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....