Hi All,

This is reposted from another thread, so if you have already read it I appologize.

It seems as though these boards have become ineeddesignerswhowillworkfornexttonothingforums.com, Granted, not every designer who frequents these boards is god's greatest gift to new media, but we are almost all professionals with solid knowledge of covetted skills and should therefor be treated as such. I think I speak for many of us when I say that we are past the "design for free to fill out our portfolio" phase. Most of us are designing as a primary or secondary source of income.

So to all of those out there posting job ops that sound something along the lines of "DESIGNER WANTED, WE NEED ENTIRE SITE WITH FLASH INTRO - PREPARED TO OFFER $100 IF DESIGN IS GOOD!", please understand something. We are for the most part, trained, qualified, and I'd like to think relatively skilled professionals. "$100 if the design is good"??!?! When I see that I feel insulted. Granted, times are hard right now, but expecting us to produce quality work for peanuts doesn't help anyone. Especially your own business' reputation. I personally don't have much interest in becoming a "partner" or "affiliate" of any business that can't afford to reasonably pay a decent designer.

No personal offense intended to anyone, I'll repost this as a new topic, I just have noticed a growing trend of people expecting designers to promptly produce, high-quality products for almost criminally low rates and felt the need to point it out and maybe enlighten the culprits.

Regards,
-Andrei Zimiles
Azaloth Productions

I agree with you mostly, however there are quite a few designers that bring this on themselves. It's no different than the problems in hosting right now. There are several people who offer their services for next to nothing. Granted, most of them are not worth much more than they offer, but to the person looking for service, they figure "if bob offers this for $x so will everyone else".

I'm sorry but a quality web site design should cost a lot more than $50! It's quite understandable to offer little templates for cheap, but not an actual design. It seems these days that if you can open up FrontPage, you are a qualified designer, and that's just plain sad.

The situation sucks, but what can you do? Until people stop filling the requests, people will continue to make them.

-Dan

Good points, Dan. I agree with you that there are many designers who offer their services for next to nothing (usually foreigners, younger kids, or untrained folks), but I have yet to see someone offering "ENTIRE SITE DESIGNED FOR 40 DOLLARS DONE IN 24 HOURS" or something of that nature who had even a modicum of training, ability, or aesthetic knowledge. Almost anyone with a pair of eyes knows blatant, glaringly horrible design when he/she sees it, and that's what one will get from a super-cheap designer.

My gripe is with people asking for "high-end" design work, requesting reputable designers to create flancy (sometimes even animated) templates and mock-ups for them, only to offer $200 or less for an entire site.

Again, there are plenty of great deals that come out of these forums, don't get me wrong, these boards have been a godsend for me and I've recieved a sizable influx in good business since I started posting here. I just want to let the people out there who are offering pathetic compensation of elite work know, that it's not cool, and let my fellow designers know that we shouldn't put up with it.

Regards,
-Andrei Zimiles
Azaloth Productions
http://www.azaloth.com

I completely agree.

-Dan

Greetings everyone!

Well, there it goes. There are really lots of great offers in this forum. There are a lot of reasons for offering special price for a certain period. Ours for instance is to come up with a sizable portfolio that will somehow showcase our design capabilities. Thus, we offered the $20 logo promo. Now, that we are almost done with the logos from the promo (there are still few ones left), we are back to our regular pricing which is $100.

Designers should not feel intimated or threatened by special offers. You know why? If somebody offered something as a promo and it turned out not so good, then their reputation is tarnished.

What can you do? Make good at your designs. Never mind the competition. Prove that you can do excellent work. People will soon discover it. The best proof will be your clients. If they love your work, they will be willing to testify for it!

Now, with regards to those folks who are asking for a low-priced design but asking too much, they may have to realize how hard the designing be. For example, our designers take a subtantial number of hours thinking of the concept alone. Then, the artwork is painstakingly hand-drawn. Then, it is scanned and colored in photoshop. (Yes, it is not just a matter of assembling ready-made graphics especially with the logo). And the text and other effects are added. It takes a lot of time. I know it. I've experienced sitting on their workstation seeing them working. It is not that simple guys. This you have to understand. Besides artists need to regain back their creative juices from time to time. It is only when we realize how artists work and how they love their art, that we come to a conclusion that their work are worth more than just money. It is an expression of art for all you know. It is not just plain and simple business!

Thank you for the time reading. I hope it has helped bring some light to everyone.

:)

Get out there in the big wild world...these forums are not the only market place. If business is looking bad in Botswana..I go to Russia!

Simon