Professional vs Beginner. Is it realistic to order icons for your project “for thanks”?
So I decided to make my debut on Habr'e.
Do professionals agree to make icons for free, or maybe beginners can make icons no worse than professionals?
Over the course of the year, I have been developing the Personal Finance Management (ULF) project.for 1C: Enterprise 8. This product is distributed free of charge, and I deal with it in my free time. Judging by the rating and reviews - people like it. But there is a minus of this: there is no finance for the development of the project, therefore, for beauty, the Internet was searched in search of icons for the project and what was found was inserted. It turned out beautifully, but the thought that it would be necessary to legalize the icons is haunting, and I was going to draw them myself. Then I realized that it is immensely impossible to embrace - my business is programming (well, I had the patience to start learning CMS to raise the site (in the process)), but let those who can do the development of icons.
And so, one fine day, an idea pops up in my head: to make an offer to companies that professionally develop icons, but ask them to do it for free. First results ...
The whole idea was to somehow interest the company in making the icons “without financing”.
Step 1: Search engines found several companies that are developing icons. I looked through their work, selected for the start 3 companies whose work I liked the most.
Step 2: I created a letter in Word in which I briefly described my project, its further development, what I want and what I offer.
What I could offer them: post information about them, as creators of icons on their website and ad units in their program. And yet, it is possible that the project will branch off into the commercial branch after some time, and then I will be ready to finance the creation of icons. At the same time, he honestly admitted that the product will go to a commercial branch or not - this is a question, therefore it is better not to count on it. I will give links to the text at the end.
Step 3: Bids were sent to selected companies. Quite large players were selected in this market, as the goal was not to spam all offices with their offer, but to select the ones they liked. Honesty - this is the way we are going
Step 4:With all this process, the girl offered to throw an ad on the sites of freelancers. Which was done. In freelance.ru, the ad was deleted after 5-10 minutes (why? Until they answered me, maybe because he gave a link to his project. But he gave it with one purpose - to show what the project was about).
BUT fortunately, I managed to get 3 responses from users willing to help me. They also have their own benefit - to expand their portfolio.
I received 3 more responses on another similar site. The topic has not been deleted there.
Step 5: I wrote a technical task - in which I brought screenshots of my program, and suggested drawing a couple of icons to understand what style they see them, correct them, choose one and continue to work. All respondents sent a technical task.
Now the first samples from freelancers have begun to arrive, unfortunately so far not everything is right. But here I think that he is to blame. It is necessary to describe in more detail what I want. What I’ll do, I’ll think more specifically about what should be depicted.
As for professional companies. To date, 2 out of three responses have been received. One company was interested in the offer, but refused because of the lack of free employees, but put it on a note (I hope it is), the second company did not find the offer as attractive.
Results: it is too early to let them down, this is only the beginning. If the topic is interesting, then I will keep up to date.
Perhaps someone from the Habrochititele this proposal, I am ready to listen to all your suggestions.
Links to files:
- Offer to companies.zip(the same letter that I sent to the companies)
- Terms of Reference.zip (first drafts of technical specifications for those interested)
Do professionals agree to make icons for free, or maybe beginners can make icons no worse than professionals?
Over the course of the year, I have been developing the Personal Finance Management (ULF) project.for 1C: Enterprise 8. This product is distributed free of charge, and I deal with it in my free time. Judging by the rating and reviews - people like it. But there is a minus of this: there is no finance for the development of the project, therefore, for beauty, the Internet was searched in search of icons for the project and what was found was inserted. It turned out beautifully, but the thought that it would be necessary to legalize the icons is haunting, and I was going to draw them myself. Then I realized that it is immensely impossible to embrace - my business is programming (well, I had the patience to start learning CMS to raise the site (in the process)), but let those who can do the development of icons.
And so, one fine day, an idea pops up in my head: to make an offer to companies that professionally develop icons, but ask them to do it for free. First results ...
The whole idea was to somehow interest the company in making the icons “without financing”.
Step 1: Search engines found several companies that are developing icons. I looked through their work, selected for the start 3 companies whose work I liked the most.
Step 2: I created a letter in Word in which I briefly described my project, its further development, what I want and what I offer.
What I could offer them: post information about them, as creators of icons on their website and ad units in their program. And yet, it is possible that the project will branch off into the commercial branch after some time, and then I will be ready to finance the creation of icons. At the same time, he honestly admitted that the product will go to a commercial branch or not - this is a question, therefore it is better not to count on it. I will give links to the text at the end.
Step 3: Bids were sent to selected companies. Quite large players were selected in this market, as the goal was not to spam all offices with their offer, but to select the ones they liked. Honesty - this is the way we are going
Step 4:With all this process, the girl offered to throw an ad on the sites of freelancers. Which was done. In freelance.ru, the ad was deleted after 5-10 minutes (why? Until they answered me, maybe because he gave a link to his project. But he gave it with one purpose - to show what the project was about).
BUT fortunately, I managed to get 3 responses from users willing to help me. They also have their own benefit - to expand their portfolio.
I received 3 more responses on another similar site. The topic has not been deleted there.
Step 5: I wrote a technical task - in which I brought screenshots of my program, and suggested drawing a couple of icons to understand what style they see them, correct them, choose one and continue to work. All respondents sent a technical task.
Now the first samples from freelancers have begun to arrive, unfortunately so far not everything is right. But here I think that he is to blame. It is necessary to describe in more detail what I want. What I’ll do, I’ll think more specifically about what should be depicted.
As for professional companies. To date, 2 out of three responses have been received. One company was interested in the offer, but refused because of the lack of free employees, but put it on a note (I hope it is), the second company did not find the offer as attractive.
Results: it is too early to let them down, this is only the beginning. If the topic is interesting, then I will keep up to date.
Perhaps someone from the Habrochititele this proposal, I am ready to listen to all your suggestions.
Links to files:
- Offer to companies.zip(the same letter that I sent to the companies)
- Terms of Reference.zip (first drafts of technical specifications for those interested)