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Marcus, I think you move ahead with your other projects and put this guy on the back burner until you've got a signed contract! ... and you let him know that that's what you intend to do.
You are a professional and deserve/should expect to be treated as such... I think if you do meet with this fellow and still no contract, or if it gets rescheduled yet again, it'd be perfectly appropriate to let him know that you've got other priorities that you're juggling and that you will not be able to hold a place for him among those priorities until you've got a signed contract. If he's asking you to do work (the design etc.) that falls after the contract in your normal procedure, refuse to invest the time without the contract. Either he'll ante up and sign the contract, or he will decide it's not what he wants to do. If it's the latter, you're probably better off finding that out sooner than later, and probably better off without his business anyway. Just my opinion.
I've got a (potential) client right now who was originally scheduled for a photo shoot in early January, but then decided she wants an outdoor portrait and the winter here's been horendous, so we are holding off until the nicer weather of spring. (Which still looks several weeks off) In the meantime, I'm going ahead with other projects and this one will have a place in my painting schedule only once the contract is signed. The client-to-be is fully aware of that. When the weather is appropriate, we'll reschedule the photo shoot (at which time the contract will be signed)... Did I wonder if she'd changed her mind and might not go through with the portrait when she decided she wanted it outdoors rather than in and asked to be rescheduled? -- Sure. But I haven't invested anything other than a couple of emails and a phone conversation in this potential project, haven't upset anything else that I'm working on... other than to bump them forward a slot... and if it doesn't happen -- no harm, no foul.
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