Playkill

This is bullshit. I hate when big companies (or anyone company) short change designers like this.

From Hydro74's Blog.

This past SEMA I had, which at the time seemed like a amazing opportunity to work for Mishimoto to do a full drawing on two sides of a car as well as a hood in a 4 day span. I was extremely excited for the opportunity to see how I could accomplish this as well as this was something different than my usual fair of digital mouse clicking. SEMA is a famed trade show in the automotive industry with different companies pushing new ideas to those that are true automotive enthusiasts.

Month before the event and working with a marketing company everything was in order to be at one of the biggest booths with plenty of space as well as plenty of support to take on this endeavor that needed to be done within 4 days. Obviously this was no small task and any and all support would of been needed as well as being involved with one of the largest vendors at SEMA with amazing foot traffic.

A week before the event in a frenzy, everything that was planned was destroyed by the owner of Mishimoto since at the last moment they decided to get a booth dedicated to their brand, and the drawing, meaning it would just be me and my team working along with Mishimoto branding. Totally understandable, but since this changed the dynamic and trust, Mishimoto would now have to fund my efforts directly and everything just seemed sketchy days before the event. They could not afford my core price of $5000 and with only week before the actual event they offered $1000 + expenses (taxis, food costs, etc) which we agreed upon since I was looking forward more to the opportunity to work on this project more so than actual costs. In the end, I just wanted my basics covered and to have funds to pay Zombie Yeti for his time to assist me on this endeavor.

Sadly, the 4 days working with Mishimoto was hell.
From the first moment we started to the last moment when we finished up we had no respect given and any verbal agreement to assist in our efforts were ignored. Even the simple fact of asking for a small chair to sit and work on lower details was ignored. When both Zombie Yeti & I approached this, we set day specific goals on what we wanted to accomplish which on each day we met those goals and called it day. During our drawing, we would have Mishimoto employees open doors on us while we drawing it on, shake the car pretty hard to take off the hood so some SEMA celeb could sign it. Everything became awkward quite fast and our frustrations working with them grew and grew as time progressed. Simple things of being bossed around or being told ‘how’ to do things made it mind numbing to say the least. However Zombie Yeti and I held our heads up high and did our best with what we were working with.

With 2 days left, the right side of the car needed to be done, but there was no space. I asked the owner of Mishimoto if they were planning on flipping the car as discussed when we first stenciled it prior the opening of SEMA. Our only other option was to spend the next two days fine tuning the left side and hood and do a vinyl wrap in the end, or flipping the car so we can work and wouldn’t be hidden between booths. Really the core reason why we were there was to let passer goers of SEMA see us draw thus getting them to talk with Mishimoto and about their products. The car was not flipped and they still expected us to finish that side. Both Zombie Yeti & I decided that we wanted to finish the car proper and started. Imagine trying to draw in 3foot of space for two days. Quite the task, but we couldn’t stand back and proof our work. After the event, I Invoiced Mishimoto and shortly got a message back that he was instructed by the owner to not to pay me. The first reasons were rhetoric and subjective immaturity thus promoting the annoyance that is Mishimoto:

• “1-2 hours late every day”
• “you didn’t even have the common courtesy to say goodbye ”
• “I had to pay another artist to finish the design and then erase all of original marks left from your carbon stencil”

This was absurd reasons. 1. The ‘late’ aspect was because Zombie Yeti & I would have a meeting at the hotel about how to figure out solutions and set the daily goals. 2. Saying goodbye? Really? 3. Paying another artist? Why? We (Zombie yeti & I) agreed that the carbon details (pencil lines) defined the piece and added authenticity as well as if we tried to erase them cleanly, the Krink markers would smear. That was our decision as artist and the given timeframe was the best choice.

So in the end. This is my story of the events. Mishimoto already threaten to sue me if I release my accounts of SEMA, but I say FUCK EM. When you refuse to pay me for my time and try to hush me be threatening me that you’ll sue, I say bring it. I am tired of companies taking advantage of designers and illustrators because they have money to sue you, but don’t have the money to pay you as the owner of Mishimoto stated in our emails: “’skimpy expenses’ you feel you are owed” At the end, it’s just $1250. That is it. Quite sad isn’t it.