I have been working pro-bono for one site for more than 10 years. It’s how I got my start on my portfolio and in honing my design skills to begin with.
For the past year I’ve been working on the next revision of the website, not the design but all the back end work from research to making sure it covers exactly what the site needed. I had a unique perspective as I was a user of the site as well.
A month or so ago I stepped away from the site for personal reasons but I was going to finish what I started. Today I was informed on all the stuff they want to do differently that I wasn’t being a part of the discussion, so instead of wait for them to finalize this I’m going to have to walk away.
I have nothing to show in my portfolio for the past year of work I’ve done, and it’s looking like it’s going to be yet another year for things to be done with something to show clients that I did or had done. I can’t spend that much time not getting paid, not right now, not with things piling up on me.
So today I stepped away from 11 years of my life and 11 years of my design work “inspiration”. Hopefully when the site owner calls for a site re-design that is paid I might step back into that world again, but for now I must walk away, too much time already wasted.
Good for you. Those of us who have free-lanced for years have learned that money talks. Latina Mag gave me an assignment for which they never paid. One day I passed their building. I went in and said either come up with the money or I am walkign with a computer. Feel free to call the cops…I can do my own press release. They paid me out of petty cash. Be strong….Ricardo…Seatrades on Twitter