This was really really exciting to get, predominantly because it was from the other side of the world. I initiated some small-talk but kept it on topic before explaining my current work situation, questions I had and my rates.
This usually immediately weeds out potential clients and time-wasters expecting free/low-paid work because of my studying position. I was very pleased to see this wasn't a price bracket that put Christina off and immediately motivated and interested me a lot more in finding out exactly what Christina was looking for.
I highlighted that time-taking is completely reflected on the client in regards to what she wanted out of me, as inevery situation, it is possible to create a concept/logo in a day, but thorns' doubt it won't be nearly as well thought out or executed as one that took a week to develop.
We ended our discussion by clearing up our next stages together and expressing our excitement in the project.
When I received a reply from Christina, I was very pleased at both the direction she was heading and the efforts of clarity she went through to make it as easy as possible to distinguish, it was very obvious that Christina had worked with a graphic designer before which settled my thoughts a lot when she confirmed it. So far the apparent outcomes of this brief would be a main logo, a monogram and some business cards. I began thinking about the difficulties of sourcing a high quality printer in a different continent but felt excited about the challenge.
In my reply I wanted to be sure Christina understood I was clear with everything that she wanted from me and that I was enthusiastic about creating something amazing with her at the same time as dropping the 'contract' bomb that both protects myself and her in regards to copyrights and payment.
The response to this was as good as everything else. Christina was going to be busy on a shoot over the weekend and even though she said that she'd be back in touch on Monday, having a friend in photography has shown me that everything tends to take 5 x longer than expected a lot of the time.
It took a bit longer than Monday to get back in touch but like I said above, it wasn't far off expected in this line of work. I let her know that if one of my other jobs would be finished the next day then I would be ready to start on her project on the following Monday.
This is where the difficulties began however due to ease of payment. From Christina's research the easiest way would be to mail a cheque over, however I found that in paypal's terms, you can send money to a friend/family internationally for only 0.5% ($1.49).
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