Unprofessional - Contract Illustrator ELM Learning Employee Review

1.0
Sep 17, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

They're prompt at responding when they need you, and pretty open about how you go about styling and formatting what you send over. They didn't specify that I had to use a specific program to do the designing in. They give you time, but they don't mention exact start dates. Although, they did not respond back to me about job possibilities, about six months later, which is fine, but may be a con?

Cons

If you're going to be contracted as a freelance artist or designer here. Just don't. They're shady. I was told I would get paid for a background design, low behold, it's been days since I last heard from them, about two weeks. I gave a quick little email back asking about progress and time, but haven't heard anything back. If it was going to take time for their client to respond back about the project, the least that the producer should do is tell me, "Well, we haven't heard back from the client yet, so we can't tell you what scheduling will be like." Or even, "The client has decided to go in another route, so we'll be moving on with another designer." Instead of making me wait days without a response. That is very unprofessional if you are contacting a freelancer who has all ready just sent in art samples and expecting a reply back. Also, totally did not get paid for my background I sent in (that was promised). Did I just do spec work and not realize? I was waiting for the contract to be discussed right afterward, but it never got to that point.... So I guess don't expect great pay or any pay? Note to self, always initiate a contract before doing *any* work. Lesson learned. Shady, so so shady. Make sure to watermark all your pieces you submit if you do decide to give them a shot. But it won't matter because they make you sign an NDA because of the type of jobs and clients they work with, will not allow you to put it into your portfolio. Talk about a killjoy for designers.

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ELM Learning Response
9y
We'd like to start by offering an apology for delayed follow-up. Working with so many clients, we get very busy at time, and if there was a delay in communication then we definitely apologize for that. Our work is custom, so timelines are constantly shifting around, and sometimes it is difficult to pinpoint the start of a project. We have been implementing new processes this year for better contractor communications to address these situations. Our company makes it priority to treat our artists right, as many of our staff were once freelance artists, so we actually pay very quickly compared to most companies out there. If you feel you were not compensated fairly please submit (or re-submit) you invoice so we can take a look. We also understand that artists want to show off their work and that their portfolio is their resume, however since our projects are for internal training purposes information is often sensitive and proprietary, so we do ask our artists now to share this work publicly to adhere to our client's guidelines and agreements.

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