It makes me very sad to leave this review.
But it is time to tell the truth. It is also time for me to give up on PeoplePerHour. This experience will mark my last transaction with PPH.

I made it clear that I needed quality, something that looked professional and refined. I made it clear the timescales that were involved. It was very tight indeed. Initially I was promised an initial draft by 10pm the day before my meeting. Then I was told by Dexter that he would be working all night and he would get something to me in the morning.

I wish that I would include screenprints here of what I was sent. I think 99% of random members of the public would agreed that it looked awful. I think that these days most 10 year olds could do better.

I wasn’t looking for anything really special. Just a bit professional looking.

The presentation that Dexter sent to me had turned everything into weird off centre squares including our logo, lots of the text was in shouty red capitals, images had been used that were totally blurred (I think he should have highlighted it if the images I provided were too low res), images were cut off in ways that clearly didn’t work at all, and the whole thing just looks incredibly untidy and inconsistent. On one slide where I had provided 18 former client logos, he included only 5 of them. Then when I said I wanted more / all of them.. he presented them in such an untidy fashion it was untrue! Honestly, you would have to see it to believe it.
I partly knew in advance that this would be the case, based on so many disappointments using PPH. I knew that, because it was so important and there was so little time, it was just bound to go badly wrong. I tried as hard as I could to avoid it, and to make everything crystal clear, but as I feared and suspected, the only way of me getting this presentation looking anywhere near presentable was to quickly learn some powerpoint skills myself (which is what I did).
I know that design is a subjective thing, and this is perhaps why some designers don’t bother trying. I think some of them feel that there is no point really trying because whatever they do will be overruled / overridden.
I’m also a bit sorry that Dexter is the final unfortunate designer on PPH who I am going to tell the simple truth about (as I see it). However, I think I paid good money, I think I was clear enough, and I really do not think that Dexter tried. Like I say, many children could have done a far better within a couple of hours.
On the plus side and being fair to Dexter. He did say that he would make any changes (although he was unavailable from 12 noon until my meeting which was at 2:30) and he seemed on face value / on the record to be willing to accommodate. I don’t know if this was just a case of playing the game to get paid, but this apparent willingness provided me with no real benefit. It was too inefficient to point out all the ways in which things clearly looked awful, and how to make them look less awful. I didn’t have the time to work with him to get it presentable between when I got the first version and Dexter’s 12 noon deadline. I knew that my only chance was to learn powerpoint in a hurry myself.

Also, he provided, in the end, 2 extra slides beyond the 15. The second two involved copying images from a pdf I provided. Perhaps 5 minutes more work. But I acknowledge that he did it.
So anyway, feeling like I have been punched in the face by PPH freelancers a million times, it is time to say enough.

P.J Dexter ..

1. I recommend prior to that no professional designer uses Powerpoint for incredible work, if he wanted slick work, my suggestion is and was InDesign with Photoshop. But he insisted Powerpoint.

2. I had the design to you 6 hours before your ridiculous deadline.

3. The blurred images were on you, as you provided them. You also wanted them as full background images, which would never work, hence I didn't even bother doing that, even at half the size they were blurred.

4. Some images were missing, again your fault, they were meant to be there and delayed things further.

5. Here's an idea, how about you don't leave important presentations to the very last minute and expect world class design and ignore my suggestions. This is a clear case of your frustration and stress being directed at me for your lack of last minute panic.