Graphic designers, no matter how experienced, have all likely have been disrespected.
Roberto Blake takes on the issue of disrespect in the graphic design community. Watch (or just listen) to his valuable insights on respect and the graphic design industry. Perhaps the fault lies not with clients, but with ourselves:
What graphic designers can learn
- Outsourcing is a good thing in context. It might might makes sense to outsource your accounting, and perhaps your marketing once you have scaled your operations.
- Settling for less and laziness are your biggest enemies.
- Introverts have to get out of their shell or work around it to get bigger clients.
- If you work hard, you deserve better than picking out low-hanging fruit from crowdsourcing sites.
What clients can learn
- The graphic designer you choose has a tremendous responsibility to your brand.
- This responsibility demands respect.
- Crowdsourcing isn’t bad necessarily . But you should not rely on it for anything important.
- What goes around comes around. We talk about bad clients all the time. If you don’t compensate designers properly, it will make it harder for everyone to trust you.
Why do we think graphic designers are disrespected?
Designers and other creatives are disrespected not necessarily because because clients are are all evil, but also because it can be difficult to explain the value of our work to most people.
Creatives in any discipline have to be prepared to defend the value of our work. In Roberto Blake’s case, he uses plastic surgery as an analogy. All graphic designers in particular should understand how to make things that are self-evident to us but not to most people understandable.
Dealing with clients and communicating the importance of specific aspects of graphic design isn’t something that is taught well in design schools, if it is in fact taught at all. Yet it is as crucial as knowing how to use the latest version of Adobe Illustrator or knowing when and when not to use Helvetica over Garamond.
Over time, this ability to teach design to those who are not familiar with it can bring its own benefits, by helping you create work that can can communicate better, and by helping keep you grounded. If nothing else, it will help you develop trust with clients who are truly worth your time.
If you like this video, please follow Roberto Blake’s YouTube channel.