if a designer tells you 24 hours for a design
 

how long would you expect the work to take until its completed

3 hours - as I expect it'll be some kind of modified template

24 hours.
Unless of course they meant 24 hours until you see what they think is best and then you desire revisions.

Though personally I always give myself an extra amount of time for assorted mishaps since murphys law rather often enjoys the fuck with me and thus my luck would be that my ISP went down for a few hours or a fan in my PC would fry and the stores would be out of the model I need.

when i tell a client 24 hours that means the job will be done for his inspection within 24 hours. Then they can make any changes that need to be made

My ISP does that to me too often, about twice a month they shut me down right at midnight... just like last night... it makes me mad, and they say its not showing up there....yet it seems scheduled...I think they are just trying to cover up some sort of "maintenance" issue they have

Thats the right answer....design nearly always takes over the time the "client" thinks initially..

so many clients dont have a vision, and dont expect revisions.

Sometimes I like that...sometimes I like an anal client that wants it a certain way....all depends on the time of day I guess....

I always say 2-3 days. that way if something blows up I have time to work around it and still deliver on time. Most of the time it's less than that but I'd rather deliver early than late

a designer off GFY? Probably about 2-3 weeks.. and that's only if you start a couple of drama threads on GFY.

than it should be 24 hours for a design! DUH

My guy usually has it done in 12 and then changes are done on the fly when I review it. Never more than 24 hours.

thats certainly what its looking like so far and it even seems like my instant messages are being ignored now too

i will probably find out the guys wife dog or goldfish died which would explain why 24 hours has turned in to almost 7 days