Canva purchases Affinity

[WildWestDesigns]

If I didn't see so many crappy designs done by "professionals" then I would agree you here but we all know there are no shortage of hacks that do this for a living.

The issue and truth is still there. The only difference is going to get more and more of it to the point that people will accept it because they'll more than likely get it for cheaper as well (even people on here that should know better (or at least complain about the same thing) still do the same thing, because it's cheaper).

 

[Bobby H]

If I didn't see so many crappy designs done by "professionals" then I would agree you here but we all know there are no shortage of hacks that do this for a living.

Graphic design is hardly a profession anymore. Anyone with a working pulse and willingness to show up for work on a dependable basis can get hired to do this s#1t (especially if they'll work for cheap). 30 years ago I was proud of having a four year degree from a good NYC art school; now I'm almost embarrassed by it.

I produce good quality work, but that doesn't seem to matter. Customers can't seem to tell the difference between shops that do good work versus bad. So many are only interested in getting things for the cheapest price. In this environment I guess I can't blame them for not wanting to trust a third party to do their creative work. Frankly, there is a lot of self-proclaimed professionals who truly are not any better at it than the average customer. They can get away with producing horrible looking crap because several factors that define good graphic design or illustration are subjective.

On the plus side of customers canva creations, it gives you a concept to start from without having to waste a ton of time talking things through with them. It's not much different than getting a sketch from a someone or working from your own.

This depends on the customer. Some are very protective of "their creation" and don't want it altered even when the art has glaring problems that either cause serious production issues or the finished product won't be legible at all to any passing vehicles. Amateurs don't know any better to consider any of those factors.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

Graphic design is hardly a profession anymore. Anyone with a working pulse and willingness to show up for work on a dependable basis can get hired to do this s#1t (especially if they'll work for cheap). 30 years ago I was proud of having a four year degree from a good NYC art school; now I'm almost embarrassed by it.

I produce good quality work, but that doesn't seem to matter. Customers can't seem to tell the difference between shops that do good work versus bad. So many are only interested in getting things for the cheapest price. In this environment I guess I can't blame them for not wanting to trust a third party to do their creative work. Frankly, there is a lot of self-proclaimed professionals who truly are not any better at it than the average customer. They can get away with producing horrible looking crap because several factors that define good graphic design or illustration are subjective.



This depends on the customer. Some are very protective of "their creation" and don't want it altered even when the art has glaring problems that either cause serious production issues or the finished product won't be legible at all to any passing vehicles. Amateurs don't know any better to consider any of those factors.

There will always be people that appreciate good work and seek it out, that is where you come into play. Unfortunately, you still have to deal with the ones that can't even match their clothes and they sort of sour the whole deal. I suppose that's what makes enjoyable work a job rather than a hobby.
Be proud of your degree. My step father got a degree in music and ended up as a mechanic. Eventually he became a region service manager for a manufacturer in the same industry which did require a 4 year degree. If he didn't have that, he'd probably still be out in the dirt turning wrenches at 70 years old.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

This depends on the customer. Some are very protective of "their creation" and don't want it altered even when the art has glaring problems that either cause serious production issues or the finished product won't be legible at all to any passing vehicles. Amateurs don't know any better to consider any of those factors.

This actually goes beyond just supposed "amateurs". I've seen this with really good artists that didn't know squat about production, so that issue gets hit all the way around.

 

[Johnny Best]

Graphic design is hardly a profession anymore. Anyone with a working pulse and willingness to show up for work on a dependable basis can get hired to do this s#1t (especially if they'll work for cheap). 30 years ago I was proud of having a four year degree from a good NYC art school; now I'm almost embarrassed by it.

I produce good quality work, but that doesn't seem to matter. Customers can't seem to tell the difference between shops that do good work versus bad. So many are only interested in getting things for the cheapest price. In this environment I guess I can't blame them for not wanting to trust a third party to do their creative work. Frankly, there is a lot of self-proclaimed professionals who truly are not any better at it than the average customer. They can get away with producing horrible looking crap because several factors that define good graphic design or illustration are subjective.



This depends on the customer. Some are very protective of "their creation" and don't want it altered even when the art has glaring problems that either cause serious production issues or the finished product won't be legible at all to any passing vehicles. Amateurs don't know any better to consider any of those factors.

BigBob, sounds like you are getting burned out in your profession. You need to take that degree and start producing art where you can make more money and be appreciated. Sign people donʼt appreciate a person with talent. They kjust want to squeeze all your creative juices out of you for their profit.
you are still young with energy and keep that chip on your shoulder and expand your horizon..

 

[netsol]

I don't like subscription based anything because you are at their mercy to run whatever crap updates that they push out and the learning curve of this stuff tends to lock you in forever. Like what google did with Gmail and Intuit with Quickbooks. When you own your assets you have the majority of control. There is always the risk that one of these software companies that are critical to your business goes out of business, astronomically raises their prices (quickbooks??), forces the use of proprietary filetypes etc etc. I'm still running the same version of Photoshop I had in College. It doesn't have all the fancy features of the new ones but who cares? If you learned this stuff a long time ago, you already know how to quickly do all the things that are simplified on new versions.
As BobbyH said, you can't trust what these private equity companies, their whole premise is to cut costs and leverage a companies assets to siphon money out and to themselves. It is not a long term business strategy, it is a short term money grab and once the original investors get what they want, they flip it to the next person who squeezes it even more. It's almost a loophole that they have learned to exploit. Boeing is another one that was destroyed by bean counters after their takeover of MD AFAIK?

there is always the risk that they do ALL OF THE ABOVE...

 

[Bobby H]

There will always be people that appreciate good work and seek it out, that is where you come into play.

I don't think subjective design quality matters all that much to the average person. I've seen customers go through multiple design revisions for a street sign quote from us only for them to turn around and get something cheaper and far more crappy looking.

The thing that helps us out over the long haul is our shop is more professional than our rivals in factors other than graphic design. We're more dependable at hitting deadlines and not dropping the ball. Very often we'll have customers try out the other guys, get a bad experience from it and then rely on us in the future.

BigBob, sounds like you are getting burned out in your profession. You need to take that degree and start producing art where you can make more money and be appreciated.

I think art is being de-valued everywhere. I'm not all that young anymore either. If I decided to quit doing sign work I'd probably do something entirely different for a living.

 

[visual800]

and yet, here again I sit here with my adobe cs5 on disc and flexi on disc along with photshop on disc all legit stuff!...and watch coporate have nothing on me. Canva is abolute crap for the masses, never heard of affinity but if history repeats itsself with software and equity firms it will also go to h@ll in a handbasket

 

[Notarealsignguy]

I don't think subjective design quality matters all that much to the average person. I've seen customers go through multiple design revisions for a street sign quote from us only for them to turn around and get something cheaper and far more crappy looking.

The thing that helps us out over the long haul is our shop is more professional than our rivals in factors other than graphic design. We're more dependable at hitting deadlines and not dropping the ball. Very often we'll have customers try out the other guys, get a bad experience from it and then rely on us in the future.



I think art is being de-valued everywhere. I'm not all that young anymore either. If I decided to quit doing sign work I'd probably do something entirely different for a living.

I think this industry is in the beginning of another huge change and it's gonna be tough on the small shops. It is quite possible that in house design/layout go away from this industry as people shift to wholesale volume printing and fabrication.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

...but if history repeats itsself with software and equity firms it will also go to h@ll in a handbasket

Ironically this happens with open source as well (open source programs don't have to be for free (something like Ardour, to get binaries(especially for Windows/Mac) have to pay or compile yourself and for those platforms not quite as easy). And companies can even buy open source projects and change their licensing and add undesirable stuff to things (think Muse Group buying Audacity (although if I recall correctly, they did reverse course on one big no-no). The other thing that has happened is take something like Aseprite (may or may not know about unless do retro style 2D game dev work or keep up with that area) and they went from open source to source available, which comes with it's own caveats (but when things like this happen, usually a fork happens during the last version of the old license (in this case, libresprite)).

Why I am a firm believer in also having in house tooling (and there are a multitude of ways of doing that with open source libraries, some even very easy, even with languages that are thought of as more difficult)). Of course, even with my liking my tech as much as I do, it just makes me want to break out the Speedball, Ames and various other "analog" tools and go back to the way it was (which I am doing a mixture of both, but at least with the analog tools, don't have an RFID DRM for subscription to those yet (emphasis on yet).

I think this industry is in the beginning of another huge change and it's gonna be tough on the small shops. It is quite possible that in house design/layout go away from this industry as people shift to wholesale volume printing and fabrication.

I think there is a lot of headwinds coming in for a lot of industries that are going to cause a shakeup. Most not for the best. I believe that knowledge will actually take a hit even more, certainly for the next generation or two "artists/designers" that are going to be coming out. I don't see quality getting better and I think it will be harder for the small/indie type of businesses out there. Brave new world, at least it better me.