DESIGN SPECIALISM (Week 5)

Role Changes in Graphic Design

·         Many artists think of designers as marginally above advertising executives in the creative food chain.

·         Design is moving from the bottom of the creative food chain to become the essential connector across a range of creative networks.

·         We have become a more visual culture. As communication becomes digital, we become an interface culture and graphic design along with the programming becomes the medium through which we see, read and access the world.

·         It is well documented that Graphic design has undergone massive changes for such a young profession, however the role of a graphic designer was always considered a magical art, from the design of the page elements to the visual communication as a whole for the product.

·         A number of things have radically changed this role in the last 20 years, changed it into such an extent that unless the designers feel they "get with the times" spending years learning new software, new media and how to implement their ideas in this new media, they will become extinct.

·         This is reflected in the myriad of ways design is now taught at universities and the fact that less emphasis is put on the design theory and is more of a technological nature for cross platform implementation.

·         The exponential increase in cross media platforms now I believe that the role of the graphic design has become compartmentalized into a much larger system of work using various methods and software to apply visual communication to a campaign/product.

·         In effect original perceived role of a graphic designer only hangs by a thread in the form of certain print media.

Corporations Are Hiring Freelancers Instead of Employees

·         As the global recession continues, more and more corporations are cutting costs and laying off employees.

·         These companies need to cut expenses, and maintaining an office with full-time employees has a lot of overhead.

·         Hiring freelancers, on the other hand, has no overhead at all.

·         Freelancers can be hired extensively for a big project, and then not paid a thing when a company has no work.

·         It’s the most scalable and on-demand solution for many situations and a lot of companies are coming to the conclusion that freelancers are the least expensive option.

·         Typically these “stop-gap” freelancers convert back into normal employees after awhile, but given the lower costs of freelancing, the differences in the newer generations, and the increasing risk associated with large overhead, it could be a very long time before that swing happens.

·         Based on these trends, the number of freelancers will be exploding over the next several years.

Design Firm Pros

No Financial Management. You do not need to manage their finances as a designer to assure whether they will make it each quarter and what not.

Fixed Salary. Instead of worrying about how much profit you made at the end of the month, you know exactly what your salary is, and generally, what you will have by the end of the month.

Leave Work at the Office. Leaving at the office and coming home to general relaxation is what working for a firm is all about.

No Clientele Outlook. As a designer working at a design firm, you do not need to do the hunting and marketing to reel in clientele, but rather just work with the clientele the firm assigned you to.

Social Interaction. Socializing is sometimes an important factor to many of us, and the office environment provides just that. Instead of talking to yourself at home as a freelancer, you can discuss projects and life with your co-workers; a great benefit indeed.

Design Firm Cons

Working Overtime. When working for a firm you are bound to work overtime one day or another.

Short Vacations. When you are freelancing, you can take long vacations whenever you need it.

Fixed Salary. A fixed salary means that generally, your salary will not increase by much, which means the only way to increase your salary is to be promoted.

Promotion System. The promotion system can take years before it affects you positively, which means that your salary and what you do is fixed for a prolonged period of time.

Shorter Breaks. While working for a firm you are on a strict schedule, meaning a well deserved break may not be available.

Pros of Freelancing

Self-Employment. By far, the greatest benefit of freelancing is being your own employer, your own boss, and the one who contracts jobs and the likes.

Flexible Times. As a freelancer, you have the flexibilities to choose how many hours you spend working, what times you work throughout the day, and when you take your breaks and how long they can be.

Work from Home. Another great benefit of freelancing is the ability to work at home or anywhere else you find suitable.

I Don’t like This Project, Therefore, I Don’t Work on It. By working with a firm, many hate the fact that they are assigned projects they dislike and are not motivated to working on them at all.

Unlimited Salary. As a freelancer, your salary is not fixed but rather variable, meaning you make can more or less profit every month and away from the fixed salary you would get working at a firm.

Cons of Freelancing

Long Hours. As much as freelancing sounds awesome and more like a few hours of work with a ton of free time, it is not. Freelancing sometimes consumes your nights and weekends to meet deadlines and to keep bills paid which is stressful.

Work from Home. Wait, didn’t we just say it was a benefit of freelancing? We did indeed, however, working from home is sometimes not an ideal thing to do for many as their productivity level drops significantly, the work would “follow them home”, and they will never get their mind off of it.

Unknown Salary. As with any self-employed job or position, your salary tends to be unknown as freelancing is based on the amount of work you contract, and the amount completed including getting invoices paid on time.

Recruiting Clientele. Not all of us are built for freelancing or self-employment, some us are not great at recruiting clientele to meet our quotas, others do not know where to draw the line in terms of pricing, and likes.

Time Management. Generally, if you need someone to map out your time management, then you do not fit in the freelancing industry.

The advantages of freelancing

·         I can work whenever I want

·         It’s easier to schedule my time

·         I can work in a broader context, have one project feed off another (like a cms)

·         I can pick and choose my projects instead of being assigned them

·         I can deduct some of my home expenses like rent.

·         I can use any software that I like

·         Harmless sites aren’t blocked by company restrictions

·         I can take time to work on personal projects

·         I can schedule breaks or vacations whenever it’s convenient

·         I learned a lot about business and finances, something which has helped me in many areas.

·         I can use whatever equipment that I want

·         I can complete control over how much I make

·         I don’t have to commute

·         It’s easier to eat healthier

The disadvantages of freelancing

·         It’s much harder to network

·         It can get lonely at times

·         I can’t get the creative spontaneity that I would by working with other people.

·         I don’t always know when the next paycheck is coming

·         Doing all the business and creative work can be overwhelming

·         I have to promote myself constantly

·         It’s easier to get distracted

·         Family and friends have the tendency to interrupt me while I’m working

·         It can be stressful juggling multiple projects

·         I’m not able to tackle projects that a larger team could

·         It’s easy to get sucked into working all the time because the line between work and home is so thin

·         You have to buy all your own equipment and software

·         You have to pay additional taxes on your income

·         I must provide customer support on top of creative work

What will happen if freelance graphic designer increase in future

·         There are less chance to graphic designers communicate each other.

·         They would not experience about the group projects and its benefits

·         Every field needs an advertiser or graphic designer. Since freelance graphic designer getting increase and they are very convenient, clients will look after to freelancer while not advertising agencies.

·         High compete between freelance graphic designer and advertising agencies.

·         Advertising agencies might get decrease.

·         The method of working on a new project from research, concept, sketches, improvement and final outcome will disappear.

·         Freelancer will be more focus on working what clients want only.

·         Less thinking but, more communication

·         Clients needed to be struggling to get a right freelancer for right job.

·         Less innovation in ideas and concept

·         Always using the similar design skills

·         Creativity will go down.

Famous Freelance Graphic Designer

Jacob Cass

Jacob Cass is a very successful freelance graphic designer. If you are considering freelancing, Jacob’s blog (Just Creative) is a great resource on how to get started and succeeding in your freelance endeavors.

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