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So, I live in Japan and Japanese people don’t understand sarcasm in the slightest. It’s pretty much completely vanished from my life…I suppose that’s why I found this specific Freelance Freedom considerably amusing.
PLEASE make a coffee table book out of these things…please!!!!
Brilliant and soooooooo true!
It’s interesting how people only feel that designers should do everything for free, but when it comes to other industries it just seems bizarre.
Great comic!
it’s so true !!
unreasonable deadlines, unreasonable bargain, that’s more things that often come to designer… while other business seems to have a privilege to complain about those things, designer, on the other hand, doesn’t…
i wonder why….
Could it be because many designers DO work for free? I mean, if I’d tell the guy who built my house that I want him to do something for free he’d probably die laughing.
How many designers on the other hand consider working for free as an integral part of getting a job?
Don’t you know? If there’s no manual labor involved then there’s no work!
Describes the whole industry pretty perfect. Grreat.
Haha love it. I’m sure you guys have seen it but if not, check out this video. Relates back to @Originalspirit’s comment about how designers are expected to work for free but no one else is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2a8TRSgzZY
Awesome video! Thanks for sharing! Totally made my day.
Big LOL!
What about photography then?
I think it’s almost more expected in photography that people will work for free. Especially in fashion. Most major fashion magazines have no problem asking well-known professional photographers to work for free. And many photogs do it.
This is partly some of our faultnas designers that allowed this to happen in the first place. And people having so many bad experience with designers & then such sites as to where we have to bid for work. And then also how. Cheap a lot of designers are starting to do work for these days.
I hold my ground & refuse to participate in such things or sell myself cheap. I do this not only for me, but for future designers. And Spirit is right people do think about this mainly in our industry & photography as well like Federico mentioned. It’s so many people that’s unprofessional that wishes to do our job it’s kind of hard to control the situation.
What you charge for your work tells how much does it worth. When you work for free you are telling that your work worth’s nothing (of course, I’m not including charity).
You have to measure how much exposure you will EFFECTIVELY get with that king of contests versus the amount of work you will have.
99designs anyone? what a bunch of bull that site is
haha nice one
haha…this was really awesome and so true..end of the day client is benefited with so many designs to look at that too free….
This had me rolling. I see these contests all the time and they annoy the heck out of me. This makes the whole thing hilarious.
That’s a slap for spec work. Love it, brilliant!
haha, how true, how true xD
It’s sad because it’s true. So true.
HA HA so true.
This is not only designer’s prob, but programmer’s too. Just ignore those clients.
This one is so true.
Gotta love this one!!
It’s like going into a candy store to taste ALL the candy and only getting to pay for the one you like.
It’s ironic that this comic shows up today when an ACT based design firm was asked by Unions ACT to work for free in order to be considered for the job.
The full post can be found here: http://graphicdesigncanberra.wordpress.com/2010/06/01/the-irony-of-unions-act-requesting-graphic-design-firms-to-work-for-free/
Amazing that the slogan for Unions ACT is “United we bargain. Divided we beg.” Now that’s irony.
/bow
Brilliant
And second Nate Hoernig suggestion, i want my freelance freedom book!
An other one in japan for you Nate : http://jp.creads.org
So depressingly true! I literally, only the other day, turned down work because I got the ole’ “It’s free advertising for you” schpeel! Stay strong fellow designers!
@MikeMcD, don’t get me started on those “free photography for exposure” offers. Here’s an example:
A few months ago, I was asked to share my photos with a local organization. I told the person making this request that I’d be happy to work out a licensing agreement. The reply: The organization had no budget for that sort of thing.
To me, that smelled fishy. After all, this organization has a very nice office here in Tucson.
So, I didn’t share my photos.
A short time later, I learned that this organization’s annual budget is in excess of $1.5 million.
I have been ranting about this for years. Look for jobs on Craigslist and this free publicity BS is almost all you see
This would be a lot funnier if it wasn’t so true!! I just don’t understand so many expect free design work – either for spec, or for “free publicity”. I would NEVER think to ask a contractor or dentist (or ANY service professional) to perform their service so I can see it before I decide if I would like to hire them. Can you imagine asking a plastic surgeon to do a nose job on spec??
It is true that the only way this is going to stop is if we all as professionals stand together and reject doing work on spec, or for free.
Woah! It happened to me before. I applied for an article writing post and I had my portfolio with me. They interviewed me but for that job post and they asked me to write a certain topic. They already ended it because somebody already filled it up. They liked my writing but they asked me again for another 10 topics to write before they will hire me. What I did is I didn’t do it and just looked for another job.
That’s terrible! Almost seems like blackmail or extortion. They hold this potential job over your head, even though they have no intentions of giving it to you, and require you to work for free for a chance at that job.
It’s amazing what employers can get away with these days.
I don’t know if I have to laugh or cry. This is a very familiar scenario. Free pitches, working for free to see if you qualify for the gig. Why is it that people ask designers to do things for free? Do they ask the plumber to do their plumbing for free? The truth is that there’s a lot of (beginning/amateur) designers who are willing to work for peanuts. If you don’t want to work for peanuts then they just find somebody else who’s willing to work for nothing.
Well I needed a logo designed.
But I do not believe in ‘Logo Contests’. lol it makes me laugh, when I see people needing a logo and they go about in forums announcing ‘logo contest’.
How is this even a contest?
You want a logo, create a project, look at people’s portfolio (if they provide a sample then it’s their choice) and select the one you like.
Nabeel.
This spec work for free is BS. Are these people so stupid that they’ve never heard of a portfolio and resume which all of us have?
Ok, all you designers out there. You’re all so busy being artistes that you have no sense of economics. It’s econ101 — supply and demand. There are simply SOOOO many gajillions of “designers” out there, and many of you are talentless hacks (I’d say “you know who you are,” but you probably don’t). There simply isn’t nearly enough design work to feed all of your families. The market is ridiculously over-saturated with “designers.” Way too much supply and not a lot of demand. That makes your labor worth very little, no matter how highly you esteem your own work.
It’s not a pleasant message, but it’s the facts. Same reason teachers don’t earn anything — every misguided kid who can’t pick a major wants to be a teacher.
Add to that the fact that it consumes no resources but your own, and it’s basically show me first, pay later… Construction takes up several people, and actual resources (not counting the time of the lead man). Wonder how anyone is surprised at that…
loved it !
I guess I need to move to Japan. It took me a second to get the sarcasm, I was a little concerned at first.
ya just because there is not physical product tht clients can feel and touch they feel it need not cost money.
yes because drawing a logo is exactly like building a house…
I mean construction companies often have to have to make plans, specs and calculate how much it’s all going to cost
all for free
than the client chooses the best offer
it’s how stuff works
Hahaha love your style! With every comic I say “Yes! That’s exactly… !! So darn true!! Oh, now THAT happened yesterday… “
While I agree designers should be paid and respected,
I don’t see anything wrong with a designer putting in initiative to present a mockup, or perhaps a small fee for the time.
A mockup or a sketch should be fine if it takes around 15 minutes, and anything that requires more should obviously be compensated.
Comparing a designer to a home builder whose gone through decades of work experience, schooling is not the same. A logo designer who pirated a copy of photoshop and wants to be paid? I don’t agree with that and neither will any respectable firm.
On top of that, look around freelance sites and all you see are people using TEMPLATES. Not much is “original” work and you can’t really tell by the portfolio how good a designer is. Therefore, I believe a sketch or mockup specific to the company is not a bad idea.