Topic: So what are your toughts about this field of work? Happy? Dissapointed? (Page 1 of 1)

Hey all.
Managed to stumble into your site and Asylum is the perfect name for this line of work.
I'm a graduate in graphic design and I have ben induldged into the whole web thing for 4 years now. Never realy gave up on it even though the market went down after 01. I have tried to learn as much as possible regarding the new technology and all the extras. Although, datbasing is not something I do. I realy focused on UI development and design and tried to take that to a whole new level using Flash, action scripting and what not. I've gotten my fare share of clients and I manage get new ones here and there.

But recently with all the outsourcing and competition I am having my doubts. I recently moved here to Vancouver and it's the same story. contacted a few agencies and it seems like taside from the few top prominent ones the rest are hustlin for a buck.
Now, I have tried to be the optimist and I never give up easy. But there is a point where logic takes over and it kinda hits you in the head. (what am I doing???)

Truth is I realy value my time and I have too admit, this stuff is extremly time consuming and the production time combined with all the extra time you have to put into experimenting, learnign new things and doing the business side of it, barely leaves any room for much else. So I'm at a point that I am seriously trying to figure out if putting more into this will be worth it in the long run. To be honest, I do love the nature of the work but the reality is when you specialise in one thing and want to make a descent living out of it, you cant help to think business and profit.

So my question to all of you fellow designers, developers is, how do you feel about this line of business right now? Do you have your doubts about the future and what will come of it? Are you in genral happy about the time and effort you spend on this?

Sorry to post such a long and serious post right off the bat. I need some opinions so I couldnt find a better place to post it. Hope you understand. I wish you all the best.


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Web Design, Animation, Audio productions, Costume UI, Print, Consulting and much more
at www.skylabz.com

(Edited by hessman on 08-25-2004 13:27)

Welcome to the Asylum.

Wait a second, did I already say that?


< Ozone Quotes >

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how do you feel about this line of business right now?

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It's viable but it's not like it was in the infancy of the www, that is, easy and no competition. Now it's extremely complicated with the plethora of web technologies to choose from (clients will request everything whether you know how to provide it or not) and on top of that, there's extreme competition. So it's pretty much opposite from the birthing stage Like I said though, it's viable, like any other business, there is a need for it, it's up to businesses to find out how to market themselves then produce in a cost effective/profitable manner.

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Do you have your doubts about the future and what will come of it?

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I don't worry too much about tomorrow, but occassionally I give it some thought, and it could go either way. That's when I remember why I don't give it much thought.

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Are you in genral happy about the time and effort you spend on this?

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Not at all, I'd rather spend much more time with my family on vacation but you know, there's work to be done, and the family's gotta eat =)

Sounds like you have The Fear and Confusion. I think in a nutshell you might want to know that if you want to make a go of this as a business you're going to have to have a plan, get a marketing strategy in place (who will pay the bills and how do you sell them), find a source of accounting, find a source for healthcare, find suitable office space, then secure the capital and execute! There's probably no way you can do all that alone so you're going to have to consider hiring ASAP if not immediately (your 3rd paragraph alluded to your new understanding of this reality). Take a look at your skill set and see how many holes you have regarding those points and that will give you an idea of who and how many helpers you need. Once you figure out your expenses you set your goals to cover them and hopefully you're able to meet those and pay the bills.

If you do all that you've gotta have some sticktoitiveness as the first several years (depending on the validity of your marketing and sales plans/efforts) you'll be absolutely sure that you should quit and go back to freelancing on the side cuz there's more money in it! But then there's still that time problem again.

Yeah. I've noticed the need for expansion and getting more people envolved.
There is just so much one person can do. But finding the right people and managing all the expensise is no easy task. Speacialy when you are trying to lower the cost of production for avergae clients.

When I started going to school for design things were so different. The field wasnt as cluttered as is it now and I remeber in our school, there were 30 students at the time majoring in Graphic Design.
That changed to over 300 students in less than three years. I think the big Y2K craze created an illusion for alot of IT based businesses. Lots of compnaies made good money over that and the economy was good at the time. I think the belief was that IT related fields were going to expand rapidly and that created an over whelming demand for new jobs. But it was just a craze and it turned out to be the opposite.

Anyway, this kinda goes back to the old argument of design versus usability.
Seems like most places are cutting corners and trying to save. So that is my concern for the future of what I have gotten myself envolved with. Honestly, I just realy value time and effort and this is not the only thing I am interested in or capable of doing. So when you invest a good number of years into something I think it's natural to try to evaluate the market for it. In short, there are many other ways to make 3 grand from a client than working hard day and night for about a month, dealing with numerous problems and in general having a slow workflow.

Good design just takes time. In fact it's the extra time that makes all the difference, so that is why this is a concern in this field of work. In business, you want maximum productivity at the least amount of time. This is a conflicting reality for me and many other designers I'm sure.

Thanks for your input.

Web Design, Animation, Audio productions, Costume UI, Print, Consulting and much more
at www.skylabz.com

Time is a problem every designer has.

I don't think I've had a single job where the client's said: "time's not an issue, just make sure it's designed well", unless I'm working for myself, in which case I hardly ever get anything finished! Hah.

The ability to design well within a set amount of time is what really separates the good designers from the bad ones IMHO, and you'll find this problem in every field. A solid design doesn't count for shit if you finished it 2 weeks after the bands CD launch. However, there are companies around that are well known for their solid design and execution of web related products. 2Advanced comes to mind. They probably charge more for their work than most and likely take a lot longer for you're average site, but the proof is in the pudding so to speak.

If you want to be a high profile designer then that's the market you need to target. Problem is, that's probably where the competition is toughest. Everyone wants to do the high profile work as this is what drives most designers passion for the industry.

From a business standpoint, this really boils down to a risk management issue. If you want high profile work you'll need to outlay a lot to get noticed, and even if you do you'll need to be good enough to attract a client base. If you're good enough to attract, you'll need to know how to handle those kinds of clients and so on...

Personally, I'd just stick to freelancing *glances at jason* there's less aspirin involved :P


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As for how I feel about this biz? Quite good.

The web and its related technologies are spawning some really interesting stuff (mobile tech rocks my world right now). Then again, I seem to get off on doing the craziest shit that no one would every rightly pay me for. I love the web, and my passion for interaction design started here, but my undergraduate years have had me branching out into other areas like multimedia installations, $0 budget video production and all manner of crazy stuff. Nothing commercially viable, but it beats the crap out of playing video games when it comes to passing the time (but video games are good too). However, I've gotten some free trips to festivals and exhibitions out of it so far so it can't be all bad.

Furthermore, whilst I'm here and I've got the skills I may as well use them to turn a buck. It's a bit of the old "can't have your cake and eat it too". But who knows, one of my experiments might turn out to be something truly useful, if not then at least I've got some employable skills to fall back on.

At least, that's the way I see it right now. I graduate in about 6 weeks. I have a broad skillet without any real specializations. I program, I illustrate, and I can make a mean cup of coffee. But above all I design. Weather it be with the side of a building and a projector or a copy of photoshop and a web server makes little difference to me. As long as I'm not doing the same shit day in day out, I'm fairly happy. I'll probably end up specializing with something at some point, but not now, not yet. There's just too much cool stuff to play with. I should point out that this goes against everything my professional practice lecturer and our industry guest speakers say they're looking for in graduates. They want specialized drone workers for their ant farm companies, but screw that. My broad interests make me a better designer. If that means the big corp. boys don?t want to employ me than that?s fine, I can make just as much money doing small freelance jobs.

Although I doubt I'll ever completely cut my ties with the web. Everything started here and whilst I've drifted away every now and then, I?ve always come back. So when it comes to making the $$$, I'll be looking for web dev jobs of some kind. The $$$ let me bake my cake, my personal endeavors and experiments is when I get to eat it.