey it's something if you're not comfortable with asking for plat. I do like other aspects of the game. I like to go hunt and I'm usually tied up in rp these days. Somehow I still find time to decorate in between there...Don't ask me how. Like I said in my earlier post, I don't take commissions right now and I may not either. I have two major people who I take on projects for, Soulfire, which is non profit and never gets charged, and another who tips good through whatever means I want, even art of my characters! She's an awesome artist, so its totally worth doing a house for her.
I could pretty much echo Afista's post, word for word. Not that I've been asked for commissions very often - usually it's been in the way of heavy hints from guildies and game friends and invariably when I'm right in the middle of some huge project that's taking all my time and is likely to for the forseeable future, so I've let them down gently by saying that of course I'll happily come and look at their place and chat with them or suggest some ideas, but I'm going to be unavailable to decorate anything else for weeks, or sometimes months. I'd feel uncomfortable taking a downright commission from a friend or guildie anyway because there's no way that I could accept payment from them. However, I have recently accepted my first official commission. Basically, someone asked me at precisely the right time (a couple of weeks after I'd finished and published my latest house and had had a small break from decorating, and before I'd started on my next project). I thought long and hard before taking it on, due to concerns about expectations and time and arrrgh, what to charge, but decided to accept, mainly because I 'clicked' well with the commissioner when we were discussing what she wanted. I don't think I could accept a commission from someone uncommunicative or with no ideas: it just wouldn't be enjoyable. And this is a game, it's meant to be fun. Factors why I don't usually do commissions/why I took this one: Time - I work slowly. Very, very, very slowly. You could literally watch the paint dry on my walls. This is partly because I don't play all the time, partly because I can get absurdly perfectionist about lining things up, and partly because when I do play, decorating is only part of my ingame activities. My commissioner was wonderfully unphazed by the possible prospect of her house taking months to complete. Design - I'm OK at my own style: I'm not convinced I'm necessarily so good at bringing other's ideas to life if they differ wildly from my own or if they simply don't interest/excite me. Or if they'd just look ugh. Some of the ideas I've been asked to do in this commission are things that I cannot wait to adapt for my own similar property! Payment - this was tricky/uncomfortable, but that's just me. We agreed on a compromise that my commissioner tip me what she thinks the work is worth at completion. Risky, perhaps, but I don't believe it is in this case. Unfortunately, gifting is bugged for her or I'd happily accept payment in the form of another house - as it is, any plat given will go into the krono fund (no such thing as 'too much plat' or 'don't need more plat' for me any longer!) I too can't wait until house deeds become tradeable as that's definitely the way I can see me preferring to work in the future.
I'm surprised that so many of us aren't interested in doing commissions. I'm not surprised that our reasons for not doing them tend to be so similar, though. At some point you have to say "no" to people wanting commissions, even if you like doing them. There just isn't enough time to take on every commission that's offered. You have to draw the line somewhere. And in my case, that line is "I'm really not willing to do commissions anymore." I hate saying no to people. I always feel terrible when I do so. But what can you do when your free time is booked up, and you're trying to use the game for stress relief, but the commissions are stressing you out? What gets to me most are the people who pretty much demand houses from me, and then act like they're doing me a favor by "offering" their empty house for me to use. I have so many empty homes of my own that I haven't even gotten around to decorating yet, that doing a home for someone else isn't a favor. I looked back on my decorating when I was putting together my consolidated projects thread, and I realized that the only character of mine who really has a house is Jazabelle. None of my alts (including some that I roleplay quite frequently) have homes! Where does all of my decorating time go? Well sure, Lilith has the one maze from 2011's NotD, and Library has the tower, but Library's not really a character. The rest of my time housing has gone into working on projects for other people, updating my homes, and my guild's hall. I'd like to have at least one house for each of my characters one day, and the only way that'll happen is if I cut out commissions completely. No one wants to chime in from the "I like to do commissions" standpoint? I'd like to hear from some of you guys! But on to another topic--I can't wait for the ability to sell home layouts on the marketplace! Between that and Mass Production, I think it'll be nice to be able to put together homes people will like. Of course, that once again brings up the price. What do you charge for something like that? Fuel cost, obviously, plus some sort of compensation for any non-crafted items you use. But time-wise? And are we selling for SC or plat? If it's SC, what percentage of the sale do we get? All of it? Less? I really hope they give us more details on that soon. I've put all projects on hold until tomorrow (not too long now!) to wait for mass production. And our kind fairy Kiosha helped stock up Homes and Tomes' harvest depot, so we're all set for our 11 or so carpenters to make the journey from 92 to 95!
Excellent timing on this post. I thought through my stance on comissions over the weekend and created a webpage for it on my new website. Going through the process for creating the web page really helped me understand and outline what works for me and provides something for me to tell the client to go review before they want to hire me. I feel it clearly sets the expectations for both myself and the client. To see my detailed commision info click here. Not covered in my commission info page is previous stories so I will share here: On one job early on I did the "pay what you can" and that didn't turn out as well as I had liked, it was a large job that took me about two weeks and I got a third of what someone else paid me for the same size project. With that said, I'm going on my fifth commission and my experiences have been okay so far besides the one. I think I have avoided some bad experiences by being selective on the client. I talk to the client for a while, take them on tours my completed projects and will usually only accept a job based on the feel I get for how the client will be to work with and how much the client likes my work and wants to pay me for it. Which really means in my terrible Marlon Brando voice "they make me an offer I can't refuse". I only tend to do a commission or two a year due to personal schedule/live game events and how broke and inspired I am at the time Negotiations can be a little awkward but sometimes I get offered more than I actually give a quote for which is always nice I've had other decorators want to hire me to finish their existing projects, I usually always say no to those as I'm not interested in the conflicts that would eventually arise from that situation. My latest commission paid partially in status point commodity items, that was something I hadn't thought of until they offered. I need status points as I tend to go through them purchasing items from city faction merchants and since I barely adventure and my tradeskillers are already maxed I barely ever build any back up. Also getting status points helps me to contribute to our guild bank which is mostly decorators (Homes and Tomes). So I now encourage this as a form of payment if agreed to in advance. Along with most others that have posted I also feel the stress of having a commission to work on when I might not be in a particular mood or inspired to decorate. This can keep me from logging in for a couple of days in avoidance But I will login and keep the client engaged and updated with my schedule. Most haven't expressed concerns about the amount of time it has taken me to do their project since I am upfront with them through the hiring process. One of the downsides for me on decorating via commission is that it takes so long to do a project is having to create upwards of 900+ items for any given project. I am soooo looking forward to mass production, this should help speed up all personal and commissioned projects immensely!
Ok, First off, let me just say, My name is grlnxtdr, and I am an Altaholic. I just counted all my alts, and dicovered that I have 39 alternate Personalities. Of those, I have 9 that I have actual homes for (Not counting inn rooms or the 7 year vet reward house). Of the 9, one of them is fully decorated, and I payed someone else to decorate it. Of the remaining 8, I Have two that I have been decorating myself, one of them will hopefully be finished after this Month's Moonlight Enchantments, as I ran out of trees and tiles, and wanted a few more Plushies as well. The second one has been on the verge of completition for nearly 3 years now, but I never seem to find the time or the will to finish it. Of the remaining 6 houses, I have decorating ideas for 4 of them, but Haven't even started collecting items for them, although the New Halas manor will Hopefully get Completed before Frostfell. (Just had a brilliant idea of creating a Giant walk in Snow Globe) Oh, and I Have a Half finished GH that I am working on, and Just decided I am going to tear out a Portion of what I've already done and redo it. So I don't see myself accepting Commisions any time soon, although I might Commision someone (Guk Server) to help me with a couple rooms in the GH that I Have no Inspiration for at all.
I do commissions. Its easy for me to scale up or down to the persons budget. I just remind them it may take awhile and generally will do one room at a time. They provide the rares or i send tell asking if they wish me to buy the rares and they pay back. My jobs haven't ever costed over 200p. Generally charge 10p a room, goes up if they want much more extravagent abode. those are arer though =) most folks just want a nice home to sell their wares out of.
I do commissions for other players, but it is generally to fund my personal decorating projects because I don't adventure at all usually. I might go out hunting one day then not again for a year. I also do it because I enjoy making people happy, but I can't afford to do it for free. Commissions make sure I can afford to keep decorating for myself. There's a huge time lapse between my commissions, though.
I've honestly never been asked to do a commission yet. I'm not sure I would, as I tend to get partway through some projects, lose inspiration for a while then go back to them months later. Really I don't consider myself to be as good of a decorator as many on this forum (and in this thread alone)... however, some of my own recent projects I've been very proud of and I can see my growth in design as time goes on and I learn more. I have done houses for family and guildmates (those are usually partial projects). After we moved to a T2 guild hall earlier this year I did half of the decorating in the new hall. I'm in a really small guild though, where most of us either know each other IRL or have known each other since EQ1 days, so I'm quite happy to do things for them. Mostly I'm looking forward to the selling of house deeds they talked about at SOE Live. Hopefully it is actually put in!
I'm too selfish to do commissions. If I'm decorating I want it to be for me. Since the housing leaderboards came out I have been working towards getting a lot of the decorating titles and so I try to keep all my homes on one character. Spending a couple weeks or a month working on someone else's house isn't rewarding to me.
I have never done a commision, though have been asked a few times. I do, however, really enjoy helping someone with an 'aspect' of their project that they need help with, or helping with using the layout editor for those just starting to use it. I feel I work far too slowly to be commisioned, since I am sure most people would want their project completed in a timely fashion, and I just cannot give that. Also, with several alts, and now countless homes to decorate, I have far too much on my plate to even consider stopping to do someone else's abode
