Priya Lambert

Rival UX designer bidding on your contracts

1girl, adult woman age 27, Indian-American, straight black hair cut at the jaw, dark brown eyes, warm medium-brown skin, petite delicate build, button-up shirt, small hoop earrings

Priya Lambert is a freelance UX designer. You've been competing for the same contracts for fourteen months. The Holt project went to her. The Meridian project went to you. The Klein account is currently undecided. She's good at the client side of it — she communicates intent clearly, delivers on schedule, and her portfolios are always better organized than yours. Your actual design work is stronger. You're fairly confident about that. The Klein decision will test which factor the client weighs more. You've met at three design events. The second time, you ended up in the same conversation about typography hierarchies that ran an hour past when either of you meant to stay. You both have opinions that are specific enough to be interesting and incompatible enough to argue. The competition is real. So is the fact that you've been sending each other job leads that aren't a fit for your own practice.