Holland Chapel

Holland Chapel was a past client engagement that ran on a graphic design subscription beginning June 2, 2023, then converted to a per-project rate at $150 per project starting late September 2023. My main contact was Pastor Grant Yazza. The engagement wound down through late 2023 as Grant transitioned into a new role at the church and the design pipeline slowed.

How we started

Grant and I had a phone call on June 2, 2023 to kick the engagement off. I sent the first invoice that same day for a "soft start" with the actual working start date set to the following Monday so we had a clean Monday-to-Monday cycle. My first month was paid by mailed check, which Grant's team handled well. I was recovering from a surgery the first week of the engagement, so the first real projects came in starting June 7, 2023 when I was back at work.

The early projects were typical small-church graphic needs: a Father's Day graphic, a Backyard Bible School series, a Celebrate Recovery banner that required rebuilding the logo from scratch because the original file had a clipping mask that would not print clean, a Blood Drive flyer, a 4th of July image, a Holland Chapel Serve campaign, a God's Design new series graphic for September, and a Wish List project in November.

The work

The subscription model worked well at the start. I would send Grant multiple options for each project and he would pick a direction in a single reply, usually fast. He was a clear communicator and good at sending the source files I needed.

One detail that recurred: a lot of our threads landed in his spam folder. Subject lines came back tagged "{Spam?}" repeatedly, and he had to dig threads out manually. We worked around it but it slowed some of the cycles.

In July 2023 Grant expanded the access on his end. He emailed me on July 17 saying "Wanted to ask a question about who all can contact you for graphics. We are about to add a part" of the team, and asked if other staff could send me requests. I confirmed yes, anyone from staff was welcome. That broadened the inbound for a few weeks.

A specific moment: the as-needed transition

In early September 2023 the project flow slowed. On September 6 I emailed Grant to check in on new projects, no rush. He replied the next day. His message, September 7, 2023, in his own words: "Hey Emily, I apologize for not reaching out to you over the past couple of weeks. It's been extremely busy and there have been a few role changes taking place, including mine transitioning to" a new role. He asked whether we could move from the monthly subscription to an as-needed basis.

I followed up to clarify what as-needed would look like. After a couple weeks of back-and-forth (some of which landed in his spam folder again), Grant confirmed on September 25: "To answer your question it would be on an as needed basis. We would pay you per project. At the end of the month we" would settle the invoice. We agreed to try it. I set the per-project rate at $150 for the Wish List project in November 2023, the last project I have in the archive from Holland Chapel.

That Wish List project closed out December 4, 2023 with Grant writing: "So sorry, Emily. This landed in my junk folder. We were able to move forward on the project of the ones you sent. No changes were needed to it." I sent the final invoice for $150 on December 5. The engagement effectively ended there.

In their words

Grant on the rebuilt Celebrate Recovery banner, July 17, 2023: "That looks perfect! Thank you so much!" On the simplified Backyard Bible School design, June 12, 2023: "Love the way you simplified it! I like the look of it." On the simplified design after edits: "That's perfect! It looks great. Thank you so much!"

Where things stand

Holland Chapel is a past client. The relationship ended cleanly through the as-needed transition in late 2023 as Grant moved into a new role. No domain or website was confirmed for this case study from the email archive. The engagement is a useful reference for how a subscription-to-per-project conversion can work without burning the relationship.

Note for Emily: this case study is built from email archives only. If you want to confirm the church domain, get final permission to publish, or pull a current verbatim endorsement from Grant, this is the one that needs a quick outreach pass before going live.