Hi,
I am currently working for a surf and skate shop as an in house designer. They stand out on their own from the rest of the industry in the area (Im from Australia) and have a very strong community following from the 2000s. I recently got a freelance job opportunity to do some clothing designs for a different surf shop as a once off (for now). I this considered bad etiquette in the design world or would it be dumb to turn down a good opportunity like this? Unsure where I stand as my field of interest in design is surfwear.
Depends on what your current employment situation says about “moonlighting.”
If they want all of your design attention, they will probably not like it.
If they think it is a conflict of interest, they definitely won’t like it.
I’ve been in your position twice, and both times I decided to proceed, and both times it caused problems. I didn’t violate my contracts, and I didn’t get fired, but I got yelled at. My position was that I’m a freelancer, I can work with anyone I want. But clients may not see it that way.
As an in-house designer, I assume you’re an employee. As an employee, I wouldn’t want to jeopardize my full-time job for the sake of some freelance money. Even though your personal time is your own business, your employer might feel betrayed, which wouldn’t sit well in practical terms.
If you were a freelancer (aka a business owner), I would see it differently. Freelancers earn their living from having several clients. A relationship in which a client expects you to forgo a business opportunity for their sake is a client I wouldn’t want unless they agreed to triple or quadruple what they pay me to secure a more exclusive contract.
Being employed, even if there’s nothing about it in your contract, and even if your employer doesn’t mind you freelancing on the side, they will 100% NOT be happy with you doing work for a similar business/competitor. It’s a conflict of interest, steer clear.
If there are no legal reasons for you not to do the work (did you sign a no compete agreement?), you’ll have to weigh the pros and cons and decide for yourself.
For what it’s worth, I have passed on work like this before. I am self employed and do quite a bit of work for a CPG client. I was approached about what would have been a nice job (a logo, packaging, and a website) for a startup company. The startup was marketing a product that was not the same but very close to a product my current client sells. Technically, I could have taken on the startup, but I passed to maintain and above-the-board relation with a long-time, loyal client. I sleep quite well at night having passed on the work.
Just a few other thoughts if this were a freelancing question instead of an employee question…
When designers are in business for themselves, they often drift into a niche. Potential clients see the work the designers have done and then hire them to do similar kinds and styles of work for them.
For example, I once worked as a freelancer for a local design studio. The studio would accept most graphic design work. Over time, their business began designing more and more restaurant menus as a result of restaurant managers seeing their menus in other restaurants and wanting menus that were just as nice. Menus ended up being the majority of their work, and of course, every restaurant competes with the others, which form them, was always an issue.
Another example is my freelance work. For a couple of years, I was the design director of a start-up magazine focused on outdoor recreation. Outdoor recreation tourism is a significant draw in my state, and an entire industry has developed around it. When the magazine ceased operations, I worked as a freelancer for a time. About 75% of my projects came from outdoor recreation companies that had noticed my magazine work. When I found another full-time creative director job, I was immediately tasked with overseeing all outdoor recreation projects that the agency acquired.
In the movie business, actors call it typecasting. In my case, potential clients began seeing me as someone who designs aggressive, masculine, outdoor adventure products. Consequently, I rarely (as in almost never) received any work that required a softer look.
What I’m getting at is that when you’re freelancing or running an independent design studio, developing an unintended niche often occurs. You can either embrace it as a niche specialist or resist it and lose money. However, as @Steve_O mentioned, niche work comes with inherent conflicts of interest that need to be weighed one at a time. You don’t want to offend a good, long-term, well-paying client by taking one-off work for its direct competitor. It’s a balancing act that requires being upfront and transparent.