I have never seen this while freelancing until now. I have a guy that contacted me about designing handbags for kids. His company is just starting off and he and his partner are new to the fashion industry. They have a concept they think will sell and are contracting the job out to several designers for a designer face off ( whoever gets the design he is looking for will get the job. He wants each of us to do about four designs. All that sounds okay until I got his consulting agreement with the non- compete clause. I told him I wouldn’t sign the contract with the clause included. I had a lawyer look at the contract and said I should ask the guy to make changes. So after some back and forth with emails he says that he will change the clause to say that I couldn’t work for their competition that produces an handbag for kids using their type of concept. What do you think about non-compete clauses?

Sharrina Witherspoon

As far as I know in-house patternmakers make close to 100K annually, and senior designers at least 60K. In my understanding designers go through a period of proving themselves that can almost be regarded as internship before they start to earn decently and I’m thinking thats whats bringing the average salary down.

I think its really important to refuse work thats underpaid and I think us freelancers have to unite on that issue. Just like someone mentioned here theres a lot more involved for us, there is off season (almost all my clients have had a really bad habit of ordering fabric late or simply not designing the line until a few weeks before market), then theres time you spend on the project that you cant directly charge for (phone calls, emails etc). You have to update equipment, pay rent or mortgage for your studio, update software… Spend time interviewing potential clients that may or may not come through. When you’re in-house you’re being paid for every minute you spend in there. Thats not the case when you’re self employed.

I have been repeatedly approached by a formerly famous company over the last 4 years to design, yet every time it comes to discussing what I need to be paid to properly do the job, they disappear for 6 months to a year. Then come back with smaller and smaller projects. At this point, they are still unwilling to pay what would be needed to do any of the projects.

What they barely seem to understand is that this line needs a complete overhaul. They have been working off the same patterns for about 20 to 25 years now, (a salesperson has been designing recently) so both stylistically and fit-wise the line’s become a dinosaur. For me now, their inquiries are filed under the heading “cheap entertainment”. It’s sad, at one point I would have LOVED the opportunity to (re-)design for this company.

Other stories I can relate: Being asked to design leather outerwear for an off-shore maker. I give him my price, don’t hear from him for a week and then he comes back with 9 sketches done by his 7 year old daughter (I swear to God, If I could find the scans, I’d attach them!) Looking for a price break since the garments are “designed” and all he needs are tech packs.
Hello???

Another is a famous brand, multi-million$$$ shoe and handbag company who’s freelance terms are as follows:

“…I need to clarify that the payment terms are not for each style but for all 3 styles: so the first $200 is for the photo ideas of the bags that we will now own. The next $200 is for all 3 styles spec’d and detailed….”

…‘nuff said.

nadine said: In a large company a designer would just get an employee bonus for good work which could be very healthy if they did a good job but don’t call it a commission.

Agreed. Commissions are earned based on sales. The first clue that the job is more than just design. Though, I don’t know that it’s necessarily a bad business model - just a bad job description.

Product Managers oversee marketing, research, design, analysis, pre-production, sales, etc. That also include patterns, samples, production and post-production activites, too! But, their jobs are ultimately tied to the Profit & Loss of the product or line. It’s not atypical for a Product Manager to earn 1-5% as a performance bonus due to the success of a product. But, that’s in addition to their base salary.

That said, a Product Manager is not a designer, per se - they manage designers. They are business people with a foot in the creative and technical worlds. They understand the jobs because they need to direct people; but, they don’t execute each job, personally.

So, that raises a different point of contention. If you earn a bonus in this deal, are you also expected to take on Product Management responsibilities? If so, the deal still needs to be discussed. You’re entitled to your base fee (as a manager) in addition to the bonus - not the bonus as part of the “total comp”.

I deal with people like that all the time…. perfectly nice people who obviously don’t have a clue and somehow get it in their heads that the freelancer should “compensate” for their general lack of business knowledge.

My approach is simple…. I break down the project into sections:
1- Design and Sourcing
2- Working sketch development
3- Pattern Development
4- Technical Specification Development
5- Sample Sewing
6- Line Editing
7- Pattern Editing
8- Specification Editing
9- Sample Sewing

I designate a time frame for each section and either an hourly rate or a piece rate for each section.
If the job needs to be completed within a time frame shorter than the “standard”, then all rates go up to our rush fee.
This is because we’ll have to put other jobs on hold and have people work overtime to meet the deadline.

It’s usually at this point that they start making some hard decisions and compromise half way… or go to a place that will accept thir prices and make a mess of the project
If they are serious about business they usually come back to us the next season with their tail between their legs and we either get our full price or even more to fix the mess quickly