death & taxes.
this has been on my mind for probably like eight years, but why am i in one of those professions that everyone thinks they can do? a rant of this nature is probably better suited for designrants but whatever. i have jokingly called graphic design one of the most co-opted professions, and i think i'm right. haha.
i am just out of my mind tired of listening to everyone and their brother profess that they're a graphic designer when they have experience designing someone's album cover once and never went to or never finished school, and have never worked for anything but now consider themselves a freelance designer. newsflash: you are not a graphic designer, you are DOING SOMEONE A FAVOR. i know, i know, everyone is entitled to their opinions, but i seem to notice more and more of this.
don't get me wrong - a lot of designers have never been formally trained, but they are a select club. most of us went through 4 or 5 years of serious academic rigor, critiques that would make even the steeliest people cry, and the challenge of competing with other extremely talented people on a day to day basis. i'm sure most of you remember my well-documented years of design school - it was not a cakewalk.
what's even more frustrating now is that due to the state of the economy, i find myself, either outright or in my own mind, in competition with people who have nowhere near the professional experience, academic experience, or just plain SKILL that i have taken years to build and refine. just because you can open up illustrator or photoshop, pick a typeface and an image and juxtapose them doesn't make you a designer. i am usually not so hard line about it, but COME ON.
my best analogy is that i like to cook, but under no circumstances do i consider myself a chef. i don't expect people to compensate me for cooking for them. i did, however, spend a lot of time in color theory, determining typographic hierarchy, and creating graphic systems, so i do feel i should be paid to lay out your (insert work here.)
right now is a difficult time to be in any creative field. day after day i search for jobs, and day after day i hear about more people getting laid off. it isn't hopeless, i know that, but when things get tough its easy to cut someone you feel is dispensable, even if they believe their skill/talent is something very viable. truthfully i'd be scared if i were graduating this spring. i'm scared anyway and i've been out for three years.
probably not my most eloquent rant of all time, but i think i'm just too enraged by this to care.
i am just out of my mind tired of listening to everyone and their brother profess that they're a graphic designer when they have experience designing someone's album cover once and never went to or never finished school, and have never worked for anything but now consider themselves a freelance designer. newsflash: you are not a graphic designer, you are DOING SOMEONE A FAVOR. i know, i know, everyone is entitled to their opinions, but i seem to notice more and more of this.
don't get me wrong - a lot of designers have never been formally trained, but they are a select club. most of us went through 4 or 5 years of serious academic rigor, critiques that would make even the steeliest people cry, and the challenge of competing with other extremely talented people on a day to day basis. i'm sure most of you remember my well-documented years of design school - it was not a cakewalk.
what's even more frustrating now is that due to the state of the economy, i find myself, either outright or in my own mind, in competition with people who have nowhere near the professional experience, academic experience, or just plain SKILL that i have taken years to build and refine. just because you can open up illustrator or photoshop, pick a typeface and an image and juxtapose them doesn't make you a designer. i am usually not so hard line about it, but COME ON.
my best analogy is that i like to cook, but under no circumstances do i consider myself a chef. i don't expect people to compensate me for cooking for them. i did, however, spend a lot of time in color theory, determining typographic hierarchy, and creating graphic systems, so i do feel i should be paid to lay out your (insert work here.)
right now is a difficult time to be in any creative field. day after day i search for jobs, and day after day i hear about more people getting laid off. it isn't hopeless, i know that, but when things get tough its easy to cut someone you feel is dispensable, even if they believe their skill/talent is something very viable. truthfully i'd be scared if i were graduating this spring. i'm scared anyway and i've been out for three years.
probably not my most eloquent rant of all time, but i think i'm just too enraged by this to care.