You Don’t Always Get What You Pay For

For many up and coming graphic designers, especially those without a college degree of some sort, finding work can be very difficult. I have met dozens of designers who are brilliant – often with work that I don’t think I could top – who spend hours a day scouring the internet and using all of their connections to try and find something to stuff their portfolio and their pockets with. The problem? Well, read my article on outsourcing and you’ll understand a bit better! Of course that is not the only issue here – a lot of it is how these young artists choose to advertise themselves, their portfolio, their first impression, etc. Because of this, so many great and talented designers get taken advantage of financially, and I can relate: it has happened to me on more than one occasion, I’m embarrassed to say.
I remember my first design gig I landed during my junior year of high school. I was still tinkering around with Photoshop (CS1? PS7? Who remembers…) and one of my father’s coworkers needed a flier made to help promote a gig for his band at a bar downtown. This being my first real, professional design job, I was understandably excited to not only show off and test my skills, but to make some money on the side. Prom tickets and limos aren’t free, you know. So I actually met this man face to face and showed him my small portfolio of almost exclusively print work, which consisted of school projects and things I did in my free time. He half smiled at me, almost sarcastically, and said “Well, looks like you got what it takes kid. How’s $25 sound?” My first reaction was of disappointment, but then I realized that I would be happy to do this for free for the guy. Hell, for anyone, so I accepted. Although I only was paid $25, I spent hours every single day at and after school working on his flier for a straight week, and when I handed him the final design, his eyes widened. “Wow, you really made somethin’ slick here Arthur. You’re not even in college yet and you can do this better than some designers I know who have been doin’ this for a while. Keep it up and you can make a living doin’ this, haha!” My father’s coworker got a pretty good deal – most designers can charge several hundred dollars for a well designed flier. Of course, I was just a young high school student with little to no experience, but the man still landed a pretty sweet deal for that flier.

Unfortunately, that kind of thing is just as common then as it is now that I am older and have my own design business. Brilliant, extremely gifted artists often get paid little to sometimes nothing for many of their first projects just to get a name for themselves and have reputable references. As artists, many of us do not mind because work is often enjoyable to the point where the experience is pay enough. However, our talents are also our jobs, and many potential clients out there fail to realize that you don’t always get what you pay for. Talking to the guy who will design your iPhone app for the lowest price possible probably will get you a terribly rushed and unpolished app, but on the other side paying a huge design firm $5,000 to design your five page website might not get you something that an art student can make for $500.

I recently had a meeting with an old friend of mine who now works for a small new business that he interns for. Having known me for years, he asked if I could design a thing or two for him since he has seen my portfolio and admired my work. I of course accepted, and when I asked if their company had a website yet he said that they already paid a designer over $5,000 to design it, and that it would take her over nine months to complete and simple sub-ten page website layout. It gets worse – when he showed me the first draft of the website, I could not help but laugh – it was about the same quality that you would see from a 1990s spam website. I felt bad for him however, this new and likely not extremely wealthy company was overspending immensely for a website that would not garner them much profit or publicity due to its low quality. Sure enough, when he showed their CEO my designs, she immediately requested I work as their go-to for design work – she thought that what I had made for much less than $5,000 exceeded the quality of the website their designer had made.

So to all of you designers out there – keep your chin up, and don’t sacrifice your integrity and self-worth to scrape a few more dollars off the ground. The price you charge for your skills is also a value that your clients, current and future, will see as how you value yourself compared to other designers.

To all the clients – do your research! Don’t go with the cheapest and fastest, nor the most expensive and well known without looking at as many options as you can. Trust me, the money you will save and make by putting a little more effort into your search will be more than worth the effort.