The art of price - On three categories

Hearing freelancers talk about price has made me think about it, giving my own thoughts about it. I'm a amateur right now,  This is all a fun hobby right now. ( Will consider moving towards a creative professional once financially security erodes away. ) Not had his lucky break, yet.

Seth talks about it directly within his chapter This is Marketing, the graph comes from the book The practice. Three categories, the amateur, the creative professional and the hack. Those two books are recommended for the necessary reading.

Seth also has a blog post about working for free.

A graph from the book, the practice.

He covers price specifically in his podcast of the first question in regard to the Overton window, his episode on paying the writer, and his episode on freelancers.

He's also done a blog post on should you work for free, which he covers here.

So he covers three categories, The Amateur, the Creative Professional and the Hack.

• Firstly, the Hack. The world needs hacks, It's serviceable (if you want x, here's x.) The cover band is a perfect example of hack work, and I've done covers of myself with fan art and other stuff. The problem arises when we confuse hack work with what the professional and amateur does. There is also a question of morality, such as being a hired thug.
  
  Fan art and cover songs are relying on something that has'nt failed. Creativity must involve risk-taking.

We need hack carers, hack coffee baristas and hack undertakers, there service is priceless.

Although I'd be kidding if I'm not worried about becoming one, it's what makes McMansions, The clients that are pushing for mediocre work are responsible for this too. Stuff for a wandering generality. Stuff that may make the believer's of "Art for art's sake" throw up in their mouths a little.

This freelancer door is open to me whenever. I may have to flirt with hack territory once I've standardized my thought processes and play cover's of myself, just going to be have to be aware of it.

• Second, The amateur works for himself first and foremost, their work may not resonate with their audience, and they may not get paid. But there can be a sort of nobility to that. An example is Vincent van Gogh. Was not paid but still made a difference. Bless his soul.

• Third, the Creative Professional. This will be people like Chip Kidd. They've transcended what a service is and delight their clients, being remarkable. Their projects are an extension of their clients, which are better. I respect Creative Professionals, because price can form boundaries with social media. They've handled the work to be for a meaningful specific (Wandering generality to a meaningful specific, as Zig Ziglar used to say.) These solve interesting problems as well as the amateur.

Regardless, they must own the profession and role.

Wow, I'm quoting Seth so much, This is becoming a fan blog.