Can Freelancers Survive in a Highly Competitive Design World?
It was the start of the New Year. When freelance designers were studying their profit and loss accounts and not seeming too happy with the figures that they saw. On the eve of the New Year there was both hope and depression. It was one of life’s bitter truths, though and what a designer posed to me was more of a conjecture than a question. But he really poured his heart out to me and was obviously worried about what 2014 would bring for freelance designers. In this article I’ll try to answer some questions that are haunting freelance designers around the world.
He put it frankly. Is freelance design going to a non-profitable or less-profitable business this year? I tried to be optimistic about the whole thing, but we were not really making much headway. Crowdsourcing sites like 99designs which has offices across the globe and sites in many languages will surely grow. But freelancers shouldn’t worry too much about that, or the rush of designers from 2-year degree schools which has led to drastic cuts in freelancers’ fees. I don’t think freelancers must be truly worried about this, but then again, I may be wrong and a disaster in creativity may hit us. Clients will want to hire best website designers from companies. Anyways, I personally know freelance designers who have been running their one-man shows for years, but I also know many who are seeking full-time jobs and the benefits that come with them, like medical insurance, saving cash for retirement and other perks. Overall, it doesn’t look too good for them.
With Microsoft Word you can design birthday and Xmas cards and similar low-design stuff. Computer owners love the many fonts they can access and before you can blink an eye, they turn pro! Wannabes and hacks are words spat out by the professional fraternity of freelance designers and thus begin a blazing debate. Simply put, it boils down to who will survive - to use a Darwinism, only the fittest. It can be a scary thought! Once upon a time when the number of practicing designers was a handful, we knew all their names and revered them. Now they are a dime a dozen, if you’ll excuse the phrase.
We are surrounded by design these days, attractive, bright patterns churned out by so many professionals both freelancers and full-timers. But the public doesn’t think too highly about how much that piece of ‘art’ costs. They may say, “$40.” Start ups, mainly digital ones, have become freelancers’ staple diet, but these businesses leave very little in their budget for freelance designing. They promise freelancers future opportunities or pots of cash later. Of course, clients always look for best website designers for their jobs and companies like SPINX Digital, a digital company based in Los Angeles, can look forward to being retained by their clients for years to come. But the freelance species may be getting killed in a world where more people are consuming a greater number of resources than that very world possesses.
So what does the future hold for designers, both freelance and full time ones? A weekly salary, medical benefits and pension plans have lured many of my high-earning freelance pals to less creative, but better-earning and more secure full-time jobs. Where will the influx from art schools fit in? Surely not all designers can survive in a dog-eat-dog competition? But I believe freelancers can still survive, though they may not really thrive. They will need to charge more from new customers to thrive or raise billing of their existing ones. As a last resort, they will have to initiate innovative projects or schemes to see their way through.
