Effort is Never Wasted

One night I’m working at the studio and it’s about 9PM and I hear a knock on the door. A younger guy I’ve seen around so I have him come inside. He wanted to see if I could build a website for this non-profit he was working with, but his only job was to find a web designer. He didn’t have much details about the work they’d be doing, he just wanted me to get in touch with the group and join their meeting, and so I did.

The mission of this group was to record the stories told by people who have survived the Khmer Rouge and to create local cultural events revolving around their community. They would interview people and their families and archive their journey to America. Most of these stories are shared verbally and as time goes on, we end up losing them to history. What this group wanted to do was build a place where they could be stored and studied. A real noble cause.

As they were speaking I could already see the website in my head, and because I believed in their cause I ignored some of the red flags. Flag number one, they’re a very small and emerging non-profit without any real budget planned yet. Flag number two, they wanted it as soon as possible. Fast don’t come cheap, but because I had a pretty clear picture in my head, I agreed to make a demo.

My first mistake, I should have tried to express the vision better verbally and pointed them to our previous work before agreeing to build something. Mistake number two, equating their level of urgency to my level of urgency. I pretty much do what need to immediately. I believe in striking while the inspiration is hot, so I work like a madman for the next day and a half to build our a fully functional demo for them to try. Keep in mind, they wanted this whole project done in about 2-3 weeks. I spent the two days building the demo and then surprise, they take almost 2 weeks before even looking at it.

In the end, they liked the demo but we couldn’t reach a partnership. However, you creatives out there probably know what it’s like to have an idea in your head that you just gotta get out. It’s kinda like a this high you get. Once you start it just starts flowing and then all of a sudden, you’re done. It’s a feeling of accomplishment and relief at the same time. I love that feeling so this whole experience wasn’t a total waste of time. It’s just more practice and I at least have been able to try some new design ideas and I’ve got these sweet screenshots too.