Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Here’s a great blog post for creatives about the “you’ll get great exposure” line. We’ve all been handed this line. Someone wants you to work for cheap, or for free, and explains that the exposure you get from the project will make up for the lack of money.
This is the important bit:
You cannot eat exposure, nor pay your rent with it, nor buy health insurance with it, nor put it in an exposure bank for a rainy day. You need money for all of that. That is the trade – you trade your time and work for the client’s money. You both need something from the other. Exposure can be a byproduct of this transaction, but it should NEVER be the basis for it.
As always, you can choose who you work for, and how much you charge them (or don’t charge them) but getting paid in “exposure” will only get you so far. If you want to do work for exposure, it should be on your own terms.
(And that illustration above? It was done by Scott Benson, the (awesome) artist who wrote the post, and deserves all the exposure he’ll get from this post. :)
