During the last few month of layoff madness, inhouse designers most likely are among the first to get the boot, fear not, as I’m noticing more agencies (big and small, some are even started by a bunch of laid off designers) are taking on those laid off inhouse designers - also like madness - As for the clients, I fear it’s becoming hard to get back to the good old times, ones you have experienced $30 even $40 why would anyone in their right mind go back to $15 or even $20. On the media it seems like designers has the most layoff rate, but fear not, we also have the highest bounce back rate with twice the pay, however I’m speaking for Graphic Designers, I think web developers and interior designer are really taking a big hit, according to an old friend I met yesterday, fashion design is still as confused as ever.
What’s the difference between an inhouse designer and a contracted/freelance designer? Let’s look at it this way: if you have a gardner living in your house - we will then call him the inhouse gardner, you will pay peanuts, because you feed, clothing and put a roof over him - and in return he will take care of your garden, walk your dog, clean your dishes, fulfill last min. garden emergencies. However, you still think he is a freeloader, so you kick him out, thinking ‘I can just contract someone as easy’. However, the contracted worker has rates, which can’t be bribed with home cooked meal or clean clothing, their style/grand vision might not fit your likeness, contracted workers have hours of operation, and a keen eye on the money (after all do you expect to go to work and not get paid?) which means if the president to have a garden party tonight at your place and your garden looks unpresentable? well you need to pay over time to contract workers to get the job done, that’s if they are willing to do the job. I had started out my design career as an design intern/freelancer, then inhouse in an corporate sitting, now I’ve come a circle - back to freelance. Recently, due to the massive of layoffs, many company fresh out of inhouse designers take on contracted designers as if their inhouse is back. I think alot of other freelancer feel that way as well. Well all I can say, that I had the experience of both and I understand both point of view, however, if you are contracting a freelance, you need to understand that the role has changed, the contractor, have their rates, turnaround time and rules that you now have to confine to.
Project budget, work hours and hourly rates are another problem I noticed alot of companies faces. inhouse designers are used to get paid like everyone else in the company, they get treated to the same 9-5 schedule as everyone else, and are often dis-ed and misunderstood (that’s why all inhouse designers are longing for an agency job, if your inhouse is saying no, he/she is lying, either their standards are too high or not at the skill level). As for project budget or turn around time, there is none, everything should’ve be done yesterday. (A five hour work day- *shock* that’s unheard off, you better answer my emails at 2am or don’t come to the office tomorrow or ever) Companies that are used to those inhouse designers, rely on their cheap rates, the best of work, ondemand/oncall and unlimited revisions (it’s not, hey everyone listen to the designer, that’s what we hired him/her for. It’s more like we are signing your monthly paycheck so revise it until the design looks like the piece of shit we like, because we have no sense of creativity, however in the corporate ladder we are higher, thus we rule). However Contracted designers are different, they will only confine to the client’s desire to an extend, everything matters to the freelancer as a portfolio piece, uninteresting work, low pay job, unattractive proposals gets brushed aside by the higher end freelancers, passed onto students, even nowadays most of students won’t start on carer damaging projects. Ultimately only by this way of slightly SelfCenteredness will a client respect you - when a client contracts the designer, they usually think much much, much higher of the designer (for some reason) and thus thinks any suggestion the designer comes up with is such a good idea (bright pink on acid green? excellent, you are so right, I’ll make everyone in the company change their business card tomorrow! stat!, joke, but you get my point).
Im a pretty good designer, by most of my client’s feedbacks, and I do understand some of their confusing on hourly rates and such, here is a simple example: if you want to hire a roofer, the roofer tells you - my hourly rates are $20/hour, and it might take five hours to fix your roof, which results to $100 dollars in total, then you bargain with him ‘look, I like you work, that’s why I want to hire you, how about you do the job for $50.’ The roofer thinks - deeply, is he my friend that I’m willing to do a $100 dollar job on a $50 job budget? (which most of my long term clients earned that right, for me to give discounts on the same quality of work), however, in this case, the roofer doesn’t know the client, it might as well be a one time job, so he rely on his hourly rates to guide him throughout the project (sorry, I’m using gardener and roofers as examples, I’m pretty sure you get the point), which a $50 budget on a $20/hour rate will result to two and half hours of roofing work, will the roof get fixed? yes, but it won’t look like the grand roofs the roofer has on his website. Then the owner asked ‘hey, how come the roof isn’t as grand as the next doors?’ the roofer ‘that roof was build on a Five hour time with $100 dollar budget. if you had paid me $200 (Ten hour budget) I’d have hand carved stones to lay on top your roof, make your neighbors envy for centuries.’ Basically - you get what you paid for, don’t expect to get a chanel bag for $5 (not even a fake one), like a branded labels each designer has their hourly rates, the more hours you pay the designer, the better the project will come out. However there is a difference between an experienced designer and an inexperienced, an experienced designer like myself, requires little handholding, from the initial meeting to the project completion, we discus learn and know the direction a client is aiming for, in return make all the right choices, and finish the project on budget/ on time. However, an inexperienced designer, will rely on client’s input and feedback that results in wasting of time and brings the over all concept unfocused/unclear, eventually drags on time and budget - those people makes the clients afraid the sight of hourly rates, but in reality all designer charges based on the hourly rates, just in different forms.
Spend the whole day meeting old friends and new friends, so much has changed in our field of design- changed for the good. I’d say The future of digital graphics is only brighter!
