Monday, July 21, 2008

Work for Trade

Recently I was given an opportunity to do a piece as a 'work for trade'. I personally find this situation awkward since I don't want either party to feel short changed (especially me) and creating a piece without direction, hoping they will feel it's value in the end, is exhausting. Fortunately, the receiver of my work loved it.
I had been working in a series using the same photo (above) lately and thought it could be interesting to use it in this situation. The only direction I was given was to use the logo colors of black/white/sky blue.
Blue isn't really a color I quickly associate with the sun but as you will see, it really looks cool (pun intended) :)


In this 'work for trade' all worked out well but I don't know how quickly I would do it again without some sort of contract in place.
On to my next project....


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I barter often, and personally it works for me. Example: I traded an moderate sized and very colorful painted sun face (for use on the exterior of a building or in a garden) to an ISP in Canada for my website hosting, lifetime hosting that is. The ISP owner loved my suns and couldn't afford to buy one, and the lifetime free hosting netted me more value for the piece I gave her than I could have gotten if sold for cash and taxed to death on it.
Would it have been woirth it to me for less hosting? You betcha... I sold 7 more sun faces for cash when her neighbors saw hers. It is on her office, on a busy street in Vancouver BC, and she has people ask for my info all the time. Just like any advertising, sometimes operating outside the box pays off.

Paula, the quilter said...

I have bartered a custom-made bed quilt for a bronze dragon. I collect dragons and when I saw this one I approached the artist and we worked out this deal. He wanted a quilt and I wanted the dragon. I am a personal assistant to another bronze sculptor so I do know the value and cost to make the bronze piece and the value and cost to make a bed quilt. It all worked out fine! I am now the proud owner of a small bronze dragon statue that I could not have afforded any other way.

Robin said...

I am doing Throwback Thursday with blog posts and I am enjoying coming back and rereading old comments.
Thank you both for your positive feedback.
R