Don't let your experience with this one company demotivate you. You had what they wanted (they sought you out, not the other way around), and were willing to w

Don't let your experience with this one company demotivate you. You had what they wanted (they sought you out, not the other way around), and were willing to work with them on contractual terms. From the sound of it, you did things correctly. My main guess is they had a bad (very, very bad) experience with either a student [intern] or recent grad, and don't want to take the chance again. Second guess, they want to hire someone full-time, so there's no "work-for-hire" questions later on and no non-company distractions for deadlines. Now, what you've discovered out of this is your designs aren't just marketable--they sell themselves. 90% of the battle is getting your foot in the door. In this case, the potential customer walked in. That means others will too. This might be the time to start marketing yourself and your work a bit more.