33
Vent: A client in Seattle wanted her new vinyl plank to match the 'energy' of her pet parrot
She brought the bird, a bright blue macaw named Mango, into the room and kept pointing at its feathers while I was laying out samples. I ended up mixing planks from three different boxes to get a color flow she said 'vibrated correctly'. How do you even quote for a job like that?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
miles_burns11d ago
Charge a creative fee on top of your normal rate, and make it clear from the start. You're not just installing floor, you're translating a vibe. Break down your quote into materials, labor, and then a separate line for design time. That way they see the cost of their special request. It sets a boundary so they know that kind of work has a real price.
8
Matching the "energy" of a parrot is wild. My buddy had a client who wanted a backsplash to "sing" like her wind chimes. He spent a whole day just moving tiles around before she heard the right note. Some jobs you just can't put a normal price on.
6
phoenixw1112d ago
Man, I read an article once about a designer who had to match paint to a client's favorite song. Not the album cover, the actual sound. They ended up mixing this wild purple-gray after playing the track on loop for hours. It makes the parrot thing seem almost normal. Some people just feel their space in a way that doesn't fit on a spec sheet. You gotta charge for the time your brain spends in their world, not just the materials.
5