[IxDA Discuss] programmers meet designers

[Christopher Fahey]

> Christina Wodtke wrote:
> Something I have long wondered is why so many designers are 
> so unwilling to work for free, unlike programmers. 
> ... I asked a friend why he thought this 
> happened, and he said that designers were taught in school to 
> never never do anything for free.

While I agree with Christina that the opportunities at
programmersmeetdesigners are more like investments than they are "scary"
exploitations, I also have to agree with Chris McLay and Sara Summers in
saying that designers do a LOT of free work. If not free, damn near free
(see Jared's $35 Nike logo). In their starry-eyed pursuit of having a good
portfolio, designers will often "give it away". 

If the design community seems a little louder than most in its opposition to
doing free/spec work, it's because designers are targeted for free work far
more than most other professionals. I've never heard of a programming
company being asked to build a working prototype as part of the process of
competing for a job, yet design firms are frequently asked to quickly design
their potential client's logo or even their whole home page as part of a
pitch process. 

There are certainly plenty of instances where offering a designer public
recognition or a % of future profit instead of "real" payment can be a good
thing, and I agree that designers should not be so dogmatic and risk-averse
when contemplating spec work. But make no mistake: Designers are widely
regarded as having easy, fun jobs and their time and effort is frequently
undervalued. If the bulk of designers are risk averse, it's only because the
bulk of their clients are ignorant of the true value of design --  or worse,
they are chiselers. It's the designer's job to weigh the risks, to assess
the client and the opportunity, and to make the call based on the initial
assumption that one's time and skill has value. 

-Cf

Christopher Fahey
____________________________
Behavior
http://www.behaviordesign.com
me: http://www.graphpaper.com