oh, the odyssey of the graphic designers...
Ok, here it goes for all of you that are and aren't graphic designers, (those ones that are will know exactly what i'm talkin about)...
I got an email once, that i probably sent out to you all, that takes the pleassure to explain what the life of the graphic designer is, how clients treat a graphic designer, what we have to put up against, so basically i want to do the same here, because it is time that i vent, i just find it completely and utterly WRONG to treat professionals the way people treat us. Lets make examples, because, well, we are all professionals here:
If you hire a lawyer, you don't tell a lawyer how to present your case to the judge.
If you hire a chef or go to a restaurant, you don't tell the chef how to prepare the food.
If you hire an accountant, you don't tell the accountant how to add or substract your earnings.
If you hire a marketer, you don't tell the marketer who to interview.
Hell, if you hire a freakin gardener, you don't even tell the gardener how to care for a plant.
Then.... how is it that if people hire a graphic designer (who went to a university to get all the knowledge about this particular subject, by the way) they feel the need to tell said graphic designer what colors they want, the layout of the work, to use or not to use some pictures, what font to use, to move this, to change that, and not take the graphic designer's advise for anything at all unless it is thought up by them!
Do i find this unfair? Hells yeah!, can i do something about it? If i don't wanna work again i can! Man, is this a tough business! I've gotten to the point that i figured out something, you have to own your own design firm so you can have any respect as a graphic designer in this and any town!. People don't like to pay what a good design deserves, people think it's just a waste of money, but they want their money to show something great. It doesn't add up!
But we can't leave it with that!, with this new digital era that is upon us, design software is making its way to the common man, now mostly anybody can get a copy of photoshop or (in mexico) corel draw and feel like a graphic designer. Places everywhere are popping up where they print stuff and they promote that they do "graphic design", which is basically some computer technician or a high schooler that knows how to move the tools in these programs and pass it off as graphic design and charge a miniscule amount for the job. That takes us real graphic designers out on a limb, we can't charge what our work really deserves because there are some other fakes out there passing as graphic designers who charge less. It's either that or they feel like we are just their puppets who know how to use a computer to do what they want to do but they don't have the tools for.
Either way, it is annoying how one has to go through all these stages in one's life to prosper, we all have to climb up a "corporate" ladder that in this business is just made by ourselves and the goal is our own success. Hope this helps and gives some insight and understanding as to what a graphic designer is in this century and just think about the lawyer and the chef and the accountant and the gardener, and maybe just think about your own profession and analyse how you would feel if your client wanted to tell you how to do your job before you go off with your little tantrums when you hire a graphic designer.
Thank You.
p.s. wow, that felt good!
I got an email once, that i probably sent out to you all, that takes the pleassure to explain what the life of the graphic designer is, how clients treat a graphic designer, what we have to put up against, so basically i want to do the same here, because it is time that i vent, i just find it completely and utterly WRONG to treat professionals the way people treat us. Lets make examples, because, well, we are all professionals here:
If you hire a lawyer, you don't tell a lawyer how to present your case to the judge.
If you hire a chef or go to a restaurant, you don't tell the chef how to prepare the food.
If you hire an accountant, you don't tell the accountant how to add or substract your earnings.
If you hire a marketer, you don't tell the marketer who to interview.
Hell, if you hire a freakin gardener, you don't even tell the gardener how to care for a plant.
Then.... how is it that if people hire a graphic designer (who went to a university to get all the knowledge about this particular subject, by the way) they feel the need to tell said graphic designer what colors they want, the layout of the work, to use or not to use some pictures, what font to use, to move this, to change that, and not take the graphic designer's advise for anything at all unless it is thought up by them!
Do i find this unfair? Hells yeah!, can i do something about it? If i don't wanna work again i can! Man, is this a tough business! I've gotten to the point that i figured out something, you have to own your own design firm so you can have any respect as a graphic designer in this and any town!. People don't like to pay what a good design deserves, people think it's just a waste of money, but they want their money to show something great. It doesn't add up!
But we can't leave it with that!, with this new digital era that is upon us, design software is making its way to the common man, now mostly anybody can get a copy of photoshop or (in mexico) corel draw and feel like a graphic designer. Places everywhere are popping up where they print stuff and they promote that they do "graphic design", which is basically some computer technician or a high schooler that knows how to move the tools in these programs and pass it off as graphic design and charge a miniscule amount for the job. That takes us real graphic designers out on a limb, we can't charge what our work really deserves because there are some other fakes out there passing as graphic designers who charge less. It's either that or they feel like we are just their puppets who know how to use a computer to do what they want to do but they don't have the tools for.
Either way, it is annoying how one has to go through all these stages in one's life to prosper, we all have to climb up a "corporate" ladder that in this business is just made by ourselves and the goal is our own success. Hope this helps and gives some insight and understanding as to what a graphic designer is in this century and just think about the lawyer and the chef and the accountant and the gardener, and maybe just think about your own profession and analyse how you would feel if your client wanted to tell you how to do your job before you go off with your little tantrums when you hire a graphic designer.
Thank You.
p.s. wow, that felt good!
posted by bto at
7:41 PM
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