'Long-lost friend' appears in designer's life via text, asks for free artwork

'Just because free you cannot do right?'

Mandy How | April 17, 2018, 01:07 PM

When a random acquaintance gets in touch after years of not speaking, one can only assume one thing: that person is selling insurance plans.

But for Malaysian graphic designer SueKhay Wan, it's even worse — the random acquaintance who contacted her is not trying to sell her something, but instead, trying to get her to do work for free.

This, of course, means Wan will have to expend time and energy to get absolutely nothing in return. Nothing but exposure — and maybe not even that.

Here's Wan post's detailing the WhatsApp conversation between her and said Random Acquaintance (RA):

In case you can't see:

And here are the screenshots of the conversation, which started on friendly-enough tones (except for the fact that she got Wan's name wrong. Also as we mentioned, messages that start with "do u remember me" should always be regarded with great suspicion):

"Just wanted to ask how are u now."

via GifImage.net

RA then goes on, even more suspiciously, to enquire about Wan's job, and then goes right in for the kill:

And here comes the whopper (and yes, we love how she asked how much the designer charges for her work before proceeding to this next part of the conversation):

At this point we are just amazed that Wan remained polite.

The best part is, the unabashed RA even had the cheek to admit that she had already told her mother (whose new business the logo will be for) that she has a friend (Wan) who can do design:

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She was even rude to Wan about her refusal:

A quick search on Google shows that getting a logo design in Malaysia can cost anywhere from a few hundred ringgit to above RM2,000, depending on the number of concepts and changes provided.

Getting the same job done in Singapore will cost anywhere from tens of dollars to a few hundred dollars.

A common trend

Sadly, it's a common trend where individuals — and even event organisers — try to get artists to contribute for free.

Here are a few instances that occurred in Singapore:

What currency is exposure again??

Top image from SueKhay Wan's Facebook post