Elance bomb?

[printbar]

Hello folks,

So I think we can all agree on the following:

1. The state of the Great British Freelance Designer can best be described as 'parlous'.

2. Sites like elance are at least partially responsible for this.

3. Sites like elance allow users to sign up for limited free accounts.

4. Collective power is more effective than the power of an individual (given conditions 1 - 2)

With that, how about this?

1. Everyone signs up to the free account on elance.

2. Any ridiculously poor offers are posted here (see bigdave here: What's wrong with people?....)

3. GDF members troll said poor offers with artwork that reflects the budget and turnaround offered.

4. ?????

5. PROFIT!!

But seriously, we can bitch about the devaluation of our industry all we like here and on our blogs, but until a concerted effort is made by a respected community of professionals nothing is going to change. Let's start changing it here. Let's start changing it now. Let's stop being cynics and start making our industry worth getting into again. Let's bomb elance (and its ilk) until it's clear that we're not going to take this crap anymore.




--PB

[Paul Murray]

Something like this would surely only serve to give designers, who are already seen as 'snooty', an even worse reputation. If the trolls are linked back to this forum, it could also ruin the reputation of the community, which will have a negative impact on those who use the job boards to find paying work.

Whilst I strongly agree that something needs to be done about crowdsourcing and competition sites, ultimately I don't believe the fault lies solely with the 'clients' who expect to be able to get a logo designed with the change in their pocket. If they offer an insulting budget, and someone produces a design for that amount, then the fault lies with the 'designer'.

I see the point you're getting at though, and would love nothing more than to hand a client wanting a logo design for less than the price of a cup of coffee, a piece of paper I'd just wiped my arse on (obviously I'd reserve the right to display it in my portfolio).

[SparkCreative]

NO!SPEC | To educate the public about speculative (spec) work

[Paul Murray]

Another crowdsourcing site to add to your blacklists.

logovendorDOTcom (don't want to link to them).

This site is advertising through spam trackbacks on blogs. Just had two flagged up in the space of about 30 seconds...

[printbar]

Something like this would surely only serve to give designers, who are already seen as 'snooty', an even worse reputation. If the trolls are linked back to this forum, it could also ruin the reputation of the community, which will have a negative impact on those who use the job boards to find paying work.

Whilst I strongly agree that something needs to be done about crowdsourcing and competition sites, ultimately I don't believe the fault lies solely with the 'clients' who expect to be able to get a logo designed with the change in their pocket. If they offer an insulting budget, and someone produces a design for that amount, then the fault lies with the 'designer'.

I see the point you're getting at though, and would love nothing more than to hand a client wanting a logo design for less than the price of a cup of coffee, a piece of paper I'd just wiped my arse on (obviously I'd reserve the right to display it in my portfolio).

V considered, Paul - much more so than my original screed!

I do think, though, that we're in danger here of becoming trapped by our own unwillingness to do more than sound off on the GDF. It's only natural that people would want to save money, and it's only because people are willing to take on jobs for silly money that the situation is allowed to persist. I'm not for a second suggesting that everyone uses their actual business personae to do this (that's not what trolling is about, after all), and I'm sure that there's a way of administering the bomb that doesn't obviously lead back here...

I don't know - it just seems that impotent raging against the injustice of it all isn't going to get us that far!

[Paul Murray]

I understand perfectly where you're coming from, and I too feel strongly about the whole situation. Complaining about the problem is not going to solve it.

Sadly though it's impossible to educate the masses as to the importance of graphic design, especially a well thought out, unique identity, particularly when the majority of business owners are just looking to pay the least they can for something that resembles a logo.

Unless you understand that the role of a designer isn't just to create the logo, but to also advise and share their knowledge, then it's more than likely you'd just look for the best deal.

As for crowdsourcing sites, it's hard to compete with their sales tactics, which typically exaggerate the idea that you get quantity AND quality submissions. Why invest your trust in a real designer to create a bespoke identity for you when you can use the anonymity granted by these sites to get dozens of submissions that you can simply walk away from with no repercussions.

Until these sites are shut down (we can but hope) there's really not much that designers can do to compete with their sales pitches, particularly when they have better search engine page ranks and endorsements from newspapers and publications.