I wish I had written this. In fact I think a lot of people wish they had written this. It something that needed to be said. A colleague of mine Agustin Sanchez found this in Digg last Friday and it has taken over blogs by storm. This post appeared on CraigsList before it got flagged and was removed… I wanted to join in the voice so here’s the post. Author unknown.
To those who are looking for someone to do work for free… please wake up and join the real world
Every day, there are more and more CL posts seeking “artists” for everything from auto graphics to comic books to corporate logo designs. More people are finding themselves in need of some form of illustrative service.
But what they’re NOT doing, unfortunately, is realizing how rare someone with these particular talents can be.
To those who are “seeking artists”, let me ask you; How many people do you know, personally, with the talent and skill to perform the services you need? A dozen? Five? One? …none?
More than likely, you don’t know any. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be posting on craigslist to find them.
And this is not really a surprise.
In this country, there are almost twice as many neurosurgeons as there are professional illustrators. There are eleven times as many certified mechanics. There are SEVENTY times as many people in the IT field.
So, given that they are less rare, and therefore less in demand, would it make sense to ask your mechanic to work on your car for free? Would you look him in the eye, with a straight face, and tell him that his compensation would be the ability to have his work shown to others as you drive down the street?
Would you offer a neurosurgeon the “opportunity” to add your name to his resume as payment for removing that pesky tumor? (Maybe you could offer him “a few bucks” for “materials”. What a deal!)
Would you be able to seriously even CONSIDER offering your web hosting service the chance to have people see their work, by viewing your website, as their payment for hosting you?
If you answered “yes” to ANY of the above, you’re obviously insane. If you answered “no”, then kudos to you for living in the real world.
But then tell me… why would you think it is okay to live out the same, delusional, ridiculous fantasy when seeking someone whose abilities are even less in supply than these folks?
Graphic artists, illustrators, painters, etc., are skilled tradesmen. As such, to consider them as, or deal with them as, anything less than professionals fully deserving of your respect is both insulting and a bad reflection on you as a sane, reasonable person. In short, it makes you look like a twit.
A few things you need to know;
1. It is not a “great opportunity” for an artist to have his work seen on your car/’zine/website/bedroom wall, etc. It IS a “great opportunity” for YOU to have their work there.
2. It is not clever to seek a “student” or “beginner” in an attempt to get work for free. It’s ignorant and insulting. They may be “students”, but that does not mean they don’t deserve to be paid for their hard work. You were a “student” once, too. Would you have taken that job at McDonalds with no pay, because you were learning essential job skills for the real world? Yes, your proposition it JUST as stupid.
3. The chance to have their name on something that is going to be seen by other people, whether it’s one or one million, is NOT a valid enticement. Neither is the right to add that work to their “portfolio”. They get to do those things ANYWAY, after being paid as they should. It’s not compensation. It’s their right, and it’s a given.
4. Stop thinking that you’re giving them some great chance to work. Once they skip over your silly ad, as they should, the next ad is usually for someone who lives in the real world, and as such, will pay them. There are far more jobs needing these skills than there are people who possess these skills.
5. Students DO need “experience”. But they do NOT need to get it by giving their work away. In fact, this does not even offer them the experience they need. Anyone who will not/can not pay them is obviously the type of person or business they should be ashamed to have on their resume anyway. Do you think professional contractors list the “experience” they got while nailing down a loose step at their grandmother’s house when they were seventeen?
If you your company or gig was worth listing as desired experience, it would be able to pay for the services it received. The only experience they will get doing free work for you is a lesson learned in what kinds of scrubs they should not lower themselves to deal with.
6. (This one is FOR the artists out there, please pay attention.) Some will ask you to “submit work for consideration”. They may even be posing as some sort of “contest”. These are almost always scams. They will take the work submitted by many artists seeking to win the “contest”, or be “chosen” for the gig, and find what they like most. They will then usually have someone who works for them, or someone who works incredibly cheap because they have no originality or talent of their own, reproduce that same work, or even just make slight modifications to it, and claim it as their own. You will NOT be paid, you will NOT win the contest. The only people who win, here, are the underhanded folks who run these ads. This is speculative, or “spec”, work. It’s risky at best, and a complete scam at worst. I urge you to avoid it, completely. For more information on this subject, please visit www.no-spec.com.
So to artists/designers/illustrators looking for work, do everyone a favor, ESPECIALLY yourselves, and avoid people who do not intend to pay you. Whether they are “spec” gigs, or just some guy who wants a free mural on his living room walls. They need you. You do NOT need them.
And for those who are looking for someone to do work for free… please wake up and join the real world. The only thing you’re accomplishing is to insult those with the skills you need. Get a clue.
- Author Unknown.
Entry Filed under: Web Design
18 Comments
1. D.C.… | January 29th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
While I agree with everything written here, it is stretching the point a little equating artists with neurosurgeons……..I would never consider a tumor as pesky :)
2. Mike… | January 29th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
Great post. I totally agree with the author.
3. fred… | January 29th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
did someone wake up on the wrong side of the canvas?
4. Moody… | January 31st, 2007 at 7:05 am
its true , & i agree as well …
how can the author be anonymous ? did he choose to be unknown ?
good post !
5. mark… | January 31st, 2007 at 12:59 pm
I think this is a computer/web thing in general. I’m not a graphic illustrator, but I am a computer / web geek. As such my friends are always asking me to help them with their computer and web needs. They are my friends so of course I do it.
I really experienced this first hand over the weekend. My friend needed help with his computer as it was acting slow. No problem, I told him. I went to his place, cleaned it up and then went to the store to get him some more memory, came back installed it. Total time spent – about 3 hours.
The next day I went to his clinic to get therapy on my knee because I tore my ACL playing soccer and he is my physical therapist. I would never ask his for a ‘friend’ discount for my therapy. It’s his job and that’s what he does. But, why is it that I can make house calls for him?
Just and interesting piece of culture is what it is…
mark
6. efrain… | February 1st, 2007 at 3:26 am
it did get really popular, cuz i even posted it earlier today. and i live in a bubble, haha.
i totally agreed with it, especially since I do illustration. thanks for spreadin’ the good news, sister-friend ;)
keep it chilled,
:: efrain ::
bytheway: your site is rockin crazycool.
7. gali_fr… | February 1st, 2007 at 3:39 am
I already experienced this feeling, when you begin to work and you are a student, you must face clients thinking you “work well” but that you don’ t need a real salary.
Course students can’ t legitimate a pro remuneration, but you really feel you must work harder and longer to be paid like an Indian.
Now i don’ t experience it anymore, i would tell (and i surprise myself) it has been benefic to me to work for fake-salaries, it learned me it’ s not always “easy” to earn money and now that i’ m paid as i deserve, i really think i would not had understand “how the business work” if i hadn’ t been under-paid when i began to work, i would have thought it was just natural to be paid as a pro while a student … life is not always easy !
_________________
i’ m french, so i make grammatical mistakes
8. A.N.… | February 2nd, 2007 at 5:59 am
I’m not so sure about artists being rare these days because I know quite a few people who can draw (in secret, I suppose)…
But I agree with this post. I started doing portraits for fun but people just assume that if I do it for fun that I wouldn’t mind giving out “freebies”. HELLO!?!! Even though I do it for fun, it doesn’t mean that my time and efforts are invaluable. It’s one thing you draw something you find appealing but being asked to draw something that you have no real interest in is “work”. Yeah, I’ll draw for them…but I need some sort of incentives to keep me motivated. And it is such an insult when people think they can place a low unreasonable price on your work.
So that’s my two cents and a bit of vent =)
9. Michel… | February 2nd, 2007 at 12:42 pm
I agree with this opinion on 100%!
Well said!
Thank you for sharing this:)
10. Links for the Weekend, 2-… | February 3rd, 2007 at 3:58 pm
[...] http://www.larissameek.com/The Shot Heard Round The Creative Internet/#comments Book it: del.icio.us, digg, Reddit, YahooMyWeb [...]
11. Ronalfy… | February 3rd, 2007 at 5:50 pm
I’m not an artist or graphic designer. I was (until recently) on the look-out for someone to create a new logo for my site. I was surprised how hard it was to find someone that could:
a) Draw what I wanted
b) Translate that drawing onto the computer
c) Meet my technical requirements
Illustrators aren’t cheap and are hard to find. Like the author says, it’s hard to find someone that is truly an illustrator.
12. Harol… | February 5th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
Hello Larissa!!! Check out my blog I made a post about you. Greetings!!! take care
La Blogger más guapa
13. Harol… | February 5th, 2007 at 10:31 pm
Hey Larissa!!! I made a post about you, check it out, good luck with everything and nice job, I’m a fan of your designs.
Link: http://www.HarolsBlog.com
Take care!
14. Phil Renaud… | February 6th, 2007 at 12:56 am
wow yeah, I remember reading this on digg
blew my mind. Happy to finally be out of the portfolio-building stage of my design work.
Thanks for posting this, Larissa.
15. Nico Zwemstra… | February 6th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Great to read something like this, indeed about time someone posted something like this. As a 17 year old student I recognise most of the elements mentioned in this post. People forget what time, skill, and experience has be to invested to be a good artist. Good work should be rewarded sufficiently.
Thanks for posting this!
Greetings from the Netherlands,
Nico
16. ghostboy… | February 8th, 2007 at 12:18 am
Can you design me a free charicature for my blog? It’ll be great to promote yourself… :lol:
17. Leon Kadoch - Panama Web … | February 13th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
[...] A few minutes ago while reading my bloglines RSS feeds. I saw this interesting article from Larissa Meek’s blog…and I think it’s a good thing to copy-paste right here in my blog as well. To those who are looking for someone to do work for free… please wake up and join the real world. [...]
18. George… | February 14th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
That was………….priceless… I really enjoyed the comparison between other career industries, it just makes us designers realize that just because we are rare doesn’t mean our services are not valuable.
Thanks for sharing,
George