Its been brought to my intention that general fans and customers may not know the difference between the slot commissions i offer on occassion, and what i refer to as 'regular' jobs. So lets start with their similarities shall we?
First off both are equally important. No importance is placed on one type more than the other. All jobs, whether a sale offer, a regular priced illustration or high end graphic design job is more important than the other. There is no set means of specials being more important than regulars in any grand way you may look at it.
That being said, there are two ways I contradict my own previous statement and two major ways slot commissions differ from regular commissions, design or illustration or otherwise. 1., slot commissions completions are more emphasized because they must be (to the best of my ability) completed on the days they are scheduled for. So in that respect, if say... your wife ends up in the hospital, or a member of the family dies and you have to jet town for a few days and i only have a small amount of time each day or late night to get a couple done, it will be slots. As they have a set deadline, and regular jobs, unless otherwise requested by the client, have no hard deadlines. However, on a professional level i always try to get them done in timely manner and as soon as I can. 2. If a client with a hard deadline comes through, and needs a rush order on something that he needs same week, and pays for the rush order, i will make that priority, and bump everything forward a bit to make room for the rush. This is standard business, happens everywhere, and if a client is willing to pay for a rush, i'm willing to potentialy piss off another customer or two to make it happen. This however, dose not interfere with slot commissions in most cases, as a rush order, is still (unless its something that requires like 12-24 hours straight work with nothing else being touched to make the deadline) seperate from the daily slots i offer.
Confused yet? Hope not cause thats about as broken down as I can make it. So in summary, my basic intended work schedule each week is 30-40 hours. Often times, when theres not major life crisis going on, this works out great, 9-5, or 8-6... whatever, no problem. A normal day would include finishing two regular orders, doing one proof and finishing two slot commissions. Lately, I've been lucky to get 6 hours a day in (i.e 10-4pm or 9-2 or 3pm). The foreseeable future at least all the way till November will most likely be the completion of two slot commissions a day, and finish one regular order a day. With a quick proof for warmup in the beginning or in the middle. Occassional priorities like when a client specificaly requests a piece, and its not interupting the 3-4 week turnaround but it needs done by a certain date for a birthday or event what have you, i'll make sure those get done sooner than others who may not have a time-sensitive deadline, but they all get done. I dont leave any hanging. Stick with me and I'll do some awesome art for you. I always put the same technique and quality into every piece, and if it takes me longer than expected to get it done right I'll do that. I don't care if it pushes all orders back a day. If I'm having an off day and trouble drawing, I'll keep chiseling away till i get it right. Count on it.
Thanks for your patience, and hopefuly some point in the future I'll be back in 'machine mode' crankin them out even higher quality and faster turnarounds, but for now... wife and life come first. Or I'd like it to but balance is a bitch. Gotta keep working to fund the medical situations and gotta tend to the medical situations without neglecting my business too long.
Fun fun! But I hope somebody read this book of a blog entry and learned something. Thats basicaly how EWG is operating right now. Thanks for your support!