State of My Profession

Someone named "Rennie D." called me the other day from India. In broken English he told me that he worked for a company that offered excellent graphic design.

I told him, "No thank you." I was not interested.

He pushed on. I hung up.

I never thought I'd see the day when my profession was threatened by cheap labor from places like India or Brazil. But it's happening.

There are several sites online where businesses can post jobs for interested graphic designers, photographers, copy writers, videographers, etc. They are all littered with bids from around the world. And the bids are incredibly low.

I don't know how many companies may actually be using communications services from places like India or Brazil. But it looks like fairly many may be because companies from these countries always seem to rank the highest on these sites for money made and jobs acquired.

Now someone in my position could try to take advanatage. I could hire someone in India for five dollars and hour and resell their work for fifty dollars an hour.

NEVER! There is so much wrong with that, I don't even know where to begin. First of all I am a professional communicator. It's what I do. If I want to buy and sell services from around the world I would have studied business.

Secondly, anyone who buys designs from other countries enjoys no intellectual rights to the design. Designers in India can set-up simple templates and dump client after client into the same framework. Nothing like building a business image by using a look that shows up again and again and again.

Thirdly, have you ever made a call to a customer service department and ended up in India? Enough said.

I could go on and on.

Graphic Design has always been a rough profession. People think it's easy and it's fun. You just color stuff right?

Every year there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of new, young, graphic artist. Almost all of them quickly melt away into other professions. They learn that it's actually work. It's actually difficult and requires a lot of technical knowledge. They didn't count on that. Not to mention there are very few positions available for way too many candidates.

The profession is also a favorite of housewives, raising children and hoping to do a little work from home. Again, there is a feeling that this is a fun profession, and not really a difficult job.

No one tells a surgeon where to make the first incision. But everyone knows design. No one tells a civil engineer how to build a bridge. But you'd be amazed how many people are experts at what I do.

I've met with a lot of young graphic artists, and interviewed many as well. I often ask them why they wanted to do this? Almost all of them tell me they think it seems fun. I always tell them, "Well, when it starts to feel like a job, then you'll know you're actually starting to become good at it."

I don't mind competing with the rest of the world. As long as the competition is fair. If I'm charging $50 an hour and someone in Brazil is charging $5 an hour...how can I compete with that?

It's not just manufactured goods being sent abroad any more. It's also professional services.

When I worked for an outerwear company (who made everything in the U.S.) the owner of the company decided to start manufacturing in China. Why? Greed of course.

I thought it was a terrible decision. But the whole sales force just shrugged their shoulders and reasoned that everything else was already made overseas. Shortly after the goods from China started coming in, sales fell tremendously, eventually the business laid-off many, many workers, and had to sell to a competitor.

I left the company when I saw the downward spiral starting.