The problem with the graphic design business

The problem with the graphic design business is people offering 'cheap' design services! Yes its a global economy and all that but offering logo design for $5? $1? Is there any point?
It makes me really pissed off as a designer to see such services, because I value my work, my time and my effort.
These 'services' are really bringing down the whole graphic design market. Its no wonder that webmasters feel nowadays that $25 is a reasonable rate for a logo! Design is more than folling around with some fonts and some stock graphics, it requires some inspiration and a creative spark, which is difficult to pin a price on.

Sorry was just in a bad mood!!

 

I totally agree... People just post whatever they make, for the lowest of prices and no-one buys yours because it's too expensive...

For me. Once i set a price i don't change the price... Someone will eventually buy it!

 

welcome to digital point? it's about quality. people will pay more for quality work. let them pay $5 for a website. they're getting some kid who is just starting out in the business doing their design. if they want something done right, they will come to you provided that you can prove that you are better than the others. i'm a fairly expensive designer so i don't pick up a lot of work from here (digital point) but i do stay really busy with client work. why? because i'm good at what i do and people know that. so they're willing to pay my rates even when timmy on digital point will do the same thing for a mere $5. it's called business. you have competition. do something that seperates you from the rest.

 

Your industry is suffering from commoditization as threat of new entrants is very high. However if you are way better than the cheap offerings you can still do well I think.

 

Yeah I know thats how business is but still had to rant. Thank God real talent is hard to find!

 

if your designs are good and your a good designer your rate will be high then if your design are rubbish and sell at $5

 

Actually, this thread I started back in April (along the lines of this one) turned out to be pretty good with some great additions to it from other members about the progressively decreasing design industry. Worth a peek-a-boo http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=815136

I have to agree about pricing, as others said as well, you get what you pay for 9 times out of 10.

 

I think every designer who is not offerign his skills for this price will agree.

For me some time it'S kinda frustrating to see the prices that are normal for a webdesign here on dp most times. when I first came across sellign webdesigns on german board everybody charged at least 40€for the design here on dp you'll find designs including code for 25$ .....

it's not easy to get used to it but I think everybody should think about the prices he'S charging and maybe raise them. You as the *Artist* should be able to make some money out of you're skills and not give them away for free.

 

I agree with you totaly
but designers like me
who dont get no work.
will do those kinds of things just like i have posted on this Graphics & Multimeida section.

i work hard but no use. may be its my luck thats very bad.

 

tell me any prob with graphic designing i am 10 year old in this line

 

It's not just inspiration and creative spark either, it's having a solid under-pinning knowledge of the marketing and business aspects that go along with design, as well as the ability to recognise market trends and user needs.

The people working for fuck all on here are being hired by the people who'll never pay more than fuck all anyway, so it doesn't affect the industry *that* much, and 99% of the so called graphic design professionals on here will be working with a hacked copy of Photoshop and without any prior design training or education.

An easy way to spot a true professional is ask them what books they have on the matter. Real professionals in any line of work have books to constantly refer too and draw insiration from, and no, the eBook your $5 "professional" downloaded off rapidshare last night does not count.

 

While I tend to agree that a high majority may look at others work & become inspired, However I disagree that EVERY "True Professional" duplicates other designers work due to inspiration. I would have to say that the designers that created the Unique & Original work that's inspiring others looking at it are the True professionals.

Though, even the best of the best come & go in spirts, just like contestants in the Olympics, One year they have the gold & champion of the world & the next year they don't place at all & someone else has the gold. The Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder when it comes to art / design. I've seen some fantastic work that others don't like at all & vise versa.

Not to mention that the first designer that inspired the others sometimes starts a Trend & everyone follows. "Grung" is a rather popular style these days, I wonder who the Very first designer was to implement Grung & make the name known everywhere? I'm sure you get my point.

I've only been in the digital graphics arena (2D Vector design) 3 years now & i'm nothing remotely close to a professional or a guru in my own eyes. Even once I hit my 20th year I wouldn't call myself professional, I've always seen the word professional as a term used by others to categorize someone else, not them self. I mean, The referral from someone calling another a professional has always held more weight in my book than someone calling them self professional. I think the market being saturated with a bunch of self proclaimed guru's / professionals may have altered the potency of the word.

Just thought I would add my 2 cents again.

 

most of the logo design services on here are worth just that, 70% of the stuff i see is either google images, istockphoto images (and a photo cannot be a logo) or they are rips of other logos, or they have downloaded some vectors from somewhere, something like ZZVE and then just stuck it in and edited a few bits and hope no one notices it, logo design is what i would consider the hardest design as it is what the business is based on and is also what the website is based around, for example if you have a scruffy logo, you cant really have a great looking website and have them matching its impossible, you have to start with a great logo and a great logo will cost you, well you know what they say, you get what you pay for.

 

i agree with you but we all hv to set standard for this.

 

well we all gotta start somewhere, and if it makes us $20 while we're learning our way. why the hell not...

 

I find that if you have a good portfolio and your prices are high then you will get better clients who understand the importance of you get what you pay for. You don't want business from cheap clients they are always difficult to work with keep your prices high and be able to prove that you know what you are doing and the good jobs will come in.

 

other reason is some newbie found out that other people are earning by making graphic designs. So even though they are not really good at this field they try to practice for a day and start doing thread and ask for $1-$5 for there service.

And i guess even if we fix the price on our rate in here, they dont care about it.

 

But if you're sat at home on a cracked version of Photoshop teaching yourself by working for fuck all, how do you know you're progressing?

Sure, after a year of so you'll be fantastic at using Photoshop, but probably no better at design without much formal training, and still be stuck doing the same $20 logos you have been for ages.

Design isn't just about having the right software and some creativity, to be good at this job, your marketing, business and communication skills have to be refined and improved too. If you want to be purely creative, produce Art.

One of the best things I've done is actually study Product Design - everything was a lot stricter and ideas required reason and explanation, and it helped me learn how to build accurate specifications and work to them from a clients needs. In turn, it helped me work on my graphic and web design faster as I was understanding people better and not having to make as many revisions.

 

okay so, I play D3-D2 paintball and i figure that if i make 2 $20 logos thats $40 and thats a case of paint so what do I care, im 17 and im still in school im going to college for design and what not so im not gonna be stuck with that forever. i just do them on my free time =)

 

we had a big thread on this a while ago lol

As a designer, yeah I wish we got paid more, but you can't blame them for wanting to get their logos for cheap.

The thing is, there's too many designers here, so even the $20 ones there's a bunch of competition.