Turn Your Unused Client Work into Passive Income

A very timely idea!

Out of curiosity, what kind of language do you use on your contracts when specifying that the work can be re-used by you for this kind of thing later? Is it not just as simple as retaining the copyright (not doing a work-for-hire situation)?

Also: have you had better experiences selling through your own site, or via one of the many stock image sites (like FlashDen, ThemeForest, etc)?

Thanks!

Stock is a pretty good way to recycle old items.
Another very interesting approach is to give away some of your stuff through your site. In case you have a blog you can run a contest to increase your subscribers, get more backlinks or simply make your name more available to the public.
Overall I like the idea of “green design”. Letting good ideas go to waste just makes some of your lifetime disappear. Besides this we all know that some of the designs that don’t make it through are even better than the ones that are picked by the client, so why not make them available to the public.
Anyways I will not go for “custom stock” logos as this devalues your work, stock logo’s are for people who are too cheap to buy their own logo, but in case you offer a unique logo to download you have to charge the rates you would charge a normal client, as he will be the only one to use it. Even though you might argue that there is less work involved, the client is satisfied already and this should be well worth your efforts.
Still make sure you are allowed to do so and check back with your clients.

Making an extra buck is nice, but doing so with something as important and custom as a logo just flat out cheapens the industry. A good logo can take months and months of planning, research, and implementation, how could a company possibly buy a pre-created logo and take their business seriously? If they know anything about the importance of identity and branding (which as designers and design firms we should be educating our clients about) then they wouldn’t even begin to consider the idea.

Here buy this logo that was built for someone else for $200, OR we can develop an identity package that actually suits your company for $7,000.

It’s promoting ignorance and intentionally demeaning the clientele.

I’m all for making an extra buck here and there, picking up passive or residual income, but in ways that don’t insult my clients, my industry, or my ethics. When you really get to the bottom of it, selling stock “logos” simply isn’t ethical.

Well, I guess most companies who go for a stock logo don’t have the money to spend 7000 bucks on an identity package. It’s more that you offer some pieces to designers or people who are short of money and would not buy a service from you anyways. But instead of sending them somewhere else you might still get a few bucks.
Once you have a stock portfolio people can find and download stuff over the time. It’s more like building a public archive where you sell a few items every now and then. This includes logo, icon or photo crafting for cheap.
Don’t do stock if you don’t like the idea behind it. Noone forces you, neither does this take away the services of creating an identity or branding for people who want it. The internet just opens the gates for joe average venturing his small buisness with a budget of 50$, and so he either outsources to where ever, creates it himself or looks for some nice stock.

This is exactly what we are looking at doing in our firm.

However, Freelance Switch’s next article should detail some of the best delivery platforms.

It’s an idea, although I’m not sure logos can easily be recycled without being tweaked a lot. I’ll have to go look at how you’re doing it on your website Chris.

Great article.
I was thinking for the same but was not having right direction. Now I have the direction and the some unused works, so i am going try this.
Thanks for the article….

@Shane: Speaking the truth. Icons & elements is a whole other topic, but you can’t take your business serious as a client AND as a designer if you buy/sell logos for 10 bucks.

And all that stock hype is a longterm problem for us as designers. If my client paid 4000 bucks for a brand design and his son/mother/niece/friend/colleague shows him an identical design on a stock site for 15 bucks, what do you say then? WE understand that creating a design from scratch with all that consulting and presentation does take its time and money, but does the client also? I made the experiences that the client is interested in the result, and mostly he is not really interested in the fanciest solution but in the moderate and conservative solution. Modern brand design exists for, let’s say 100, rather 60 years, and a moderate brand design always depends on some basic shapes and colours, so the possibility is high, that the design we present has been designed before. If you got the combination of 10 typefaces, 10 shapes and 10 colours in REAL business – not in skateboarding – there are around 1000 possible results for millions of clients round the world. Some of these designs will match, and so will the stock logos with some of our scratch-made logos. I and maybe also some of the other graphic designers still may want to make a living of their job in 10 years, so I don’t support the stock logos. If just Joe Average visited these sites, it was okay, but as the CEO’s secretary/son/niece/aunt/friend does, it endangers my job.

I agree with Shade. The more the market is flooded with cheap $200 logos, the less work there is for real, unique design. In the end you are working yourself out of a job by cheapening the product you deliver and having clients expect less from graphic designers in general.

The idea of turning unused work into passive income sounds great. I actually gave it a thought myself over the last few weeks, while browsing some old project folders. But maybe the example isn’t the best one. Brad has a good point there.

I would definitely use stuff like a mockup for a blog, or even an HTML / CSS template that is not too custom, but not logos. Stock photos are great, stock themes are cool too, but I’m not a huge fan of stock logos.

For those of you that believe this is a good idea, you’re not thinking past all the money you probably won’t make. Spend some time searching on http://www.aiga.org for some eduction on this topic.

1. You’re devaluing the work you do.
2. Your putting design decision in the hands of the client.
3. These are identities, not icons
4. Need I explain why the non-exclusive model is a bad idea?

Imagine if there we’re people who couldn’t buy a home. Then a company (or 2) comes along and says “boo hoo that’s not fair boo hoo, lets get everyone into a home, who cares about the value or the cost, its just not fair that they can’t afford a really nice, well-designed home.” I wonder how that would go? Oh wait, I already know.

^^^^ Agreed. Most of the time an on-point logo cannot be stock. Illustrations, photos and templates can make much more effective stock.

Thanks for this very valuable information!

@smashill The fact is, it still devalues the industry, it’s still unethical, and you’re still not educating your clients. If the average joe can’t afford a $6,000 identity package then he needs to take out a loan from the bank. A stock logo is not going to cut it, they brand the company as cheap and below par. It’s an image and to promote such thing to your clients in hope of gaining an extra buck here or there is completely unethical and will not only run them out of of business but you as well.

Passive and Residual income is GREAT! Being Unethical, Damaging the Industry, and Hurting your clients, is VERY BAD. I looked on Chris’s site. He is selling them (only exclusive btw) for 200 dollars a pop.

What a great way to lower the bar…

Ah well, you guys are probabably right, but I think of an unused logo is not much more than an illustration as it is not “handcrafted”. Maybe I am wrong here And 200$ for an exclusive logo is devaluating in my eyes.

Interesting idea, there has been some cracking design concepts i have done for web and brand that have never seen light of day. I have been able to re-use them as concepts for other projects and in some cases they’ve been successful, by going down this route your not selling your work on for buttons and hence devaluing it.. but your still recouping some money for the time spend doing the concepts!

Good article! Anyone else notice in the picture it’s canadian money? Yay loonies! Lol

This is exactly what I plan to do – offer standard (but somewhat customizable) software on my site.

Most of my clients ask for the same kinds of systems: CRM, Time Sheets/Payroll, and Inventory Management. I’ve created these systems time and time again, and have a pretty good idea on how to create a standard template.

Might as well make a few extra bucks if someone just needs something bare-bones. And if they need a little customization then all the better for me! $$

Good post and tips

A great idea and one that I’ve begun implementing myself in the past week (on Graphic River). For a while now photographers, flash devs, even coders have had a marketplace to sell stock graphics democratically… now, with Graphic River (in addition to a wide variety of other stock marketplaces) with a little time and effort put into polishing a piece of design, it isn’t that hard to turn it into a few extra bucks of passive income every month.

My question: does the passive income (over time) actually match up with the time spent polishing, publishing, and promoting those stock resources?

MakeDesign,NotWar

@MakeDesign,NotWar: We have several users on FlashDen who make a very impressive living purely from that one website.

Sorry for a second post, but I wanted to add that a better use for unused logo concepts is to refurbish the logo or apply the unused idea to other projects. If you design 10 logos for lets say a home builder and he chooses one you can use the unused ideas towards the logo for another home builder that comes to you. That’s what I do. Your not going to present the exact logo to the second client because the original client might have a problem with that but you can take the concepts and run with it.

For some people and organizations the only way to grow is to experience success and failure. Once they’ve experienced the pain of a bad logo/design and seen the pleasure in others of a good logo/design, they’ll understand it’s value and invest accordingly.

There’s always going to be people who value good design and quality, and people who won’t. So I don’t like to hold grudges against the people who can help others take a positive step, no matter how small (from nothing to something deemed crappy by the design community). It’s not damaging anyone who actually knows what they’re doing.

I know people who pay a grip of cash for ramen-style noodles! Because they’re that much better than what you can buy at the store for a dime…

Great idea!
I just have a problem with believing that I could sell my logos – (just like that)
I had hoped, that You knew of a site, where one could upload the logos, and sell then through that site… I’m not sure I’ll get enough traffic to sell mine…

But nice idea.. Perhaps I could start a site with this in mind for a comunity..

Nice job! Great to have an informative, supportive site like this one for all of us free spirits.

I think it was a great post.

Eddie, there are always going to be people who, to be quite frank, will appreciate your amazing designs, but can’t afford them. If they want to take design decisions into their own hands with a little bit of professional help that should be there choice.

I found a great postings with listing of where you can sell here: http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/make-money/selling-images/

Also another wonderful option is to utilize a service like Incspring.com to sell your unused logos. This is a service uniquely (and actively) marketed to startups and entrepreneurs who would love to purchase and use your ‘shelved’ logos. To me thats the way to go- no setup on your end and their cut is moderate. I haven’t sold anything on there yet but have colleagues who do very well. Talk to @weswilson for more info on Twitter.

Out of curiosity, why is the “choose a pricing model,” and “choose this or that” always a mystery? Why is it that the advertising community simply will not help, nor will it share, what the “pricing models” are? Why is it that “creative” in a small agency is worth, oh, perhaps $4000 but “creative” from a freelance is worth “whatever is the going rate in Sri Lanki?” How about sharing what the “pricing Model,” for say, the logo is for exclusive: $1,000? $5,000? $25,000? Or, whatever someone is willing to pay?

I agree with this cheapening the design industry overall, by changing developing a unique identity to help separate a person’s business from the competition to just buying any old logo. If somebody did decide that they found the right venue and the design wouldn’t compete with the original client’s identity. Example : 5 initial designs were created ranging from A to Z, they choose Z, then perhaps A could be finalized for a stock logo for Passive Income. Also selling non-exclusive logo might be a bad idea from the ground up. Get more money for a finished logo. An idea for generating extra income might be from selling stock logo elements to other designers for use in a logo or design. Ex: swirls, gradients, complex shapes or parts of designs. Often if I’m mocking up some logo design concepts, I will check iStockPhoto.com for a shield, paper scroll, ivy. Overall developing passive income strategies should be viewed as a critical component to help with savings, equipment purchases and getting by check to check.

Besides logo, articles can be recycled too – the unused articles for example can be sold off to make some money..

I’m a graphic designer based in rural Ireland [Europe]. Particularly since the New Year (2009) I have received a number of queries to collaborate with Asian companies (I think, they hope I’ll agent for them). Rather insulting really. One Indian company has approached me 3 times via an old and a younger email address’, they have called me on the phone twice. The last guy was so confident, he had sold me the product, I hadn’t a clue what he was selling. I questioned him and he suggested he’d email details, he repeated an old email address to me. In any case the result was his forwarding me his companies promotion including an Excel doc breakdown of web-design prices and related products. The Logo price : Logo (One concept with 3 variations) € 83.00. From reading the rest of the document it is a stock solution. They proudly announce any ‘Be Spoke’ elements of their web design where applicable.

Earlier that month I’d come across some local graphic design price testing that showed that some local designers were charging prices of €150, €280, €400 to €1000, €1600, all + vat @ 21% for logo design. Some of these designers have been in the business a long time, 10 years and then some or more.

Might one consider the lower priced logo providers are buying stock logos and selling them on with a mark up. Certainly they are not charging for the 120 hrs plus a logo can take to create & develop e.g. -[ consult, research, thumbnail, present concepts, discuss, develop designs, tweak, present, design tweak, prepare for intended destination etc.]. These designers are not covering their costs otherwise.

A good logo is unique to the business, agency, individual or entity it represents. It reflects the products, quality ethos and goals of the people, business it promotes. I note most of Freelance Switch readers, naturally, are American & I’ve read articles on Freelance Switch and else where that allude to the influx of cheap design solutions being bought over seas. In some cases highlighting the backlash from your domestic market when customers have discovered that local designers are buying design and selling it on.

Mr McConnell’s article has an air of ‘if you can’t beat em join em?’

How does a designer really compete with that in a climate where:
a website is not the first point of contact, but used as a second or third point of reference or reminder.
persistent traditional marketing is slow to yield results. It can take years, usually 6+ months.
Cold calling is a major No, No, it does not work over the phone nor in person.
That leaves word of mouth, friend of a friend and relatives of relatives. (yes! referrals are always best)

Does anyone know of a survey/ blog/ that might show how many people actually look for Irish designers on line or how many Irish designers receive work through their websites or even the same for European designers?

Hi, why do you have to get the client’s consent to sell “your” un-used logos? Can’t you just change the title of the design and place Your Company Here?