The DEATH of high end design?

[ACTIONpack]

I'm a graphic designer with a 4 year degree in my field. I remember when I went to school, web design was not a real big but it was getting more popular. This was between 2001 to 2005. More and more print work is going to the way self and websites was becoming the big thing. Now most of my work is web and very little print is being done. I'm luck enough to work for a company that I can do both but I need to know Indesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, html5, css and javascript. Wordpress is becoming my new tool to know. But with all that said, low end to almost free design are popping up everywhere. Mostly from GoDaddy, 1&1 and all the other template free services, just have to pay the monthly fee to use them. It's a real good thing for small businesses to get their business out for a real cheap price. The downside is for designer. Most small business don't want to pay a premium for a good design but instead get a really cheap looking site and branding and just let their product shine by itself. Most studies show that a good branding of a product or services goes farther then a low end design. Just have to pay upfront for it.

Most of the time, I don't take jobs just because the work I put in is not what I'm going to get when it comes to paid. I have to make a living to is downgrade my work or services. Had someone that wanted me to do their website. Ask for $400 for a custom design website in WordPress. I pretty much told them no and they told me that they can get their friend's kid to do it for really cheap. Told them that you're not paying me just for a website but instead you're paying me to brand your business to the world. You can get a general looking template that can do everything that you want but it will not stand out at one bit.

Compare to most cheap services and designer that want to make a few bucks on the side. A good theme, color theory, marketing and branding you get out of me not a finally product that most services you get out of the world.

Inclosed, high end design will not go completely when we have Coke, Pepsi, Ford and an multi billion dollar companies that can drop 100 of thousands of dollars for a marketing campaign but those go to the high end design firms that we are seeing less now of days.

What are you're thoughts on this?

[threetonesun]

Those low-end sites basically replaced the yellow pages, which were even lower end, so... all told it seems like there's some improvement.

But, when everything is digital, and the tools are so simple that anyone can master them, the low end becomes basically worthless. I think that's the bigger issue. 10 years ago you could still make a living designing crap ads for local businesses, today they'll just have their kids do it for $5.

[jasondefaoite]

Having difficulty understanding your English mate. You posted this from an iphone?

[hckngrtfakt]

While you do make great points, you have to also understand just as with everything else, design has evolved onto a more mainstream approachability, not in the sense that just "anyone with a mac and photoshop calls him/her self a designer", but in the sense that even the most tech/web illiterate person has now the tools to be self sufficient.

In this sense you dont have to see it as if you're selling yourself or your designs for cheap, but basically the anchor to monetize from major projects and maintenance for a longer term.

For example, a few months back, there was a customer who had started his own business and managed to launch himself on the web using the 1&1 platform. Yes, it was very affordable compared to what a custom solutions would've cost him from a pro designer, but when it came down to tailoring the platform for his specific needs, is when he then realized and basically came to terms with paying for a pro designer. (custom tracking landing pages, php modules, cms, etc...) that it was not as cheap as he originally thought.

The high end design is still there, and those who can deliver are making the good money, the lower end unfortunately are still trying to undermine the previous, but is always the customer then one who realizes the difference on the lung run. :)

[Seahorsepip Veteran]

"survival of the fittest"

Only the best designers can get big well paid jobs these days, you can't make a living that easily on making designs for small blogs and websites especially since the uprising of websites like themeforrest and others :p

I myself earn my money by doing designs for projects instead of blogs and small websites, this requires to have good contacts since you only get those jobs trough those ^^

btw I only earn money as pocket money since I'm still a student living at home :D

[Sandor]

Using tools like Photoshop is increasingly becoming obsolete in web design.